The Art of Laughing

I came back from my first time at the Bath comedy club just earlier. It made me laugh. I don't laugh much. Mostly I laugh when I'm around other people or laugh at TV shows or books. How many times do you think you laugh a day? Apparently the average number of times an adult laughs per day is 13. That freaked me out because I don’t think I reach that quota most days. It was even more depressing considering that children laugh 400 times a day! How crazy is that. I wonder why they laugh so much.

In the newspaper I read an article that said you laugh more when you have the right mindset. Laughing comes from you, not external stimuli, it explained. (Which you would think must be the case if kids can laugh at something as simple and ordinary as ripping paper).

The meditation instructors where I practice spoke about this stuff. These guys reckon that children laugh more because they are in touch with their kundalini, which is their word for the soul, I’m pretty sure. It’s the thing you get in touch with when you meditate. 

The kundalini is at the base of the spine and moves up and out of the head when you meditate.
Unfortunately the multi-coloured flower on top of your head is symbolic, though I'd give any magicians free rein to try it out.

The kundalini can only be felt when you stop thinking. I was talking this over with a friend the other day.

     ‘That’s impossible,' she said. 'You can’t not think, because as soon as you stop thinking you’ll be thinking about not thinking.’

Yeah, you have to go past that stage. The easiest way I've found to not think is to focus purely on one thing, and that still counts as meditation. I focus on observing my breathing. I've read a book where a guy challenged people to purely focus on a single flower or leaf. Maybe you’ll look like a druggy...

Simon is staring at that bush. Let’s pretend we don’t know him

I would encourage you to do this activity where there are no distractions such as gawking strangers.

Meditating is really hard to do on your own. I have very little trouble getting into that state of serenity when I'm in the meditation class, but in my room it's not nearly as easy. That's because having other meditating people around you, like, add to the mood or something. That's why people will meditate together, in Ashrams or temples or just little rooms like the one in Bath where I go.

There's this weird thing where one of the experienced people will stand behind you and move their hands upwards to encourage the kundalini to do its thing.

This probably sounds a little insane, but when you experience it for yourself you will understand. I've only just dipped my toe into this stuff, but I will keep you posted on how it goes, if you like.

PS If you're interested in opening yourself up to laughter more, Bristol runs a laughter session every so often. The next one is on 18 March.