We just spent a good hour here reminiscing about the things we did as kids that we classify as pure unadulterated FUN! The hours and hours at the pool…swimming ’til we looked like prunes, playing imaginary games, making up crazy tricks, careening down slides, flying off of diving boards, twirling around and upside down in the water, competing with our friends in the latest challenge that we cooked up. In-the-moment exuberance that we never seemed to want to stop.

In the winter, there was sledding on the nearest hill until our toes were too blue to stand being outside any longer. Building wonky snow people and make-shift igloos. Leaving snow angels all over the yard (for the low intensity personalities), and instigating snowball fights (for the high intensity ones). Just playfully mixing up with the elements as long as we could stand it.

There were stories of rapid fire card games, rowdy board games, devilish moves and surprise attacks to throw off your opponent, and a parallel stream of inside jokes and general poking fun.Those old bubbly effervescent feelings started to return in full force the more we shared our childhood experiences.

What was the most fun you ever had as a kid?

What were you doing? And who were you doing it with?

What were your favorite memories?

And most importantly, did your thirst for doing fun and pointless things eventually wind down and come to a stop?

Adults having “fun” is a rare sight these days. Unless you add alcohol, and then, of course, you see the inhibitions melting and people playing more easily.

But for our conversation, ponder…can you have fun, truly joyful, playful fun, without the alcohol? That’s how you’ll know your Yellow Power of Fun is really healthy and alive.

The days of playing hard for hours on end for absolutely no reason at all often slows down when we hit our early teens, as we start finding ourselves grappling with things like growing up and being an adult.

And as an adult, it’s easy to fool ourselves into thinking that we are filling up our fun factor by doing things that we do actually enjoy, but that are far from pointless. If it’s a task on your to-do list, even if you like doing it, it’s still different than pure, creative fun. When you’re caught up in a really fun game or event, you are not thinking about the errands that need to be done, or the bills that have to get paid.

Yellow helps us overcome the cycle of endless productivity.

If this is you, and you’re realizing you’ve lost touch with this part of your childhood, or if you’re thinking, “Yes, I could use more FUN!”, then we are here to remind you how you can lighten the burdens of your present day with little interludes of joyful moments and playful activities. Just in time for the holidays. Let’s get your Yellow energy flowing again! Are you game?? (You caught the pun there, right?)

Life is short, so wouldn’t it be great to feel like you can ride through it with a light heart instead of being reactive to every bump and curve in the road? Getting upset only adds another layer of difficulty, and is guaranteed to drain your good energy.

Whether your world is calm or tumultuous (or anything in between), imagine what it would be like to keep your sense of humor through it all.

You can still do what needs to be done. You can respond authentically however you’re called to respond. It’s just that instead of being heavied out by it all, you’ll bring a levity of spirit that will transform your experience and everyone else’s around you.

Uh-oh! Is your Yellow Gold Power of Lightheartedness a little frayed around the edges? Here’s Jamie to help you get into vibrational alignment with this uplifting energy:

Keeping a Light Heart

Watch here!

Let’s face it ~ laughter heals the soul. And it’s great when you can laugh and joke around easily no matter what’s going on around you. But if you’re living without the Lemon Power of Laughter in your life, you might:

• Feel stupid and left out when everyone around you is laughing, because you’re not even sure what the joke was about.
• Get so sucked into the seriousness of financial woes, political issues, and family dramas, that you see absolutely NOTHING to laugh about.
• Kick yourself because you think of a great comeback you wish you would’ve said in a conversation…YESTERDAY.
• Find yourself at the end of another busy day and realize you didn’t laugh even once.
• Feel embarrassed when you say something you think is really witty, but then people don’t really get it….or worse, they seem to be offended.
• Worry that someone is laughing at you instead of with you, even when it’s someone who you know cares about you deeply.

Laughter reduces stress, boosts your immune system, keeps you young and extends your life!

One evening we watched Julia Roberts and Tom Hanks on an old Oprah re-run, and got a great shot of the Power of Lemon.

