“A person without a sense of humor is like a wagon without springs. It’s jolted by every pebble on the road.” ~ Henry Ward Beecher
Seriously, humor is a super power. A well developed sense of humor can ease pain, shift a mood, distract a child, ease tension, improve sleep, make you fun at parties … That is some crazy power.
Humor is helpful in all areas of life ~ parenting, career, family relationships, friendships, marriage/partnerships, politics, pets, while driving, and on and on. When well timed and appropriate, humor is so useful. This past political season would have been virtually unbearable if it weren’t for all the humor. Late night satire, mass Tweeting during the debates, endless memes … humor helped all of us pay attention to politics. And brought some much needed levity to some very serious issues.
Humor has really helped me in my relationship with myself. Through humor, I have let go of so many vices. My confidence has come through, I have built self-esteem, and I have let go of any uptightness (is this a word?) that has hindered me. I can laugh at myself. When a person attempts to make fun of me in a way to make me upset, it just doesn’t work anymore. I can agree with most of what a person would make fun of me about. I am very clear about my quirks and annoying habits. I own them. I laugh at them. I’m so over myself. Living a life where I can laugh at myself and be silly and open and light is sooo liberating. And fun.
Because of my lightness, my relationship with my husband has been full of laughter, silliness, sarcasm, and plain funness as well. Thankfully he has a very well developed sense of humor too. Please, it’s hard for me to spend any significant amount of time with anyone that takes themselves and life too seriously. So to marry an uptight man would just not happen with me. He had me laughing from the moment we met. Of course we’ve had our share of fights, yet one of us can always get the other to laugh. And then we are over the argument. We keep each other light and positive. Laughter eases the tension. Always.
Humor is self-care. It has major physical healing powers. Norman Cousins proved this many years ago. He had a very painful disease that prohibited him from sleeping well. He tried many ways to get some sleep, medical interventions, alternative therapies … yet he could not find relief. So he decided to watch funny movies and laugh. What he discovered was that when he had 20 minutes of a full-on belly laugh, the result was 2 hours of consistent, pain-free sleep. This was a miracle to him. Humor Therapy was born. Now many patients with serious illnesses are encouraged to experience the healing powers of humor.
Our little Mia already is developing a sharp sense of humor. She is silly, snarky, and funny when she isn’t intending to be. She has put pajama bottoms on her head and danced around the room making silly faces. She makes up songs on the spot about cookies, about princesses, about anything. With the addition of our Pug Sophie, the humor has amplified. Sophie snorts to communicate. We have translated all of her snorts. Mia and Sophie together are a hilarious pair. Mia will grow up knowing how to laugh at herself and the world around her. We could not ask for more.
I love to share my little Mia’s humorous adventures via Social Media and on this blog (as I am currently doing). My husband warns me that one day Mia will pay me back via her own Social Media rants about me. Perhaps I should be worried (Karma can be a b!tch, after all), yet honestly I’m looking forward to that day. She will make me even more proud if she can use humor to get back at me for all the times I shared her silliness. That would be awesome! And then we could banter back and forth on said social media, especially since I’m sure that will be the only way she will communicate with us when she’s a tween. And please, clearly I am not self-conscious at all (anymore, thanks again to humor), so I’d like to think there is nothing she can say or post that I’d be ashamed of (of course I say this now… ).
Humor has been so vital to my overall well-being, as a mother, a wife, a career-woman, and person. It has helped me survive some very difficult times. It has allowed me to enjoy life and all the silliness that comes with it. I am less tense, more open, more willing to enjoy the journey of life.
“If you do not get out of your shell, you are just a nut.” ~ Sadhguru Jaggi
More Humor ~
The #1 Parenting Tool: A Sense of Humor
On Being a Gen-X Parent
The Tooth Fairy: A Horror Story
My So-Called Gen-X Life
I am Woman, Hear Me Freak the F#&K Out!
Dear Food, We Need to Talk
Filed under: Just for Laughs, Parenting, Self-Care, Stress Reduction | Leave a Comment »
