Life is the best medicine
To be overcome with laughter is to be filled up with joy that it spills over into the moments of daily life. There is nothing like a good joke to make the heart lighter or to read a cartoon from the New Yorker that just tickles the funny bone and becomes the one you always remember.
We all have our favorite comedians that we can count on to make us laugh til tears spring forth from our eyes. In my parents era it was Jack Benny or Jackie Gleason or George Burns and Gracie Allen. In my era it was Robin Williams and Eddie Murphy and Billy Crystal. We can all recall great moments of laughter, our funniest movies or in the old days, a record -we can all recall a moment when laughter just took over. I am thinking of a lunch I had one year ago when my good friend Alice and I got to giggling over something I can’t really write about but trust me, it was funny. Those moments help us breath and remember joy.
Breathing is one of the greatest benefits of laughter – a while back I took Laughing Yoga . I literally thought it was a joke and as most people do, it took me a moment to get started. It is kind of like a sputtering motor when you start and pretty soon you hear everyone in your class laughing and it is contagious. Then you can’t stop – but later you feel the incredible benefits of the way you breathe when you laugh- so much oxygen flooding the system. It feels wonderful. I highly recommend getting a DVD and taking it on.
Many years ago, Norman Cousins cured himself of a debilitating disease by watching the Three Stooges, Grouch Marx and Laurel and Hardy to make sure he got his daily quotient of humor and laughing. He was cured in record time and enjoyed the process.
Making someone else laugh is equally beneficial – you can feel your heart swell with wonder and love as you watch your friend get a giant kick out of you!
Laughter is the best medicine, and it is medicine we need today more than ever. From Instagram to Sirius radio, you can find a moment when the hysterics just overtakes you and you find yourself sending the clip to a friend for a shared laugh. All in all, It’s good for the soul-it heals and it opens the heart to joy.
Give yourself the gift of laughter this week and then give it away freely – you will notice how good it feels to you and how good it feels to them.
Here is a blast from the past for those old enough to laugh at this one.