First of all, Tom Hanks is just killer funny. One witty comeback after another. Our favorite, though, was when Oprah asked, “So, what are you doing at home when you’re just hanging out and being, well, Tom Hanks?”

“Scratching my crotch,” Tom replied.

But it was Julia who stole the show. Yes, she’s also funny, and great at making fun of herself. The best thing about Julia though, is that woman can LAUGH.

She laughs frequently, deeply, and with gusto. It’s like laughter is always bubbling under the surface just waiting for the slightest provocation to jump forth into the world.

They showed old clips of previous times Julia was on Oprah, and in every one she’s laughing. Once she almost fell off the couch laughing so hard. Now that’s a woman who will never grow old!

Laugh like Julia!

When you’re connected to the Lemon Power of Laughter…

• Jokes make sense – you get it…and laughing with others comes easily.
• You find things to laugh about throughout the day, despite the seriousness of the challenges you (and the world) are facing.
• You make room in your busy life to take a night off to go to a comedy club, rent a funny movie, or even play a good board game with your friends that gets you laughing so hard you fall out of your chair.
• Those witty comebacks are right there on the tip of your tongue in the moment when you most need them.
• You discover the fine art of providing comic relief without offending or hurting any feelings.
• You laugh along when your family teases you about your combat boots and frilly dress, because you get that it’s all in good fun.

2 easy ways to saturate yourself with the Lemon Power of Laughter:

#1: Sing or say this affirmation until you believe it with your entire being:

“I laugh and joke around easily!”

#2: Take 7 – 21 drops of Laugh Vibrancy Essence daily. It will help free your attention from the seriousness of life, and wake up your life to a compassionate sense of humor and witty nature.

It’s all in how you look at it.

“For every minute of laughter, you produce about $10,000 worth of healthy body chemistry….if you had to go out and purchase the chemical compounds laughter creates from pharmaceutical companies, you’d have to pay at least $10,000 for the very same chemistry that your brain is producing free of charge when you engage in laughter.”

~ Mike Adams

Here’s a good article about the healing effects of laughter at: http://www.naturalnews.com/007551.html#ixzz1RGjGrZY0

Yuck it up!

Knowing how to take it easy is key when it comes to a rich and well-rounded life in these days and times. In fact, many people are realizing that getting ample downtime makes all those times when you’re “on” that much more sane and productive. Besides, it just plain feels good!!

But, do you ever say to yourself, “I’ll finally be able to relax when….the kids go off to college, we go on vacation, when I retire, or even, when I die”?

If so, you could probably use some strengthening of your Power of Relaxation.

Here are a few more signs:

• You’re constantly rushing around, feeling pressed and pressured.
• You go through the whole day without stopping, resting, or breathing deeply.
• You’re wound so tight that you’re snapping at your spouse and kids for the smallest things.
• You cram a week’s worth of things to do into one day.
• You feel overwhelmed with all the places you need to be and all the things you think are expected of you.
• Your life is “complicated”.

Your health and sanity may depend on
you learning how to hang loose, chill out, kick back,
put your feet up, and take it easy!

‘How am I supposed to find time to relax,’ you wonder? If you strengthen this Power inside yourself, it will come more easily.

‘I’ll relax when I’m dead,’ you say? Well, you’ll be dead a lot sooner with that mantra!

This is critical…and not just something to save for your vacations! You’ve gotta access your Power of Relaxation every day or that nasty little bugger, Stress, will chew your life up into little bitty bits, and it won’t be pretty!
We’ve gotten pretty good at working the Power of Relaxation into our everyday lives.

But there was a particularly challenging Saturday last Spring…

We took pillows, water, and a juicy novel out to the green hammock in the garden and lay down facing each other (it’s a double wide).

We took turns reading out loud for a few hours until the sun got too hot. Then, we put our shoes on, collected our pillows and things, and trudged our way around the back of the house where we have a blue hammock in the woods.

Can you believe it? We had to lug our own pillows! We had to walk on our own two legs at least 50 yards! It was such a painstaking experience that we laid in the blue hammock in the shade for another 3 hours reading! I’m telling you, it was ROUGH!

