This blog chronicles my life as I try to balance healthy lifestyle habits with my husband's penchant for pizza rolls and my daughter's desire to watch iCarly 8 hours a day. It contains a mostly humorous, kind, and somewhat spiritual look at everyday life and the people who live it.

Sunday, September 12, 2010

You can't die laughing

Laughter is essential for life

Oh I'm sure there are a whole host of emergency room doctors who right now are saying "Well, actually...." but you know what I mean.  Are you laughing enough?  Have you laughed today?  I don't mean a sardonic grimace or a sarcastic chuckle, I mean true laughter.

If not, why not?

You may have to deliberately seek out sources of humor.  Unfortunately life doesn't always mimic the sitcom where fashionably messy homes are inhabited by quick-witted and adorable members.  Sometimes life has dirty laundry, grumpy spouses, overtired children, and hormonal teenagers.

That's okay.  You can still laugh.


Books, movies, people, whatever makes you laugh is good

Yesterday, on a whim I picked up a copy of Jill Conner Browne's Sweet Potato Queen's Guide to Raising Children for Fun and Profit.   Now Jill has a whole bunch of these books and each one is funnier than the last.  I like to read them in small doses because I find that I become a bit immune to comedy if I binge on it.  It turned out to be the best thing I've done for myself in 2 weeks.  I am finding myself laughing out loud and to my surprise laughter is exactly what I needed.  The past 2 weeks have been crazy: school started, I went back to work, field hockey started and who knew field hockey would be every afternoon all afternoon ending only right smack dab in the middle of dinner time?  Certainly not me.  The laundry has been piling up, I wake at 5:30 to work out but am too keyed up with stress to go to bed before 11.  Lack of sleep and too many meals-on-the-go had me feeling off balance, short tempered, and wondering how I was going to balance it all. 

Then I picked up a book, on a whim, and started to laugh.  I forgot that I need to laugh!

Suddenly everything is okay again in my world.  I have perspective.  I feel more relaxed after laughing for a few minutes than I have after the past 2 weeks of yoga. I need to laugh.  Every day.  And I'm willing to bet, so do you.

Seek out sources of laughter everyday.  A book, a show on TV, a website, a blog, maybe even a friend who never fails to entertain.  Whatever the source, guard it well and visit it often.  If you're laughing, you're alive.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

so true....so true....so true...thanks for the reminder...I'll work on it.

Deb said...

Is that a new Sweet Potato book? I'm not familiar with that one.

Laughter is the best medicine as they say...

Beth said...

Deb, why yes that is the latest Sweet Potato book, thank you for asking. Perhaps one day the Sweet Potato Queens will make it to a podcast...?

Karen said...

I've never heard of these books, but I love me a good laugh, nothing better when you are stressed. Hope life slows down a bit for you, sounds like it's exhausting right now.