Laughing our way to divine connection

Is laughter a part of your spiritual practice? If not, maybe it should be!

I’m someone who came into my spiritual journey very very serious. I studied many traditional forms of mediation, travelled the world to meet gurus and sat outside the doors of many teachers, waiting to ask my questions. I figured my seriousness was a sign of my commitment.

This spiritual business was no place to play around, I wanted knowledge and I was willing to sit for hours on any hard, cold concrete floor to get it.

Not that spiritual knowledge exists in concrete. But I found that out the hard way. (Ha ha – enter slow clap here)

We all have our own sense of humour, which is an important part of our personality. I believe our humour is connected to our sense of play, which we can trace back to our childhood influences. No one can make me laugh like my sister and I know this is because we spent so much time entertaining each other as kids.  

As we mature, there can be an impulse to shut down our playfulness in the face of the adult world. Even in teenagehood, we can push our silliness down so we’ll be taken seriously. Hardship and trauma can solidify this sense of stagnancy, that the truths of the world require a stoic approach, which can suppress our natural sense of play.

It’s interesting how this can get transferred onto our spiritual practice. While it’s not light work to evolve your consciousness, we can confuse this with always having to be serious. This can be especially felt if you have any puritan religions in your background, some of which condemn levity as a lack of piousness or reverence.

As the Dalai Lama said, “What I like about laughter is that when people laugh, they can have new thoughts.” New thoughts can change the world. They can change our state so that we might find relief from pain and gain a new perspective on a situation. 

As people committed to the transformation of consciousness, perhaps laughter should be an essential part of our practice.

Studies show that laughter releases hormones like dopamine, serotonin and oxytocin, which is often called the love hormone. Laughing acts as a natural antidepressant and promotes social bonding, which is so important when you are reaching out to connect with others.

As a spiritual teacher, I find that humour is one of my best tools to help people relax and open up to their inner wisdom. Does the divine really want us to be uptight and morose? Perhaps we can learn something from the image of the laughing buddha, who is a symbol of contentment, joy and letting go of worldly attachments. 

Commit anew to your spiritual practice and find some ways to giggle today!