For the joy of laughter…

May 18, 2023 jacquelineobyikocha1 Comment

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels.com

Laughter. Music for the soul that’s absolutely contagious. When you see someone laughing at a joke that you can’t hear, chances are that you will smile anyway – even if you don’t realize it.

You do know that laughter improves your overall health? It is a strong medicine that triggers healthy physical and emotional changes in the body. It is a stress buster that diminishes pain, boosts mood and improves our emotional health, strengthens the immune system and grants us a better outlook to life – it even adds more years to our lives.

When we were younger, we laughed over little things countless times a day but adulting makes us become unduly serious about life, with laughter growing less frequent in our lives. Just like the way that we seek out food to fill our belly’s we must seek the nourishment of humour and laughter. Have you ever wondered why comedians never go out of fashion? People pay them to make them laugh.

Sweet peals of laughter trigger the release of endorphins – the body’s natural feel-good chemicals and these endorphins promote an overall sense of well-being. We cannot undermine how much laughing is good medicine for the mind and body. A powerful antidote to conflict and stress. These peals lighten your burden, uplifts your spirit, relaxes your whole body, helps you connect to others, inspires hope and lightens your mind of anger and unforgiveness.

A recent fad I learnt off boasts that laughter burns calories, though I wouldn’t ask you to quit your gym subscription, your daily dose of walking or to join a laughter fest, but finding ones’ funny bone is worth its weight in any priceless gem that you can think of. This priceless serum is absolutely free. It comes without any manual and fun to use.

How to bring more laughter into your life
Laughter is your birthright. Babies start smiling during the first weeks of life and laugh out loud within months of being born and even if you did not grow up in a household where laughter was a common sound, you can learn to laugh at any stage of life.

Set aside special times to seek out humor and laughter, as you would with any hobby that you are interested in cultivating. Eventually, you’ll want to incorporate humor and laughter into the fabric of your life, finding it naturally in everything.

Spend time with fun, playful people. Those who laugh easily at themselves and at life’s absurdities–and who routinely find the humor in everyday events. Their playful point of view and laughter are contagious. Even if you don’t consider yourself a lighthearted, humorous person, you can still seek out people who like to laugh and make others laugh.

An essential ingredient for developing your sense of humor is to learn not to take yourself too seriously and laugh at your own mistakes and foibles. As much as we’d like to believe otherwise, we all do foolish things from time to time. Instead of feeling embarrassed or defensive, embrace your imperfections.

Life brings challenges that can either get the best of you or become playthings for your imagination. When you “become the problem” and take yourself too seriously, it can be hard to think outside the box and find new solutions. But when you play with the problem, you can often transform it into an opportunity for creative learning. It is important to use humor to overcome challenges and enhance your life. Laugh out Loud!

@beyondexisting.j
Self love. You are priority to you. If there’s no you, there’s nobody else. Never forget that! #fyp #selflove
♬ Obsessed With You x All About Him – ARNEL REMIX

Blogging · life skills · Self Help · Writing

Awakening My Creative Consciousness…

July 13, 2022 jacquelineobyikocha2 Comments

Finally. I believe that I have succeeded in crawling out of the doldrums. There are days that run into weeks and then months when creativity flows freely through your fingers and mind and feels like the easiest thing ever, then there are those days… that seep into weeks… and then months… when you are lost and in a total stump.

When this happens, we deeply feel that something is amiss. Things generally seem harder and somehow the rudder of our direction stagnates or at worse will be over the place. How do we re-center ourselves? How do we reignite our passion to continue doing those things that we most enjoy? How do we declutter, distill the disturbance, and climb out of the miry bog?

Most certainly, there is no ‘one size fits all’ approach to such a dilemma. However, we can prime the pump and flow of inspiration in our lives by taking some simple steps and these steps are what I am trying to retrace. Not so much to find out where I fell off the track but to attempt to get back on track and fall in love again with those things that bring me joy.

I can’t even explain to you how the past few days of getting back to blogging, making my short videos on Tiktok, YouTube and Instagram makes me feel. I feel better. I feel less pained and guilty. I feel a deep sense of satisfaction and I intend to keep it that way; so help me God.

Here are a few practical steps to apply should you ever find yourself in such a rut.

Be grateful for where you are at the moment and thankful for the potentials that the future holds.
Seek and find joy in the little things happening around you. Find laughter. It matters a lot.
Declutter your mind. Ask yourself what you are really feeling and try to understand why.
Define and refine what creativity and inspiration means to you.
Remind yourself of those things that you really love.
Revamp your thought process and approach where possible.
Don’t make big plans, take baby steps one day at a time.
Take time to reflect and let your imagination flow. It may be jumbled and rusty but just go with the flow.
Be humble and keep learning.
Make your creative moments fun.

What self-help tips and suggestions do you use and recommend to others to try?

Hope · life skills · Musings · Poetry/Poems

with..without hope

May 18, 2020May 18, 2020 jacquelineobyikocha1 Comment

image credit

without hope
where would we be…
buried under heaps
of rotting despair

without hope
what would we think…
that all is lost
and nothing is gained

with hope
where would we be…
searching for sunshine
and reasons to hold on

with hope
what would we think…
that after every dark night
there’s always rays of light

may there always be light at your end

Guide To Better Living · life skills · Lifestyle

The Real Meaning Behind Working Hard

August 3, 2018August 3, 2018 jacquelineobyikocha2 Comments

People all over the world will tell you that “working hard” is a piece of advice to take with a grain of salt. It’s not exactly clear why they think that (and sometimes they fail to understand it themselves) so let’s take a dive into the meaning of working hard and why everyone should do it – at least to a certain extent.

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Having Endurance

Hard work doesn’t just mean putting in a little effort to reach your goals. Hard work means enduring a journey of effort, pain and occasionally misfortune. It’s all about having that endurance to keep working hard throughout your life and never giving up.

It’s one of the most desirable qualities in people. Having that endurance to keep on working longer than others will put you at an advantage and ultimately make you more successful than others. If success is measured in the amount of time you put into something, then those with more endurance can ultimately last longer.

However, it doesn’t mean pushing yourself to a point where you physically collapse. There are some people that are perfectly capable of working long hours and putting in more effort, and it’s ultimately down to how much pleasure you get from putting in an extra effort and going the extra mile to see better results than people who are lazy and have put less time into their dreams.

You Define Hard Work

You’ll occasionally see hypocrites telling you that hard work is X or Y, and they’ll say that their definition of hard work is the be-all-end-all. However, you’ll find that they rarely ever meet their requirements of “hard work” and they’re just blowing steam.

Don’t listen to these types of people. You will define hard work by your own measurements. Some people consider it working themselves until they’re physically tired, while others consider it completing a task with plenty of time left to spare. Entrepreneurs might consider hard work to be making more profit than their projected numbers, and artists might consider hard work as being able to stay consistent.

Define hard work yourself–don’t let someone do it for you.

The Problem with Overworking

One of the reasons why people say that hard work is bad is due to overworking. If you find that you’re never given a break and that your employer is constantly pushing you, then this lawyer here can help you get a break before you injure yourself. The idea is to constantly try and push your limits so you can discover what you’re really capable of, but you should also keep in mind that you shouldn’t overwork yourself to the point you’re hurting your body and mind.

Hard work is important and it carries a different meaning from person to person. However, you need to remember to always take breaks and let yourself relax both physically and mentally. Hard work and success are long-term marathons that take endurance, not sprints that are over in a few seconds!