Thomas Crum Centering Hint

"One more giggle out of either of you and you're going straight to the principal's office." I knew I didn't stand a chance. I had never passed the laughter challenge before but I gave it my best shot.

I knew I couldn't look at my 8th grade partner in crime, Don Gurewitz, several desks away. The problem was I didn't have to look. Those intangible funny cells in my body had taken over and I knew it was all Don's fault. I could feel Don bubbling up inside, which caused me to bubble up, which caused Don to bubble up - the tsunami was only seconds away. You know the feeling: you pinch your lips together and close your eyes and squeeze shut every orifice, only to build up the seismic giggle even more. The inevitable eruption happened simultaneously, although on the way down the hall to the principle's office we always accused each other of starting it. Our funny cells had bonded us together forever, and five years of being in the same class with Don was always a challenge, and delightfully so.

It is said that young children laugh over 100 times a day, but adults are lucky if they laugh a handful of times. We have forgotten that laughter is one of the great blessings of being human. And even though these spontaneous eruptions seem to occur most easily when they "shouldn't" - in church or temple, during family grace or prayers, at weddings, during group meditation - they are still a gift. And now even science backs me up.

A good laugh will:
· Significantly increase blood flow and reduce blood pressure
· Release endorphins - natural pain-killers that increase well-being
· Lower production of stress hormones
· Improve the immune system
· Create an aerobic affect that increases your body's ability to utilize oxygen
· Result in a rapid ability to disregard aches and pains or perceive them as less severe
· Reduce muscle tension

So if, as happened with my family in church several years back, the young minister shouts out in his very first sermon, "Rejoice, Oh Mighty Thong" (instead of the biblically correct "throng") and your whole family has to leave because none of you can contain the funny cells, So Be It. "Rejoice, Oh Cosmic Laughter!" Open your funny cells to the joy in life. Or maybe try comedian Steve Martin's technique: he said to be funny, you had to feel funny. That's why, before he went on stage, he imagined he had baloney in his shoes.

Check out these sites below for a couple of examples of cosmic laughter emerging without any "specific" reason or joke:

Laughing Baby

Bodhisattva in metro

Have a great summer!
Tom Crum