How to laugh: 3 simple steps
Next time you feel a mild chuckle or coy little giggle coming on, follow these instructions.
Open your mouth
Wider yet
Laugh, and keep the mouth open, wider than you think possible, and keep laughing, longer than you think appropriate.
Feel your mirth levels rise instantly. Be prepared for others to either give you funny looks or to succumb to laughter themselves.
My little wise ones have instructed me in this practice. Once I came across a statistic about the sharp decline in the number of times per day that an adult laughs compared to that of a child. Sylvie found this trend particularly alarming, and she has reprimanded me if I’m not upholding a childlike threshold of daily laughter. I’m not anywhere close to those levels of glee, I expect. Sometimes she attempts to force me by jabbing me in the side of the ribs. I’m mildly black & blue, but I’m tickled pink.
Aubrey is the master of the wide-mouthed method documented above. You know you’re doing it properly when laughter comes from a deep deep place, where maybe it’s been held hostage for years and years, begging to be set free. It’s by studying the laughing person’s eyes that you know that the belly laughs have been unleashed. The eyes reveal if the laughter has been properly stirred up from the depths.
Give it a try. It’s so easy a child can do it.
