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Today's
Meditation:
I've got to
laugh. I have books full of comic strips that make
me laugh, including "Mafalda" and "Calvin
and Hobbes," and I have DVD's of series that
regularly make me laugh. It's medicine for me,
something that makes me feel much better. Sometimes
I get stressed, sometimes I start taking things far too
seriously, and sometimes I get caught up in stuff that
isn't good for my mental health, and laughter helps to
bring me back to reality, to gain a healthier sense of
perspective.
Reader's
Digest for years has had a two-page section called
"Laughter, the Best Medicine." They've
known for a very long time that laughter is, indeed,
something that can make us feel better and even heal us of
certain things. What this means to us is that we
really should pay attention to the fact that laughter is a
medicine, and seek out more ways to experience genuine
laughter and joy in our lives, whether that be by reading,
watching comedies, or playing in our back yards with other
people who make us laugh.
Sometimes
life weighs down on us, and then we have the choice of
letting that weight accumulate or doing our best to
alleviate it by finding something to laugh at. Not
laughing at other people or making fun of them, for that
kind of laughter tends to be mean-spirited and won't do
anything to reduce our stress. Rather, we can find
things that are funny in themselves, and not funny at
someone else's expense. When we do this, we're
helping ourselves to grow healthier and lighter at heart.
We
can find laughter if we look for it, and we can find
joy. Joy is a bit harder to define, for it seems to
be something that comes in different ways for different
people. But we can lead our lives in such a way as
to make joy more accessible, easier to achieve and
maintain. The benefits of laughter and joy are
incredible if we make room for them in our lives, and
there really is no reason not to. Perhaps it's time
to get off the treadmill and try to enjoy ourselves for a
change.
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