Let Laughter be your First Footer

January doesn’t need to be endured quietly or carried alone.
Sometimes, shared laughter is enough to help us step into the year together.

We are social beings

We are at our best when we spend time with friends and those we love (people who are on the same wavelength as us). Through these connections, when we share the same space, we amplify each other’s energy, and create lasting memories. This is so important, it’s vital, during the darker months – where laughter and shared connection help us recharge at a time when sunlight is scarce.

If we look back historically – this is something that we did naturally. Christmas used to be a 12-day celebration starting on Christmas day (but getting together at this time of the year has much deeper roots - Christmas replaced older customs and traditions of Yule). And as the 12 days of gathering together dwindled Scotland moved some of those shared days to Hogmanay – you’d leave your house on the 31st of December and first foot your neighbours, friends and family and if you were lucky you made it home by 3rd of January with most of your memories intact.

I couldn’t tell you the last time we first footed anyone or had a first footer come to our door. We watch the fireworks in the distance, but the streets are quiet.

Christmas has become more about the preparation, the build-up – the planning, the organising, the spending. The effort, the demands the ever-increasing stresses. While the time spent with our nearest and dearest has grown shorter. If we’re lucky the celebrations last a few days. For some it’s over in a single day, for others it just adds to the stress and tension, feeling forced or obligated, wishing the day over before it even begins.

January arrives - one of the darkest months of the year, and it feels weighted down from the start.

And we just have to get on with it quietly, non-complaining, even when we’ve never had the chance to fully put down the weight from December’s expectations. Sometimes it’s practical – we’re still paying for the gifts we bought in the months and year that follows.

The effort and preparation now last much, much longer than celebration itself. Leaving us with a feeling that something is unresolved. That’s why January can feel flat — it’s not a crisis, but there’s a quiet tiredness. A sense of disconnection. The absence of shared release.

Energetically and emotionally speaking, it ends up costing us much more than we get in return. Leaving us in a deficit as we begin the year anew. Making a connection is often what helps restore that balance. January doesn’t have to call for New Year’s resolutions (that you rarely follow through) make it easier on yourself make January the month for making connections.

Dry January doesn’t need to mean a quiet January

Someone who came along to a laughter session once told me that when she got home, her husband asked if she’d been drinking. She hadn’t.

She’d just been laughing — with people she didn’t know at the start of the day and felt connected to by the end. She said that she was full of energy with that her spirit had been lifted. She wasn’t drunk or giddy. But she felt lighter.

That lift didn’t come from alcohol.
It came from being together.

Shared laughter, shared breath, shared sound — they remind us we’re not carrying things alone. And that matters, especially at this time of year.

Laughter for wellbeing (often referred to as laughter yoga) doesn’t need to be loud and performative — sometimes it’s simply about being together.

Laughter as a modern first footer

What if First footing was never about fixing the year ahead? What if it was about how you crossed the threshold — and who crossed it with you?

Laughter (initiated laughter – choosing to laugh as a simple and fun laughter wellbeing practice) can do something similar.

Not because everything’s funny.
Not because it makes problems disappear in an instant.
But because shared voice and breath create a sense of arrival. A reminder that we’re still connected.

January doesn’t need to be endured quietly.
And it doesn’t need to be carried alone.

Sometimes, a little shared laughter goes a long way, helping us step into and set us up for the rest of the year.

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Experience Laughter as a Wellbeing Practice

If this audio reflection has resonated with you, you can explore how laughter is used intentionally as a wellbeing tool in my work.

I offer laughter-based wellbeing experiences for workplaces, schools, community groups, and individuals — designed to reduce stress, build connection, and support emotional wellbeing.

👉 Learn more about my wellbeing experiences here: