“What does ‘chuckle’ mean, Teacher?” asked one student after I had presented the class with a card of synonyms for the word laugh for use in their English Narratives.
I hesitated to reply because I knew that for me, chuckling is totally a physical experience and can only be understood by and in my body.
“That one’s a body word. We can look it up in the dictionary and see what it says, but it’s a word that we feel in our bodies,” I responded.
I continued to describe how I experience chuckling as bubbles that erupt from inside me and move from one place to another, like from my heart to my throat. The bubbles then ‘chuckle’ gently inside me like an effervescence, evident to no one else except myself. Quite different to laughing, which is more a shared experience.
The students nodded sagely, added the word to their weekly list and some affirmed they too would like to experience the word chuckle.
The following morning, one student burst through the classroom door, beaming in joyful exuberance, declaring “I chuckled! Last night I thought about a sentence I could write that had chuckle in it and I remembered something that happened and I chuckled! You were right, it was inside me; it was all in my throat, all little bubbles, bubbling up in my throat. I chuckled!”
We laughed together as we confirmed that chuckle is quite different to laugh and how it is completely inside our physical body. We were both in awe of how the experience of chuckling was almost identical for each of us.
No dictionary required!
I began to contemplate what does happen when we chuckle. I had a sense of change, of energy moving from one place in my body to another, and a sense of transformation.
I had probably only chuckled a dozen or so times in my life, and chuckling was for me almost a sacred act, one which could occur within a precisely timed context of inner transformation. Inner mirth is not at a premium in our world – we tend to laugh outwardly most of the time. This being so, I knew I would need to wait until the next opportunity to chuckle presented itself, and I would then observe very closely what occurred in my body.
My time came several months later as I was reading ‘The Word Love’, an article by Jonathan Cooke on the website Words On Serge Benhayon.
Jonathan’s descriptions of his childhood and pubescent experiences associated with ‘love’ were so remarkably similar to my own that I began to feel a gentle, warm glow of recognition in my heart.
Fondly reading about mutual experiences of youthful folly from my current position of maturity, and feeling this wise, urbane acceptance of similar experiences also, I felt the little bubbles of chuckling start to effervesce in my solar plexus. The bubbles rose delightfully to my heart, where they lingered in the warmth momentarily, before rising to my throat. There I felt an, oh-so-subtle vibration, a smile gracefully curved my mouth, my eyes started to shine… and I chuckled very, very gently.
My heart seemed to open expansively as I felt the energy associated with those youthful follies and misunderstandings being transmuted in my body through a completely natural transformation by mirth* and joy.
Shortly afterwards I walked on the beach, feeling light headed, open hearted and in love with everyone I met.
Chuckle is one word that refuses to be pinned down by dictionary definitions and meanings and has to be lived and experienced in order to be understood in all its divine joy and glory.
It feels to me that we could all benefit from chuckling and what I have affectionately referred to as the gentle transformation of mirth*, and how lovely this feels in our body.
Inspired lightly by the word, and the act of, chuckling and by my joyful body, which aligns naturally to all that is True Joy. In appreciation of the teaching of Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine who present that the body is the marker of all truth.
By CBH
* ”Mirth: merriment or laughter” [Oxford Pocket Dictionary, 1984,p. 468]
Further reading:
Playing With Life And Waking Up With Me!
Joy
The Illusion of Happiness, Finding the Joy Within
The Truth about Serge Benhayon 
I felt to follow the link in the article: https://wordsonsergebenhayon.wordpress.com/2015/03/15/the-word-love/ – and so just read ‘The Word Love’, which is a beautifully written article that is supportive of a chuckle.
This blog has left me pondering about chuckling and laughter in my life. How often have I laughed let alone chuckle, and I can honestly say, not often. In the past laughing was through the expense of another and alcohol fuelled, because I needed something that needed to be filled in me. Now that I don’t drink, I can honestly say, I cannot recall the last time I’ve experienced this feeling.