No really, it was an incredible Mocha experience. Deeply relaxing, as if all our cells just melted with each swing of the hammock and any stress floated away on the breeze.

It was such a renewal of our Powers of Relaxation that ever since then, we’ve been reading and hammocking for smaller amounts of time, but more regularly.

When the Power of Relaxation settles into your cells:

• Feelings of pressure will fade and you’ll move through your day with the extra space and time to draw a nice deep breath, and soak up the goodness of life.
• Instead of rushing, you’ll ease through your day in ‘relaxed action’, leaving you feeling accomplished and peaceful instead of exhausted and frazzled.
• You’ll get all the R & R you need. With your nerves soothed instead of frayed, you won’t feel so trigger happy with your family.
• You will hit the high spots, take care of what’s necessary, but not overdo it. It will be easier to not sweat the small stuff.
• You’ll put your sanity and health before your drive to do it all, without feeling guilty.
• You will be able to simplify your life, your space, your calendar, and your to-do list, creating more room for decompression. “Less is more” will make perfect sense.

Stop the world and get off for a spell.

“Whoever said money can’t buy happiness never bought a hammock.”

~ Chaya Grace Champion

KISS (Keep it simple sweetheart!)

Let’s face it ~ laughter heals the soul. And it’s great when you can laugh and joke around easily no matter what’s going on around you.

But if you’re living without the Lemon Power of Laughter in your life, you might:

• Feel stupid and left out when everyone around you is laughing, because you’re not even sure what the joke was about.
• Get so sucked into the seriousness of financial woes, political issues, and family dramas, that you see absolutely NOTHING to laugh about.
• Kick yourself because you think of a great comeback you wish you would’ve said in a conversation…YESTERDAY.
• Find yourself at the end of another busy day and realize you didn’t laugh even once.
• Feel embarrassed when you say something you think is really witty, but then people don’t really get it….or worse, they seem to be offended.
• Worry that someone is laughing AT you instead of with you, even when it’s someone who you know cares about you deeply.

Laughter reduces stress, boosts your immune system, keeps you young and extends your life!

We just watched Julia Roberts and Tom Hanks on an Oprah re-run, and got a great shot of the Power of Lemon.

First of all, Tom Hanks is just killer funny. One witty comeback after another. Our favorite, though, was when Oprah asked, “So, what are you doing at home when you’re just hanging out and being, well, Tom Hanks?”

“Scratching my crotch,” Tom replied.

But it was Julia who stole the show. Yes, she’s also funny, and great at making fun of herself. The best thing about Julia though, is that woman can LAUGH.

She laughs frequently, deeply, and with gusto. It’s like laughter is always bubbling under the surface just waiting for the slightest provocation to jump forth into the world.

They showed old clips of previous times Julia was on Oprah, and in every one she’s laughing. Once she almost fell off the couch laughing so hard. Now that’s a woman who will never grow old!

Laugh like Julia!

When you’re connected to the Lemon Power of Laughter…

• Jokes make sense – you get it…and laughing with others comes easily.
• You find things to laugh about throughout the day, despite the seriousness of the challenges you (and the world) are facing.
• You make room in your busy life to take a night off to go to a comedy club, rent a funny movie, or even play a good board game with your friends that gets you laughing so hard you fall out of your chair.
• Those witty comebacks are right there on the tip of your tongue in the moment when you most need them.
• You discover the fine art of providing comic relief without offending or hurting any feelings.
• You laugh along when your family teases you about your combat boots and frilly dress, because you get that it’s all in good fun.

2 funny ways to saturate yourself with the Lemon Power of Laughter:

#1: Tired of not getting what’s so funny? Next time you notice yourself clamming up when you don’t get the joke, sing to yourself 7 times,

“I laugh and joke around easily!”

Then open up to the idea that even the fact that you DON’T get the joke can be funny!

#2: Keep a bottle of Laugh Vibrancy Essence in your pocket all week. Every time you notice that you feel grouchy and soured on life, whip out your bottle and take 7 drops. Then keep your eyes peeled for all things funny. If you are a human being, then the opportunities are endless!

It’s all in how you look at it.

