humor . . . Why not come up with a long list of your own? You can experience any of these just by changing the way you use your body! You can feel strong, you can smile, you can change anything in a minute just by laughing. You’ve heard the old adage, “Someday you’ll look back on this and laugh.” If that’s true, why not look back and laugh now? Why wait? Wake your body up; learn to put it in pleasurable states consistently no matter what’s happened. How? Create energy by the way you think of something over and over again, and you’ll change the sensations you link to that situation in the future. If you repeatedly use your body in weak ways, if you drop your shoulders on a regular basis, if you walk around like you’re tired, you will feel tired. How could you do otherwise? Your body leads your emotions. The emotional state you’re in then begins to affect your body, and it becomes a sort of endless loop. Notice how you’re sitting even now. Sit up right now and create more energy in your body as you continue not only to read but also to master these principles. What are some things you can do immediately to change your state and therefore how you feel and how you perform? Take deep breaths in through your nose and exhale strongly through your mouth. Put a huge grin on your face and smile at your children. If you really want to change your life, commit for the next seven days to spending one minute, five times a day, grinning from ear to ear in the mirror. This will feel incredibly stupid, but remember: By this physical act, you will be constantly triggering this part of your brain and creating a neurological pathway to pleasure that will become habitual. So do it, and make it fun! Better yet, go out for a skip instead of a jog. Skipping is such a powerful way to change your state because it does four things: 1) It’s great exercise; 2) You’ll have less stress on your body than running; 3) You won’t be able to keep a serious look on your face; and 4) You’ll entertain everybody who’s driving by! So you’ll be changing other people’s states, too, by making them laugh. What a powerful thing laughter is! My son Joshua has a friend named Matt who finds it so easy to laugh that it’s infectious, and everyone who hears him starts laughing, too. If you really want to improve your life, learn to laugh. Along with your five smiles each day, make yourself laugh for no reason at all, three times each day for seven days. In a poll conducted by Entertainment Weekly magazine, they found that 82 percent of the people who go to movies want to laugh, 7 percent want to cry, and 3 percent want to scream. This gives you an idea how we value the sensations of laughter over so many other things. And if you’ve read Norman Cousins’s books, or Dr. Deepak Chopra’s, or Dr. Bernie Siegel’s, or studied psychoneuroimmunology at all, you know what laughter can do to the physical body to stimulate the immune system. Why not find somebody who laughs and mirror them? Have some fun. Say, “Will you do me a favor? You’ve got a great laugh. Let me try and duplicate it. Coach me.” I guarantee you’ll crack each other up in the process! Breathe the way they breathe; take on their posture and body movements; use the same facial expressions; make the same sounds. You’ll feel stupid when you start, but after a while you’ll get into it, and you’ll both be laughing hysterically because you both look so silly. But in the process, you’ll ©2013 Robbins Research International. www.tonyrobbins.com
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