Category: the art of living

Laughter indeed is the most excellent medicine. Last weekend we sat down as a family and introduced our children to the world of “Supercalifragilisticexpeallidocious”. One of the two was asleep before the curtain even raised, it had been a stressful week, but our first born’s eyes were like circle’s as he soaked in every song and scene.

Mary Poppins is a puzzle of emotions but to see my little man absorbed in the humour of it all was breathtaking.

You see he’s been having a hard time of late. An awakening of many different trials, but he has not been the pie-eyed optimist I gave birth too. He’s not enjoying school, there is a whole plot lines worth of reasons why but I am determined to help him laugh his way through.

One early morning this week, I found this post-it note stuck to my desk.

workipladoushous:

It means funny. Properly funny. Very funny.

The beauty of this little breakthrough is that my six-year-old realises that anything that is worth doing takes a lot of work.

Driving one morning, he said to me; “Mum school has so much paperwork!” with a sad look on his face.

I reply “I know buddy, it can be hard sometimes hey?”

He replies “It is sooooooooooo boringgggggg”

Enter workipladoushous. The capacity to take something that is boring and to make it funny. Mary Poppins taught me this so long ago.

Yesterday in the ICU unit with my Granma, we were getting sly looks from the nurses and fellow patients as we laughed and laughed. My granma has lost her eyesight, she is regaining her speech from a stroke last week and this week had a mild heart attack. Yet yesterday we laughed. We laughed so hard tears dribbled down her cheeks. About fellow patients, about family stories.

I think not only does social media create a culture of comparison, but also one where we take everything sooooooo seriously.

Ourselves,

Our businesses,

Our parenting,

Our career,

Our purpose,

Our food.

The art of not taking ourselves so seriously is found in the midst of workipladoushous. Taking that which is tedious and making it funny.

So today, what if we embarked upon the healing medicine of laughter. If you are in the depths of despair or the heights of career-driven success. Laugh a little. Or a lot.

Hire a comedy.

Hang out with that friend that can’t help but crack a few jokes.

Listen to a podcast with someone who excels in the art of not taking themselves too seriously.

Watch Baboons at the zoo.

Anything, just something that makes you smile and remember tomorrow is another day, and that which is weighing upon your heart can be lifted by the simplicity of a profound, unrelenting, barreling moment of raucous laughter.

If I’m getting a little heavy hearted my internet friend just shout out your window as your driving past me: WORK I PLAD OU SHOUS!

And we will both laugh out loud together

There is an art to thank you, and it is one that doesn’t come easily. It is not a polite nod of our heads, with an internal scowl in the mind. It is the “thank you’ that comes from a deep place of satisfaction rather than one from obligation.

Lately, I have found myself uncomfortable the art of thank you.

I’m not sure about you, but often an encouraging conversation or an email that comes to bring life through words leaves me a little unsure about how to respond. The walk of not being too much but shying from the seat of the insecure critic has me dancing about in the land of unsure.

Do you sometimes struggle to step into an opportunity because of the discomfort of feeling misunderstood?

Do you sometimes shrink back from speaking out your truth because you don’t want to be seen as full of it?

I understand.

This I am finding is the art of thank you.

When you feel unsure of what to say when someone gives you an encouraging word, just smile and breathe softly and say a slow;

Thank you.

Feel the discomfort, but allow yourself to accept the kind words in their simplicity.

When you are offered an opportunity that takes you out of your comfort zone, and inside you are exploding with all the fear and failure of days gone by, just smile, stretch out your faith and say;

Thank you.

There is something profound in the simplicity of just accepting what is presented to you. When we overthink, doubt and retreat, we move backwards rather than into our greater tomorrow.

When you look into someone’s eyes, and they see your truth, rather than diverting our eyes in discomfort, just say;

Thank you.

Nothing else.

Nothing more.

Just sit in the present moment and breathe in the possibility of tomorrow.

Thank you for seeing me.

Thank you for reaching out and participating in my now.

Thank you for extending a branch into my tomorrow.

Thank you.

And move forward from this moment of in-between.

As our eyes close at the end of the day and we struggle to let go of the tapes that play over and over, grounding us in the feelings of not enough. Take a deep breathe and acknowledge the privilege of the present and say;

Thank you.

Thank you for life, thank you for grace and most of all thank you for breath.

Sometimes the most magnificent achievements we make are the moments when we allow goodness to brew possibility in our today.

Instead of blocking momentum by fear.

Why don’t we agree to say thank you together and see where the glimpses of possibility take us.

Amanda