laughter
20 Things to Be Thankful For That Don't Revolve Around Cash
Have you found yourself cash deficient and losing sight of the beauty that the world has to offer? Whatever you do, don't allow your fears and frustrations to get the best of you. Allow for what is working and beautiful in your life to offer you strength and courage. In an effort to help us remember the many free things in life that we can be thankful for, here are 20 things to be thankful for:
- The art of conversation
- A forever friend
- A stranger's nod and smile
- The love of a child
- The touch of a loved one
- A listening ear
- Legs on which to walk
- Eyes with which to see
- Hands which can build and touch
- Words of wisdom
- The ability to be kind and help
- Tummy tickling laughter
- The sun shinning in the sky
- The moon illuminating our nights
- The blue sea
- Prayer and meditation
- A good ole' jog in the park
- Sleep for a weary mind
- Grace and forgiveness
- Hope
So Much Happiness by Naomi Shihab Nye
It is difficult to know what to do with so much happiness.
With sadness there is something to rub against,
a wound to tend with lotion and cloth.
When the world falls in around you, you have pieces to pick up,
something to hold in your hands, like ticket stubs or change.
But happiness floats.
It doesn’t need you to hold it down.
It doesn’t need anything.
Happiness lands on the roof of the next house, singing,
and disappears when it wants to.
You are happy either way.
Even the fact that you once lived in a peaceful tree house
and now live over a quarry of noise and dust
cannot make you unhappy.
Everything has a life of its own,
it too could wake up filled with possibilities
of coffee cake and ripe peaches,
and love even the floor which needs to be swept,
the soiled linens and scratched records…
Since there is no place large enough
to contain so much happiness,
you shrug, you raise your hands, and it flows out of you
into everything you touch. You are not responsible.
You take no credit, as the night sky takes no credit
for the moon, but continues to hold it, and share it,
and in that way, be known.
- Naomi Shihab Nye
5 Reasons Why We Shouldn't Take Life Too Seriously
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If we take life too seriously, we:
1. Don't laugh enough!! A life without fall off the couch, tummy tickling belly laughter isn't a healthy one. According to research, laughter boosts your immune system, reduces stress hormones, helps prevent heart disease and eases muscle tension.
2. Don't take enough chances. Great things can only come when we are free enough to follow our dreams and go for it!
3. Don't allow for the child within to shine. The child within needs to be given the chance to thrive! When we begin to listen it's desires, we'll enjoy more sunsets, take time to smell the roses, climb trees and dare to be free.
4. Hold on too tightly to people and things. In holding on to tight, we lose ourselves and get caught into a system of fear based living. And when we live in fear, we push people away and do things to undermine our success. It is in learning to let go that we find true life and love.
5. We worry too much about how we look and how others perceive us. How can we be free and authentic when we are so worried about our hair, the wrinkles on our brow, the house we live in or the car we drive?
It's the soul that matters most!! And when we nurture our souls -- there is light that shines within our eyes, a skip in our steps...we are able to touch and inspire each other.
A couple of days ago, I sat outside with my neighbor Valerie watching her 4-year-old daughter dance to Beyonce in the driveway with a couple other children her age. They giggled, sang and twirled around without a care in the world. We adults looked at each other and laughed out loud. Deep down inside I wished that I could be just as foot loose and fancy free. I recalled the days in which I played so hard as a child that when bedtime came around I was so exhausted that I fell asleep the second my head hit the pillow. It then occurred to me that I can still experience the same satisfaction in my adult life after a long day of play. I just have to make time for it and enjoy.
As 4th of July approaches, let's dare ourselves to not take life too seriously...to laugh and play and be free...
- By Jen Engevik of Project BE Bold
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Giggling Your Way Through Life's "Drama" - March 18, 2010
Build for yourself a strong box,
Fashion each part with care;
When it's strong as your hand can make it,
Put all your troubles there;
Hide there all thought of your failures,
and each bitter cup that you quaff;
Lock all your heartaches within it,
Then sit on the lid and laugh.Tell no one else its contents,
Never its secrets share;
When you've dropped in your care and worry
Keep them forever there;
Hide them from sight completely
That the world will never dream half;
Fasten the strong box securely-
Then sit on the lid and laugh!- Bertha Adams Backus
Our challenge each day is to unwrap ourselves from the "drama" of our lives and move forward boldly. Learn to laugh more!! - especially at our goofy selves.
Today, choose to not share your dramas with others - sharing them only wastes time and brings negative energy into the room. Focus on beauty, hope and productive thoughts -- and from this place -- you will be energized and others will be energized in return!
Make it a bold day!
- Team Project Be Bold
The Crayola Bomb - February 9, 2010
"Maybe we should develop a Crayola bomb as our next secret weapon. A happiness weapon. A beauty bomb. And every time a crisis developed, we would launch one. It would explode high in the air - explode
softly - and send thousands, millions, of little parachutes into the air. Floating down to earth - boxes of Crayolas. And we wouldn't go cheap, either - not little boxes of eight. Boxes of sixty-four, with the sharpener built right in. With silver and gold and copper, magenta and peach and lime, amber and umber and all the rest. And people would smile and get a little funny look on their faces and cover the world with imagination." ~Robert Fulghum
In order to live a bold life -- avoid taking life too seriously. Laugh a lot -- reach into your soul and pull out the child within.
Now go out and make this day a masterpiece!!
-Team Project Be Bold
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