2020 was a crazy year for everyone and I know a lot of people have struggled in so many ways. The world became so serious and the news has acted as a constant reminder of that. Everyone has had to adjust to this “new normal” very quickly and life, for the most part, has been stripped back to the bare bones of what is important for survival.

Over the Christmas break I did a lot of reflection on the high points of 2020 and other years too and the constant theme was not only were all of my favourite moments shared with others but the ones that REALLY stuck out were the moments where me and my friends were goofing about and being silly. Those moment of laughter and utter joy over the most stupid of things, they are what truly brought me the most joy.

In March 2020, when the first lockdown started here in the UK, I was out of work for a few weeks and to keep myself busy and to do something to cheer my friends up, I would film silly videos of me dancing (badly) in the house or the garden, basically making an utter tit of myself. Every day I’d send these videos to all of my friends on WhatsApp and they all said it made them smile. Being a total goof always made me laugh. I’d be howling as I filmed and edited these silly little videos and I’d receive strings of laughing emojis in response to sending them. I ended up going back to work and I had to stop the videos as I didn’t have time and I really missed making them and my friends missed receiving them!

I know this is already quite long and you’re probably wondering what any of this has to do with anything.. but please bear with me!

The more I‘ve thought about it, the more I’ve realised that what 2020 did by restricting our interactions with other humans was to take away those golden moments where you are just completely silly and it bring you utter joy. It doesn’t cost anything, you don’t need anything special to do it, it just happens organically and it’s utterly magic.

I believe, the ultimate cure for life when it becomes too serious is to be silly in whatever form that may be and not only will it cheer you up but it will cheer up the people around you too. Smiles can be equally (if not more so!) contagious than the dreaded ‘Rona.

Another big bummer about 2020 was that lots of people had plans cancelled and the excitement that people usually got from looking forward to something disappeared. A lot of people I know have gone past the point of bothering making plans now because they can’t handle the disappointment of another plan falling apart. Which leads me on to my ambitious plan and something in which I hope you might get on board with!

Whilst out today, getting in my “daily exercise” and listening to some music as I walked, I just started dancing. Right there, in the middle of the street. I felt like a prize idiot! And that feeling brought me SO MUCH JOY! I didn’t look around to see if anyone was looking, but I’m sure if they were it put a smile on their face too, maybe even made them laugh a little! And then it struck me…

Why not have a global silent disco!

Now I know this is a rather ambitious plan, but hear me out…

Firstly, this doesn’t need to be a gathering. No one needs to come together to do this, they can do it at home, in their garden, in the middle of the supermarket or on the porch of the town hall. Wherever they are at that moment, as long as they have a pair of headphones and some kind of device that plays music, they can participate. As a result, this is a plan that people CAN look forward to and get excited about, safe in the knowledge that it WILL NOT be cancelled!

Secondly, a lot of people are afraid of stepping outside of their comfort zone in case they look/sound/feel silly and that’s the true magic of this plan (or so I believe anyway!) Nobody goes to a silent disco thinking that they are going to look cool. It’s probably one of the silliest social experiences you can do! With everyone dancing to a different song, whether it’s one person, 20 people or 200 people, it’s going to look absolutely crazy! So, if they do look silly, they’re doing it exactly right and I hope it will help people step outside of their comfort zone and realising that when you do, nothing bad happens and actually you can have a really great time.

Now I realise this is incredibly ambitious, and I’m just one silly girl with a silly idea and hoping that you guys will get on board and spread the word about my ridiculous idea to spread smiles through silliness.

In order to do some more good with this silly idea, I’ve set up aGo Fund Me and ask people to donate just £1 Obviously this won’t be mandatory, anyone can participate but with the funds raised, I’d like them to go towards Mind UK who have undoubtedly supported so many people through such a tough year and could really do with some extra help right now.

This is just the start, I have big plans to spread smiles through silliness and am working on getting those underway but I didn’t want to wait until everything was exactly right to get started (I don’t have a website yet, I’ve only just created a social media account! @besillyspreadsmiles on Instagram)

So I hope you get can get on board with my ludicrous idea to spread joy through silliness. And if it ends up just being me, dancing on my own in the middle of Birmingham on 6th March, then I hope everyone that gets to see it will at least, smile :)

Peace and love, 
Amy