Yesterday was the UN designated International Day of Happiness.
Today—21 March—is the UN’s International Day to Eliminate Racial Discrimination. Or as we choose to call it in Australia, Harmony Day.
Harmony Day: what a simple and positive message.
In Australia we are fortunate to live in peaceful nation of rich ethnic diversity. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, about 45 per cent of Australians were born overseas or have at least one parent who was (that counts me in!).
So many languages are spoken commonly, aside from Australian English: Mandarin, Italian, Arabic, Cantonese, Greek, Vietnamese, Tagalog/Filipino, Spanish and Hindi to name a few, plus of course more than 60 Indigenous peoples’ languages.
And whether from Sudan or Sweden, Thursday Island or Taiwan, Brisbane or Belgium, we all share one form of communication. Laughter.
Laughter is a universal language.
Humour differs from culture to culture but not laughter. We all laugh.
And that’s why laughter yoga works so well across the globe, practised in at least 110 countries. It doesn’t rely on humour or jokes or comedy. It combines exercises that coax giggles and ‘intentional laughs’ with nourishing deep yoga breaths. No matter what language we speak, we can ‘get’ laughter yoga—and ‘get’ the benefits from the very first session!
May laughter unite us today—on Harmony Day—and onwards.
The Happydemic provides professional laughter wellbeing sessions, seminars and training for workplaces, schools and organisations seeking to celebrate and strengthen their diversity as a united force, not just on Harmony Day but every day!
(c) 2017 Heather Joy Campbell