“For every minute of laughter, you produce about $10,000 worth of healthy body chemistry….if you had to go out and purchase the chemical compounds laughter creates from pharmaceutical companies, you’d have to pay at least $10,000 for the very same chemistry that your brain is producing free of charge when you engage in laughter.”

~ Mike Adams

Yuck it up!

Can you be the life of the party when you want to? Can you bring a spirit of playfulness wherever you go? Do you have fun in your everyday activities?

Here’s a few challenges you might be facing if your Power of Fun is faltering:

• You’re so bored with life (or exhausted from your day) you just flop down in the couch every night and pass the hours in front of the TV until you fall asleep.
• The first thing you do when you’re out with friends or at a social gathering is get a drink of alcohol so you can loosen up.
• You don’t do anything that wasn’t planned out ahead of time.
• You keep your nose to the grindstone, work hard and follow the rules….but you’re burned out, unhappy, and have no social life.
• Life seems filled with drudgery – it’s all chores, responsibilities, and hard work.

Fun and play keeps the doctors away.

 Chaya here…

“My fun quotient is a little low,” I told Jamie one day, and a few days later we were sharing an inner-tube and flying down a slide, laughing the whole way.

Finding what fills up YOUR Fun Fund is critical.

Here are a few of ours:

~ reading in the hammock (fun and relaxing)
~ going to the movies (fun and entertaining)
~ a new house project (fun and creative)
~ going down waterslides (pure fun)

On our recent waterpark adventure we were one of the only couples over 20 that wasn’t there with kids. It didn’t matter to us – we were kids for the day!

We went down every slide, no matter how small and simple or big and scary. (Although the one that was dark was a little too frightening to be fun for me!)

We soaked up hours of pure joy and merriment, letting the water spray us in the face and dump on top of our heads out of giant-sized buckets. We even pretended we were going through a wormhole to another planet on one curvaceous slide through a green tube.

I know you’re thinking this sounds all summery, and yet it’s the week before Christmas….but it was an indoor waterpark at a nearby ski resort, where people also go to ski and play golf….for FUN!

So, what’s fun for you?

Enjoy Yourself and Enjoy Your Life !

If you don’t remember the last time you had some pure, joyful, childlike fun, you’re in for such a treat. When you strengthen your inner Power of Fun, the whole world will look brighter!  It’s like letting the YELLOW sunshine in.

• You’ll find activities to fill your evenings and weekends that give you energy and leave you feeling refreshed, relaxed and happy.
• Fun will ooze out of your pores – enlivening conversation, finding games to play, goofing around. You’ll be the life of the party, without having to rely on alcohol or drugs.
• You might just occasionally throw your plans to the wind, be spontaneous, and discover something magical.
• You’ll balance your work ethic with vacation time, game night, and playing with friends, bolstering your health and happiness along the way.
• The daily activities of life will be fun and engaging because you’ll instinctively know what’s needed to spice them up and make them more entertaining for you.

2 ways to rev up your Power of Fun:
 
#1: Are you done with all things serious?  Tired of living a joyless existence? Well, try this affirmation on for size.

“I’m joyful and playful.“

We recommend saying and singing it 7 times daily until you begin to access that part of yourself that knows how to have a good time not matter what. Remember, if it isn’t fun, why bother?

#2: Take a bottle of Fun Vibrancy Essence along everywhere you go this week. When you notice yourself going down the path of grayness and drudgery, getting lost in all the have-to’s and obligations, take 7 drops. Then walk over to the sunny side of the street and kick up your heels. If you’re going to live life, why not have fun doing it?! It’s funny how the important things get done more easily when you see life as more of a playground than a prison. 

Let’s Play!

 “Not a shred of evidence exists in favor of the idea that life is serious.”

Brendan Gill

Fill up your Fun Fund FAST!

Just think of all the things you would do if no one was looking, no one was keeping score, and no one cared how you lived your life! You might:

• Take a month off from work, grab your best buddy, and zip off to get a taste of those beautiful soaring mountains of Argentina.

• Crank up some good music and dance wildly around in your skivvies while you clean your house.

