Barbara Ann Michaels – Find The Funny, Find The Freedom

Did you know that humor is the harbinger of healing emotionally? Find ‘The First Laugh’ in stories from your life that were hard or challenging when they were happening, yet are funny in part to you today.

Explore how to share these stories to support others reaching for hope on a related topic. Learn how to help others find their ‘First Laugh’ to free energy, invite new possibilities for action and begin to move ahead, at last, together. This interactive session includes story-sharing, movement and basic principles of comedy.

Key Takeaways:

• Distill The First Laugh, the moment when we begin to put space around the pain (or challenge great or small) and the heart has hope. See and share First Laugh moments from one’s own life stories and see them in those of others.
• Understand the difference between laughing ‘with’ and laughing ‘at’ the stories of our lives and how the practice of laughing ‘with’ creates personal and collective wellness and community.
• Discover stories from our own lives that (a) already have found humor; (b) are ready for humor’s light of reframing, especially if we may not have realized it; (c) how to share these stories in a way that uplifts others who are looking for hope on a related topic. — Note that a special awareness of stories ‘Too Soon’ for humor is included.