I find I take life so seriously and I’m great at making other people laugh, I haven’t tapped into this energy, yet. This light heartedness is essential as it is all about the energy within our bodies, and I totally agree, ‘we could benefit from chuckling’.
When you see someone chuckling, truly chuckling, it is quite a personal thing and not for show or with any need for others to join in or ‘get it’. I am also aware that there is always an opposite of that joy-filled chuckling that can feel menacing to another, like they know something another doesn’t, but that is a bastardization of chuckling because true chuckling never holds another less than the magic of who they are.
Lucy, when someone chuckles and no doubt I’ll probably come across this more now that this has come to my awareness, you can feel that chuckle coming from their bodies, and it is personal to them. It’s as if, the chuckle was for them and an offering for others to feel that in their bodies.
I can recall a manager having this chuckle and I love it when she chuckles, it is a vibration I can feel in my body and it ignites something in me, even if I don’t join her, very contagious, in a nice way.
Ah, don’t you love a ‘body’ word?! The dictionary cannot capture what is felt but when two people connect to it the connection is very physical. Thank you for the re-connection!
I love the bubbly feeling inside and it reminds me that I have not let myself feel that often enough lately.
A chuckle bubbles up from within filling your body with joy.
That is a beautiful description of chuckling Mary, I am now looking forward to my next chuckle.
I must say that reading this blog and the many others that are shared here do often make me chuckle and I love how you have taught this ‘body word’ to the children in the class, the body is the only way through which we truly learn.
Yes, reading the blog and comments here are supporting me to have a chuckle, I can feel it starting in my body.
A beautiful ode to the chuckle.
It is always a delightful moment when a child truly gets what you have shared with them, as evidenced by your student’s joyous chuckling experience. But I feel that it was the beautiful way you explained chuckling to them that supported them to initially be inspired and from there be aware of how this felt for them in their body. You are obviously a teacher who has a deep connection and understanding of her students, the sort of teacher the world needs many more of.
What a beautiful presentation of the truth of words, not by giving definitions as such but referring your students to sense and explore the meaning of words in their bodies.
The magic of chuckling is indeed transformational, erasing any seriousness and giving space to a lightness of being even within sometimes the most awkward and or ridiculous situations.
Registering life with the body is just pure joy.
When we have several words pointing to similar meanings in a dictionary, it is very hard to describe their differences in words, if not impossible. When we consider how each word came to be, there must be something before the word, an energetic truth. It is so wise to bring it back to that point and get the body participated in tracing back and understanding that energy.
Thank you that is so true, nothing is more joyful that feeling harmony inside your body, and sharing it with another in a form of chuckling.
Chuckling feels like a natural and joyful expression, confirming that the love we are and are feeling is not to be contained but rather live and expressed freely and openly.
It is remarkable how opening up to truly feel and honour one small area – such as the true meaning of the word chuckle – inspires us and opens up the space to so much more of life.
Words have magic when they are honoured and not bastardised – I love how you brought the meaning of the word chuckle across to your students and made the experience a bodily felt one.
One of the things I love about this sharing, C.B.H. is how the students got the opportunity to feel the truth of a word via direct experience in their own bodies. No wonder they were so exuberant in their confirmation of what a chuckle feels like, because so much of school is about boring memorisation of words and facts with no lived experience, which feels dishonouring to the children.
Chuckling feels like an inner glow that enriches and creates space for more love. It must be a self-nurturing kind of activity that circulates joy in the body.
Yes, chuckling feels very nurturing, ‘I experience chuckling as bubbles that erupt from inside me and move from one place to another, like from my heart to my throat. The bubbles then ‘chuckle’ gently inside me like an effervescence’.
To chuckle is to let go and let my body feel a moment of lightness, humour and play; letting my body feel the fun of something.
There is no greater moment of joy and appreciation of another then when we hear and experience a chuckle. The whole body is rippled with the feeling of joy and offers others an instant stop moment that can bring a smile to their face in seconds!
I love to chuckle with myself – it is as if it lights my whole body up and reminds me of the love we all are.