• Cut your hair, dye your hair, dress it up, wear it down, put flowers in it, put hats on it, change it around every day to suit your mood.

• Change careers. Yep, just turn over a new leaf and step into doing the kind of work that makes your heart soar. No more Monday blahs!

• Spontaneously grab your partner right in the middle of Main Street, swoop him (or her) back and plant a whopping kiss on that sweet little face right in front of everybody.

• Go the grocery store for your weekly staples and instead take a left turn into the SPCA parking lot and come home with a brand new little puppy.

Life is rich and refreshing when you
tap into the Power of Authenticity!

If you’ve never done this, and it’s anywhere in your power or interest to do so, this is one of the highlights of my life.

It was a couple of months after the end of my diving career, which, as you might guess, was a very rigid time spent following rules, doing what I was told by my coaches, and striving for perfection.

I bought an unlimited travel Eurail (train) pass, and I went to Europe, by myself, with just a pack on my back.

For 6 weeks I went where I wanted, when I wanted, with no one to answer to but myself. I didn’t have to compromise with anyone. I wasn’t on any schedule. There was no one I was trying to impress, no promises to keep.

I would just wake up each morning and ask myself, “What do I want to do today?” And, “Where do I want to be?”

I remember having breakfast one morning in Zurich, sitting at a restaurant overlooking a lake, and deciding I wanted be having dinner in Italy.  And so it was.

Sometimes I would just go to the train station and see what trains were leaving soon, and which one called to me. Barcelona? Avignon? Florence? Luxembourg City? Yes, one day Luxembourg was the answer, and off I went. Why not?

To experience no other calling or pressure other than my own heart’s desire…..it got me in touch with levels of my being I never knew. It helped me hear my heart very clearly, and showed me that’s where ‘freedom’ really lives.

After such a saturating, authentically-me experience, and getting so deeply in touch with the rhythms and desires of my heart, it’s been almost impossible to not follow my heart ever since.

If there’s something like this you’ve always wanted to do – please do it. Strengthen your Power of Authenticity first if you need to, and follow the beat of the drum that is uniquely you.

Don’t be a lemming that follows everyone else off the cliff ~
find your own way, listen to your own voice,
follow your own heart.

Abiding by the rules and doing the same old thing in the same old way has it’s place.

But, is that ALL you’re doing?? What happens if you ignore those inner callings to break free and do something new, different and authentically “you”?

You might:

• Feel bitter and ripped off, because you’re so busy following everyone else’s lead or keeping up with the Jones’ that you overlook what makes your own heart happy.

• Lose your enthusiasm about life, thinking that living in the moment is just for kids or irresponsible people.

• Blame everyone else for stifling your free spirit…and rationalize that if your family, your boss, your community and even the darn government would quit forcing you to do what they wanted, you’d be a lot happier.

• Suffer from headaches, stomach aches, ulcers, and all those things that are really your body’s warning signs that you’re not being true to yourself.

• Wake up one day sick of your life and ready to dump it ALL (including the good stuff!) in a desperate attempt to reclaim yourself.

Don’t wait until it gets to that point!
You don’t have to live your life
just to please everyone else!

Responsible people don’t always follow all the rules. Some of the most wonderful inventions and solutions come from spontaneous experiences and unconventional people.

Your heart will keep calling you until you answer, so why not pick up the phone now?

Let your passion be your guide. That’s the best GPS around.

2 tips for leaping into to Lavender authenticity:
 
#1: Are you screaming inside from all the years of ignoring what excites you! Start greeting your day with this affirmation:

“I do what I love to do!”

We recommend that you wake up every morning and before you get out of bed, say or sing these words 7 times. Then jump up and go about your day, being sure to pay attention to those moments when you have a sudden urge to do something spontaneously “you.”

#2: Keep the Authenticity Vibrancy Essence by your side if you are tempted to follow everyone else’s worn out paths through life. Take 14 drops under your tongue daily or when you need some support in being your yourself.

Do what you love,
and not just the money,
but LOTS of good things will follow!

Follow your bliss.

~ Joseph Campbell

Be real, be authentic, be free!