Are you having a laugh?
Come on admit it: there is nothing like a good belly laugh
or laughing until there are tears streaming from your eyes and you can hardly
breathe. In fact laughing hysterically is one of my favourite things and I
indulge in it regularly. That is why I returned to writing children’s books because I can
step into a world of wonder, where the most ridiculous scenarios have me shaking
with laughter or force me to take a stroll around the room to get myself back
in order. The thing is laughter is infectious. It lifts our energy and even on
a cell level contributes to our health. So why aren’t we laughing more? Or
laughing as much as possible?
There was a time when I was working for a large corporation
and the head of the department, who appeared as though he had a smell under his
nose, passed by while I was shaking with laughter. He paused by my desk and
asked whether I was actually laughing. I replied that I was. He seemed bemused,
as if he had not witnessed laughter in a long time. Later that day I was called into an office and
advised by my manger that I was to limit my conversation to ‘Good Morning and
Good Night’ and certainly no laughter shenanigans. I asked him whether he
realised that a happy team was a highly productive team. He avoided answering.
I also questioned him - I said since people spend a huge amount of time at work
– did they expect them to be robots? His response was ‘yes they wanted robots.’
They wanted the ‘robots’ to produce. Needless to say, I handed in my resignation.
Within three months ninety percent of team left because the atmosphere had died and
people did not want to spend their days doing a mundane job in misery. The
remaining ten percent happened to be one person – the manager.
As the complete opposite to the above, my great friend is a
laughter therapist and laughter yoga teacher. She uses laughter to break down
internal barriers. She has developed quite a reputation and recently was asked
to hold a speech for the police. So guess what she did? She got a huge hall of
police people to laugh like the laughing policeman until everyone was shaking
with laughter. The atmosphere in the room was so energised that everything she said was inspired. The room was united in laughter and each and every police
officer who attended that talk left with such a positive experience that they
would attend again. The thing is
laughter unites people and makes them more open. Don’t you gravitate to the person
who is filled with laughter instead of the one who stands like a black-hole
filled with doom?
With all the above in mind, I have taken some time out from
writing my intensively researched books to having a bit of fun with some
children’s books. Some of my colleagues at work asked me to put something together
that would appeal to their children. So I came up with The Hairy-Legged
Mystery, which went on sale last week, was snapped up for audio this week and
the production is already complete and should be released next week. The same thing
happened with Tingle Dingle and The Little Mischiefs. Both of these books were
written for personal entertainment and friends and were not expected to be put out
into the wider market. Instead I wrote them with the intention to create
something that made me laugh out loud at the desk and would be fun for my friends to read to their children. I admit, I do do some rather
bizarre things and crying at the desk could be considered one of them. The way that I see it is that I write for sheer enjoyment and
creativity - that enjoyment involves belly laughter, general tears of laughter
at the desk and titles like a ‘cucumber catastrophy.’
What I have realised
through creating these books is that laughter is precious. Laughter lifts our
spirits and illuminates our souls. The question ‘are you having a laugh?’ made
me consider how can I bring more laughter to the world. There is so much doom
and gloom around and endless fear being perpetuated that I came to the
conclusion we need more laughter. Obviously the answer is not pointing at
people and laughing because that would be unfair. This one thought actually was
the catalyst for the current children’s book I am writing. I am not going to
give details because it is not complete yet. It does involved giggling, laughter and a baddy who is truly miserable. The thing is the world needs more
laughter and unites people positively through laughter. So my question is not
only are you have a laugh but how do we encourage more laughter to lift our
energy? If you have any answers that would be wonderful!!! This is the reason I
released Tingle Dingle and The Little Mischiefs along with The Hairy-Legged
Mystery because it is my way of sharing the laughter.
NEW RELEASE: TINGLE DINGLE AND THE LITTLE MISCHIEFS
NEW RELEASE: THE HAIRY-LEGGED MYSTERY
