Destination; Laughter 

Holiday season looms and our navigation skills are being tested by a travel industry managing the crises of post-Covid staff shortages, ever-changing testing requirements at destinations and post-Brexit border controls. As well as this, our minds are bouncing from one thing to another at work and at home. For some the ability to work flexibly can feel like a gift – but can also find us balancing homecare responsibilities between meetings. Friends are having barbeques, parents want to see you, children need feeding and treat you like a free Uber service. Choice is abundant which can very often add to our sense of overwhelm and confusion. Where is our mind from one moment to the next? We are often not just re-focussing our attention within a single context but very often switching our thinking brains between wildly different spaces. Does it feel too much sometimes? How would our bodies feel if we were expending the same energy doing a multitude of different activities with vague and ever-changing goals in sight – only to find that when you finish the race – another challenge is waiting for you? I feel knackered just writing this. 

Not only are we dealing with multiple and parallel realities, our super-sophisticated brains are dealing with all sorts of imagined scenarios; what if? This is the stuff that wakes you up at 3am and surges around your body looking for a way out. Our primitive emotional regulation system has not caught up with the cognitive abilities of 21st human and is left wondering why we don’t just calm down and get some sleep when we have over-activated the drive and fight functions of our sympathetic nervous system – pumping our bodies full of cortisol and adrenalin. Sleep, sit down, chill – it says. NO! shouts back our brains – have you got any idea what I have got to do!? And then runs screaming from the room… 

So where is your focus right now? It’s impressive that you have taken a moment to read an article, will you get to the end of it I wonder? And what are you doing now whilst reading? What are you doing next? How varied are these tasks? 

When do you stop? 

No doubt you have heard about mindfulness, a great way to stop and re-focus our attention, helping us to re-centre ourselves. I also know, that like diets and exercise, we can have great intentions which do not always transpire into actions. When we are going so fast, applying brakes can feel impossible. So let me throw you a lifeline. Focus comes in many ways as does our ability to take a cognitive pause and a great way to do this, even in the middle of all this chaos, is to laugh. 

When we are lost in laughter, our big brains simply can’t think about anything else. We become absorbed in the process. Because of this, it breaks the stress cycle and that feeling of jumping from one thing to another. It brings us back to the beginning. Anna and I spend a lot of time asking people how they feel after a really good laugh, and we hear (time and time again) two things more than any anything else; 1. I feel relaxed. 2. I feel energised. Imagine that – being able to undertake an activity that is available to us all, that doesn’t take more than a minute, that is free and pleasurable and leaves you feel both relaxed and/or energised? 

It might take some focus to do it. So much of what we do is automatic and we miss the laughter in our lives, yet mindful laughter isn’t about taking out the joy of laughter or asking you to sit cross-legged, eyes closed listening to a funny podcast – but to really notice the very present laughter in your everyday experiences. Seek out those who make you laugh (quick tip – it’s those you love and like and not those that are funny) and give yourself permission to laugh because, guess what, sometimes we take things a bit too seriously (who knew?). 

Focus is key to emotional balance; multi-tasking is the enemy of a calm mind and, contrary what we might feel, often doesn’t make for successful outcomes. Laughter is a great habit to get into, because the older we get, the less and less we laugh. And that isn’t just bad for our brains and bodies, it’s a bit sad. 

So your challenge this week; when you’re juggling everything – look out for that laughter and if you really can’t see it – go and find it. It won’t take long. It’s everywhere. 

Jane 

Anna Hatchard