Weekends are for Chocolate

Aren’t we a celebration-challenged culture? When we enjoy ourselves we talk about things like “guilty pleasures.” Take time to step away from work and feel joy and passion on the weekend. Chocolate can be a literal thing. If it’s all right for you, eat some chocolate … or any other food you thoroughly enjoy. Chocolate is also a metaphor to remind us to rest, relax, recover, then play, enjoy, and experience the rapture of being alive. Most of us live full lives and we may find ourselves working too hard or neglecting to take time for what we care about or what brings us pleasure. The HoHo Dojo encourages you to (and gives you permission to) remember to take time for leisure and pleasure. Be enthusiastic. A great weekend practice and challenge is to plan something fun for yourself that you were not already going to do! It may surprise you that this practice is the most challenging one for some people. I have times when I

get caught up in the tasks I have to do and the next step on the achievement ladder. My playful partner, Paula, sometimes says, in a firm, law enforcement type voice, yet with a smile on her

face, “It’s the weekend . . . STEP away from the computer!”

As acknowledged in The HoHo DoJo: Lighten Up and Love Life Laughing, “I credit the founder of Laughter Clubs, Dr. Madan Kataria, and the North American champion of laughter clubs and the World Laughter Tour, Steve Wilson, with recognizing the importance of practices related to attitudes and creating the forerunners to the program I describe here.” Steve gets credit for weekends being for chocolate.

“As mentioned on page 38 of The HoHo Dojo: Lighten Up and Love Life Laughing, you can download a one-page handout of daily practices”