Perusing aisle upon aisle of different books at both the library and bookstore, places that are chock full of novels with topics about happiness, success and getting ahead in life.

Of course, this genre of subjects is in perfect alignment with where we are as a society today, but I have been so full of some seriousness the past few months that all I want is a true blue measure of gut-inducing laughter, so I’m going to go a step further.

Laugh every single day.

Lately, thinking about the upcoming holidays and trying to plan airline flights to whatever destination my family has decided to land and celebrate, sort of gives me a bit of stress. I love my family, but holiday planning has become rather intricate for me. We all have such interesting lives at the moment, and yet we all want to see each other. The real trick is balancing what is doable and what is affordable. This isn’t exactly a laughing matter, but I’m in one of those modes where belly bursts of laughter just feels so right and so easy and so necessary.

Success is how we define it. Laughter is how we live it. If we can’t smile and laugh about what is going on at any moment, and with whoever we choose to share our time with, then something seems amiss. When someone I’m around totally catapults me into a weird dance routine accompanied by enormous amounts of guffaws, I consider that a success!

I am about the least serious person I know, but some in depth emotional or physical situations leave no room for wide range bursts of laughter. It kind of reminds me of my early adolescent Catholic days in church where my mother would pinch my knee if I even so much as snickered at one of the altar boys.

It started at a young age for me, my wit and laughter, so spreading it seems like the honest and natural thing to do.

We go to work. We sit in traffic. We meet with colleagues. We walk and talk and discuss serious matters. We share time and energy with higher-ups who have a bottom line as their focus. We pay tribute to those who have achieved big proportions of money. We train hours upon end for a goal in exercise or diet. We don’t sleep and we get help for it. We have relationship discussions that progress the love to another level. We listen to weighty folks speak at the podium with large audiences. We attend professional sports games. We go to the library for peace and quiet.

Adding all these up demonstrates success on many levels—can we inject some real authentic laughter into any of these situations? I say we can. It shows no disrespect, but simply lightens up the moment. I’m all about lightening up and letting go right now. As Dr. Wayne Dyer says “you are unique in all the world.”

Be successful through laughter and love. Be successful and have some amazing childlike fun. It doesn’t mean any steps backwards—it means that you aren’t taking life so seriously all the time. The real success happens when despite what your daily job dictates you can double over at any moment by injecting some raw wit and comedy into your day.

I can’t tell you how many times a sense of humor goes above and way beyond in my world—even photos of laughing children, smiling animals with a slight curl on their lips, people all over the world doing silly things in real life, this is success to me. They have managed to transform an otherwise serious tone, and burst out with laughter to ease the tension of whatever situation has such a grip on them.

I absolutely feel the necessity and I’m not just pulling your leg; try it for a day or two.

Now, about that plane ticket that I have to finagle and plan and manage for the holidays, I’m just going to Hulu some old Seinfeld episode, reenact some hilarious scenes with those who “get it”and laugh until my abs get toned and strong.

Sounds like the perfect moment to me.

 

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Ed: Bryonie Wise