Step 7 - Laughing Meditation

Laughing Everyday makes ones life shine brighter. So many great things happen when we laugh. - The very act of laughter instantly lowers blood pressure for those that are challenged with hypertension. - Laughing stimulates the brain, expands the blood vessels with oxygen. - Laughter reduces levels of stress hormones of epinephrine and cortisol in the body and instantly relieves stress, tension and depression. One of the best ways to lighten up is to laugh and release yourself from fear’s grip. Laughter instantly raises your energy, heals you and clears away negativity, confusion and mind chatter. Literally, it chases the devil away which is illusion, distortion and confusion and instead re-energises you to lose your ego and merge with the divine.

Laughter is the easiest form of meditation and brings instant relaxation in a pleasant way.

There are three stages to mindful laughter. Each stage can last anywhere from 5 to 20 minutes. The first stage involves stretching your body and breathing deeply. Your stretch should start at the hands and feet before you move through the rest of your body. Stretch out the muscles in your face by yawning and making silly faces. The second stage of the meditation is pure laughter. Imagine a humorous situation, remember funny jokes, or think about how odd it is to be laughing by yourself. Or take a look at some of the fun pictures below. When the giggles start to rise, let them. Let the laughter ripple through your belly and down into the soles of your feet. Let the laughter lead to physical movement. Roll on the floor, if you have to, and keep on laughing until you stop. The final stage of the meditation is one of silence. Sit with your eyes closed and focus on your breath.

More Information on the Benefits of Laughter:

The stress hormone cortisol is reduced during laughter, and conversely the happiness hormone oxytocin level is enhanced which triggers a spike in immune-boosting antibodies

Laughter raises the antibodies immunoglobulin A in the respiratory passages which strengthens the immune system of the body and protects from infections, allergies and cancers.

Sustained laughter gradually increases the levels of cytokine in the blood – a white blood cell enhancer which builds antibodies and helps prevent illnesses

Laughter is a form of stationery jogging and provides the same health benefits as vigorous aerobic exercise by stimulating the heart and blood circulation. 20 seconds of heavy laughter is equal to 3 minutes of hard rowing and will burn upto 400 calories per hour!

Laughter increases lung capacity and therefore promotes the body’s ability to store oxygen, the life-force that helps us stay young and disease-free. This is good news for asthma and bronchitis patients. A daily dose of laughter is anti-ageing and beats any anti-oxidant pill on the market!

Laughter increases the levels of endorphins in the body – these are natural pain killers and greatly help in coping with the suffering from arthritis, spondylitis, migraine and muscular spasms, and all aches & pains.

When we laugh, we exercise 15 muscles facial muscles which turn our faces pink with a happier glow – beats any cosmetic in replacing wrinkles and worry lines with the laugh lines of youth!

Step 6 - Stretch Into your Day

Stretching the body is very important every day.
This can be done in as little as 5 minutes or up the 30 minutes a day. Anyone can stretch. Even for just 5 minutes of stretching you can feel re-energized. Stretch in the morning, during break time at work. You could even add a little 5 minute to 15 minute walk after stretching. Get out smell the fresh air. If it is to cold outside then walk around the house, around the room.


It is very good to stretch before you leave the house each day, before you start your daily exercise program and also to help relax at the end of the day.

As I said before you have got to start somewhere before you can get anywhere.

So here are some pictures of some general stretches, even for those of you in the chair. Do not overdo. Just stretch as far as your own body will go. If you have injuries or pain in the body, be careful please. Check with your doctor before doing any exercise to make sure you do not re-injure yourself.

After you have finished stretching be sure to drink at least 8 ounces of fresh water.

For stretching exercises, or questions do not hesitate to contact me.

Step 5 - Morning Release

To Help with waking up refreshed in the morning do something very simple.

Just before you go to bed, take a glass of water (preferably purified water), sit it on your night stand, and cover the glass with something, a lid, book, sheet of paper. In the morning when you wake, as you sit up in bed, drink this glass of water.
Those of you that do not go to the bathroom first thing in the morning or do not have a bowel movement first thing in the morning, this will help you.

Drinking a glass of water first thing in the morning alerts the body to begin releasing toxicity from your body. During your precious night sleep, your body is doing massive amount of work of restoration, rejuvenation, detoxifying. It is breaking down foods, sending nutrients to the proper places, and getting toxins prepared to be released.

The Digestive system turns into a major cleaning machine at night between 10pm - 2 am. It basically is cleaning house when we are asleep. As when we are a sleep we are not doing to much to bother the mind/body so it can do it's work in peace. (however, those of us who have chosen to eat just before bed, may have given the body more work to do that is for sure and therefore it may not be done with the house cleaning by the time you wake up, which makes for a sluggish wake up call.)

Wake up refreshed and clean and help your body by drining a fresh glass of water to help each morning.

Water recommendations:
Reverse Osmosis
Distilled

Brand recommendations:
Penta
www.pentawater.com

Step 4 - Proper Sleep Habits

It is best to get into the habit of going to bed 3 to 4 hours after your last meal. By doing this we allow the body time to begin to digest the food we have taken in.

When we go to sleep right after eating this makes it harder for the body to digest the food and then promotes more bacteria growth, weight gain, poor health, poor sleep, and sluggish for the next day mentally, physically, and emotionally.

How does this happen you may ask. Once we lay our bodies down for rest we no longer have the help of gravity to make it a bit easier for digestion to move downward. When we lay down our bodies energy has to work harder to break down our foods without the use of gravity hence the digestion functions alot slower. when food is not properly digested it promotes poor health.

If we enjoy a nice dinner around 6:00pm or 7:00pm in the evening with a bedtime around 10:30pm this will be extremely helpful. After you eat it is nice to go for a short walk even for 5 or 15 minutes to help aide you in digesting your foods. For the evening enjoy nice relaxing reading, or light conversation after dinner.

Yes, I know there are many of us that maybe have schedules where we eat late and go to bed late. So, while it is preferable to eat evening meal between 6:00pm and 7:00pm. If this cannot be done on some days, then at least use the rule of thumb to eat food at least 3 to 4 hours before you go to bed.

- The evening meal should be a lighter fare if possible with vegetables, soups, rice type of items.
- If you drink alcohol in the evenings it is best to drink before the meal . If alcohol is taken after the meal it is slower to digest and promotes bacteria growth and weight gain.
- If you are having sweets with your meal, like ice cream, cake etc. It is also best to eat these items prior to the main meal.

- Sugar digest very quickly in our bodies. It is always best to eat sugary things first to aide in digesting them quickly. For if sugar is left in the body to long it hangs around in the heat of your digestion system and it starts forming bad bacteria, which leads to yeast infections and also gastrointestinal upset, and weight concerns.

- For example if you eat chicken, potatoes, and vegetables for a meal and then have your alcohol, ice cream, cake, etc. The chicken will hold everything up in your digestion system for hours as it takes at least four to eight hours (sometimes more) for chicken to digest depending on your body and depending on the time of day that you eat. Now imagine you go to lay down for rest just after you eat this, you can only imagine how long everything would take to digest.

When we do not eat properly and allow for proper digestion, and in this case associated with our sleep. We wake up later than we want to, feeling really sluggish, we do not want to get out of bed, moving slower than usual, our mind does not seem to be working, feel heavier, not able to have a morning bowel movement to release (please note: everyone should have a bowel movement two times a day).