I love to laugh.....

Remember this song from Mary Poppins? It start something like this:

I love to laugh
Loud and long and clear
I love to laugh
It's getting worse ev'ry year!

The more I laugh
The more I fill with glee
And the more the glee
The more I'm a merrier me

The reason that this song comes to mind is that I just spent a "long weekend" at a seminar with a LOT of people. It was a "Vintner's Holiday" at the Ahwahnee in Yosemite -- yes, veddy nice. (I now must go into serious detox -- what with food and wine, I managed to gain enough to not be able to button my trousers by the end).

Interestingly, the whole "laughing thing" came up at the affair. There were a few "receptions" -- and people being generally drinking wine and having a good time, lots and lots of laughter. As Mary Poppins continued in that song....:

Some people laugh through their noses
Sounding something like this "Mmm-mmm-mmmm-MMMMM-mmmm..."
Some people laugh through their teeth
goodness sake
Hissing and fizzing like snakes [hissing sound effect from Poppins]
Some laugh too fast
Some only blast - BWAAAA!
Others, they twitter like birds [twittering effect]
Then there's the kind
What can't make up their mind [combo of all sounds]

The song goes on as Uncle Albert states that when "things strike him funny" he can't "hide it inside...and squeak - as the squeakelers do...."

The "laughter thing" reminds me of the "walk thing" and the "talk thing" -- and likely should go into Ze Book in that sort of section. I, personally, realized somewhere around when I saw Mary Poppins for the umpteenth time (as a teen) that I had one of those "braying" laughs -- interspersed with a snort one, and a hissing one. Just not pleasant. So I started paying attention to what I found to be a really fun and "catching" laugh -- and I mimicked it. Now, that IS my laugh, unless I am caught completely be surprise.

I had 3 people come up to me at one or the other reception and tell me how my laughter "made them smile" and how they wanted to "come over and listen to" whomever I was talking to -- since my laughter drew them to that person. In other words -- my "reaction" led them to the person I was interacting with -- making that person more highly listened to, more "attractive."

I laugh a lot. I also pay attention to my laughter -- I laugh VERY often -- even at bad jokes -- even if it's a little laugh -- and I make sure it gets to my eyes, it's not just a polite "heh heh" laugh.

I think this is immensely important. I am reading a book called something like "What Mona Lisa Knew" (might not be precisely right) -- and that book points out that laughter/smiling/etc. is one of the best ways to diffuse tension/get people to listen to you/etc. And I think I would add that having a pleasant -- even an infectious, if you can manage it -- laugh is really very important.

I did a lot of things in college that were along these lines -- changing something people think of as "automatic" (laughter, walk) to be more attractive. I suppose that someone might say that this makes even the most "unconscious" things seem "staged." I completely disagree. I think that the more unconscious the "thing," the more of an effect it has on others. As, generally, people don't think that you have "practiced" having an attractive and infectious laugh, that goes a lot farther in making you "attractive" in their subconscious than anything that might seem more "plan-able." Similarly, practice your walk until it's completely unconscious -- that will affect people more, often, than more "obvious" things.

I even changed how I sneeze. Yes, really. It's possible (there are "mouth sneezes" and "nose sneezes" and "big" and "little" ones -- and with enough effect you can fix how you sneeze and never run the embarrassment of a "nose sneeze" that is -- let's just say -- full of "surprise").

I don't think I've ever actually seen anyone write about this stuff -- but for me, I know that it made a big difference in how I am "received" -- especially the laugh thing.

Thanks to Mary Poppins :-)