Take a nice couple of deep breaths in your own rhythm place.
Adjust your posture to be comfortable if you haven't already.
Take a moment and just let your to-do list and your mind chatter fade into the background.
Sometimes a good way to do that is to be very present in your body.
Feel your feet on the floor.
Get the chair beneath you.
Just keep breathing.
Be as present as you can in this moment and come with me today on a journey to the humor of the universe.
If you've observed yourself at all and your progress through life,
As well as others,
You may well have noticed that the universe seems to have a sense of humor,
Almost ironic in some cases.
And then you have to wonder,
Well,
Why would that be?
What does that mean?
How curious is that?
I think for a moment where something's happened to you or someone else,
Where it's just totally ironic and unlikely and couldn't help yourself but laugh at you in spite of if it was difficult or not,
Just think about one of those moments.
Or if you've had many of them,
Think about how they feel when they arise.
You know,
Humor is often defined as a surprise.
Someone's in a monologue and it turns a certain ways.
Something happens different than you thought was gonna happen.
Kind of relates to that old phrase,
Humankind plans and God laughs.
So just think for a moment now about the times in your life.
Make it personal,
Where something's just gone very differently.
They thought it was gonna go.
It could be a small item,
It could be large.
And have you allowed yourself to laugh because very likely the universe is laughing.
And what would be the point of that?
Think of when you laugh and another laughs and think of how infectious it is.
Think about when someone even smiles,
It's hard not to be smiling.
But if they laugh and particularly if it's a good belly laugh,
It's very hard not to join them,
Even if you're not feeling like laughing.
And it may be the same with a larger environment,
With a larger universe.
That if there's a twist of fate,
There's an ironic moment that we can see perspective on rather than just be caught in.
You know,
Usually when things happen to us that are unusual or different,
We can sometimes feel victimized and we can feel,
Oh poor me or oh my God,
It's bad.
And that's understandable,
But when you have a little perspective on yourself,
When you don't take yourself quite so seriously,
You may be able to laugh along with the universe.
So think about a moment in your life where perhaps you took it more seriously than you needed to.
Perhaps a little dose of universal humor would have helped.
Think about the times in your life where you have laughed.
And what is your state of being when you're open to the laughter of the universe?
The universe is not laughing at you,
It's laughing with you.
Life is always full of surprises and twists and turns and undermining your preconceptions,
Challenging us to resiliency and adaptability,
Perhaps ever more so than these times we're in now.
Can you laugh?
Can you find the humor in your own preconceptions,
In your own way of thinking and way of being?
Can you stop being precious,
As some would say?
Can you see yourself from a slight distance?
We go,
Yeah,
Okay,
Screw that one up,
I misunderstood that one or didn't see that coming.
If you could take that attitude,
Moment to moment curiosity,
Could lead to moment to moment laughter and humor.
Whether surprise becomes almost welcome rather than resisted.
Whether new perspective offered by a moment of humor is appreciated rather than resented.
Just feel yourself,
Imagine yourself laughing now.
No reason,
Just laughing.
And laughing some more,
And some more,
And some more.
And now imagine you're laughing at your own foibles,
Your own eccentricities,
Your own inclinations.
And imagine everyone's laughing with you,
Not at you,
With you,
Echoing off the mountains and the oceans.
Through the universe,
Perhaps laughter is literally universal.
Perhaps humor is a quality and a vibration that we can get to know and become familiar with.
Of course,
Some of the people that we know that are the funniest people in the world have been the most tragic in their experiences.
Somehow they transform tragedy to humor and observation.
Think about that,
The transformation of tragedy to humor.
If humor lightens our souls,
Lightens our conversations,
Lightens our relationships,
Just for a moment,
Surely that is a good thing.
Feel yourself laughing now.
Feel your belly laughing.
That uncontrollable moment where you can't even stop it.
You're just something sparked it and maybe even a bad joke and you're just laughing and laughing and laughing.
Preferably at yourself.
You're just laughing.
To everyone's laughing.
We're all taking ourselves less seriously.
And intertwined with the humor of the universe may be a trust and an understanding that it's all going to be all right.
It's going to work out.
You will survive one form or another.
You will continue to grow and evolve.
Against the backdrop of that trust,
It may be easier to laugh and smile and appreciate the humor of the universe itself.
Imagine going through a day in which you can't stop smiling.
No particular reason,
You just can't stop smiling.
You can't wipe the damn thing off your face.
And imagine how that affects others and your work and your state of being and your capacity to be loving.
See yourself as a co-creator in the humor of the universe itself.
And when you're ready,
Give thanks.
Come back into the room and have a wonderful day.
