You can't Hold a Negative Thought in your Head while Laughing

You can’t hold a negative thought in your head and laugh at the same time. Pretty much, it’s impossible.

I experienced this recently during a laughter program. I had been fairly obsessed with thoughts of a difficult challenge, seemingly unable to stop the upsetting thoughts from running in a steady stream through my mind, over and over; trying to seek peace, or a solution, or understanding, or forgiveness, etc, etc, etc. Obviously it had been far too long since I’d led a laughter session.

My current program was a blessing. During the laughter session, laughing over and over with the laughter exercises I was leading, my mind completely cleared of all negative thoughts; all thoughts at all really, except how much fun we were all having laughing together.

I only realized this fact well after the session was over, when those ubiquitous thoughts came creeping back in. But my orientation towards them was completely different – relaxed, calm, almost peaceful, confident solutions were there, i.e. able to cope and no longer obsessed.

You can’t hold a negative thought in your head and laugh at the same time. Nor can you really be the same afterwards. Laughter brings you into balance without even trying.