“Laughter is the best medicine.”
If you’re of a certain age, you probably read that title as a section on jokes in the Reader’s Digest back in the ‘50’s.
Humor is a powerful tool. It can move you from dejected and desperate to dealing pretty well with things. It can shift sadness or depression into joy and fellowship. Often, we wait for humor to happen. We forget it is something we can seek out for comfort and relief. Humor can soothe the most wounded and threaten the evilest.
Humor and laughing are a good workout for the heart and lungs. The mere act of laughing exercises the diaphragm, as well as the abdominal, respiratory, facial, leg, and back muscles. Once, after visiting a comedy club, I woke the next day with my sides aching slightly. I had used muscles that hadn’t been used in awhile.
It’s a serious world out there, and we have serious problems to contend with. Humor adds perspective. It doesn’t make problems go away, it helps us cope and get through things. It helps us not take ourselves so seriously. When we can laugh at ourselves, we’re better equipped to deal with issues; we’re able to more clearly look at what we can change and what we can’t, what we want and need to deal with and what belongs to others, be they politicians or our spouses, co-workers or family.
What makes you laugh?
Here is a two-minute bit by Lachlan Patterson on how new old people are going to suck. If it doesn’t provide enough humor or laughter to jump start your funny bone, find something that does.
Now is a good time for humor. It IS the best medicine!