Friday, July 16, 2010

Think Globally - Laugh Locally!


Think Globally, Laugh Locally - It’s been the motto of World Laughter Tour for ages, thanks to the humor and wit of its founder Steve Wilson. WLT trains individuals like myself to be Certified Laughter Leaders. We lead Therapeutic Laughter sessions where participants laugh unconditionally through a series of playful laughter exercises. Our mission is to spread laughter for our health and our happiness, as well as for world peace.

We feel that through the spirit of laughter we come to a place of peace inside ourselves and when each of us is able to be at peace within, we see this reflected in the outer world. Peace begins with each individual person.

Milton Berle once said: “Laughter is imperative. It takes away the stress and pressure. It’s better than anything. If we were all laughing, there would be no more war.”

Or as Alan Alda put it, “When people are laughing, they’re generally not killing each other.” It becomes difficult to remain angry at each other when we’re laughing. Laughter can instantly melt away conflict; or at the least facilitate finding peaceful solutions.

A lawyer in California emailed me once, in reference to my laughter work, sharing how he uses laughter successfully in his profession. He does the contentious work of mediation, seeking resolution between two opposing parties. Yet he explained that, if there is a point in negotiations where he is able to interject some humor and get everyone to laugh, this is always the point at which negotiations take a turn for the better and they begin to find a solution.

When people laugh together, hardness softens, differences melt away and we begin to remember that we are all part of the same human family.

Think globally – Laugh locally. It means world peace – one laugh at a time.


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