Laughter: Nature's Best Bet for the Blues.
We hear laughter in hospital waiting rooms, church
sanctuaries, funeral homes, and even at accident sites. These are
not funny places. Is it possible that some people actually laugh
in serious situations or even at times when they’re down in
the dumps? Amazingly, many of us do. We laugh when we really need
it most if we let the body do what comes naturally. Laughing to
lift gloom is like screwing up your face to take medicine and finding
out that it actually tastes good. "Laughter through tears,"
has been called the perfect emotion. A society becoming more depressed
needs a natural, effective solution to combat woes and laughter
is that solution.
Everyone would be in less of a funk if they laughed
more. Unfortunately most people tend to stop laughing when they
feel the blues, and when really down, they stop doing anything emotional
at all. They don’t laugh; they don’t cry; they don’t
get angry. They are totally and miserably numb. Human beings really
need to feel their feelings, and when we don’t for any length
of time, we become miserable. Feeling glum, tired, and generally
negative, a common complaint in today’s world, is the result
of anger and sadness which we haven’t allowed ourselves to
acknowledge, much less feel.
Our laughter, while valued as a good thing, is unfortunately
undervalued and underestimated as a natural way of taking care of
ourselves. Mother Nature did not provide us with laughter just for
grins. She gave us laughter to heal our bodies and our emotions
so we can cope with life as we experience it. This has been true
since Adam and Eve first giggled in the Garden, and is still true
today. Why then do we persist in overlooking this natural medicine
which bubbles up from within? We just haven’t recognized its
importance. How can something which feels so good actually be good
for us?
None of us would deny the benefits of modern medicine.
We turn to it willingly and without question. In fact, we almost
seem to urgently require some kind of medicine for everything that
ails us, from the common headache to the "perils of gas"
following particular kinds of meals. We use aspirin to clear our
heads and Beano to clear the air. There is almost a frenzied quality
about our demand for drugs for every condition, and depression,
even mild depression, is no exception.
Some degree of depression is a growing problem affecting
more and more people as our lives run at faster and faster paces.
Ironically, the sadder we are, the harder it is to keep up. The
emphasis on how to lift us up out of the dumps is becoming increasingly
drug oriented, a fact which could be reason for concern. Most of
us are media educated about depression and therefore get a limited
focus on what to do about it. The treatments recommended are drugs,
brain altering techniques like electric shock treatments, and sometimes
psychotherapy. So we can numb it, electrocute it, or talk it to
death. Seldom is the media focus on the reasons for feeling bummed
out. There is an occasional reference to an unproven opinion that
depression is genetic in origin. Of course, laughter has never even
been mentioned as a solution for the "blues."
So, if you don’t medicate your feelings with an
antidepressant, what can you do to feel better? You can work
at keeping yourself laughing. Laughter will release anger
you may be holding in your body and ease that sick, negative feeling
that’s so hard to shake. It will clear your mind, lift your
mood, and help you cope. Unfortunately, it will not change your
problems or minimize their importance. It will, however, change
you so you can deal with your problems and relate
to them from a more realistic, less overwhelming perspective. It
will also help you feel pleasure and fun once again.
It doesn’t seem like laughing more should require
work, but it does. We have to actively strive to break free from
controls on our laughter which have unconsciously developed since
childhood. We need to laugh till our tongues hang out, and to do
that we must learn to hear our inner voice telling us to smile and
laugh instead of hearing it say, "Wipe that smile off your
face!" Silliness needs to become positive and permissible and
laughter something we do while we are being productive and responsible
in our serious, grown-up lives. We must learn to play again in that
special way that is particular to all human beings, not just the
young. Consider for a moment starting your day by making silly faces
in the mirror while getting ready for work. You can feel joy in
your own playful silliness, a skill honed to perfection in childhood
but left on a dreary inner shelf somewhere in the interests of maturity.
You can fight the blues by forcing balance into your
life. You can do this by adding pleasure in every nook and cranny
that opens up. It’s okay to feel as good as you can. You don’t
have to worry. The serious stuff will always take care of itself.
If you reacquaint yourself with your ability to approach life in
a spirit of play, you will laugh a lot more. Imagine that! All those
heavy, serious things that are dragging you down will lighten up
and often drop away. Playing with painful things is a major source
for our laughter. As human beings, we know this deeply and instinctively,
and we were all able to do it as children. All we have to do to
regain this special human quality is grant ourselves permission
to play.
Perhaps you haven’t really noticed but for some
reason there always seem to be some aspects of the ridiculous in
everything, no matter how serious it is. Did you see Grandpa’s
pants drop during Grandma’s funeral? How about your friend
driving away from the gas pump with the gas hose still in the tank?
If you let yourself look for these things and appreciate them, you’ll
see them everywhere. Then you get to laugh about them. If you seek
out the humor in your everyday life, it will be there. None of us
can live with other people without discovering amusement in both
expected and unexpected places. People are funny whether they mean
to be or not.
By the way, if you’ve given up the fun toys can
bring, you can always get it back if you want to. It’s not
a dumb thing to do. Perhaps you’ve forgotten that toys are
entertaining, stress relieving, and just pure, ole fun. The key
to good adult toys is that they require no mind at all to play with
and that they help you laugh. "Tickle Me Elmo" is a toy
that can tickle you to death.
If you seek out companions who laugh a lot, you’ll
laugh a lot more because laughter is contagious. Try to encourage
yourself to watch funny movies and TV programs. I Love Lucy and
M*A*S*H reruns help lots of us laugh no matter how many times
we watch them. Read amusing stories when possible or listen
to comedy on audio tapes in the car. If you’re laughing, you
aren’t as likely to find yourself driving at ramming speed
in a fit of road rage.
Finding the things that spark your sense of humor and
enjoying them often offers the reward of ongoing laughter. If for
some reason you can’t do this and all else fails, just fake
laughter. Enjoy "pretend laughter" by making the sounds
of laughter and moving your body as you laugh. Your body will benefit
and your perspective will change. If you do it enough, real laughter
will kick in. Then you’ll stop feeling stupid, or you will
stop caring if you do.
When it comes to a choice between managing the blues
with medication or healing them by allowing our bodies to take their
natural course through laughter, the best thing seems to be obvious.
If you can, ease up on yourself. Allow yourself to feel your feelings
and then let go with your laughter. Life will take on richness,
and your capacity for joy will ignite. You will then be hot on the
trail of happiness, a natural state of being when we feel joy. So—why
not do yourself a favor right this very minute? Throw back your
head and laugh for absolutely no reason at all.
Other
artickes by Enda Junkins
More on www.laughtertherapy.com
1999
Аuthor: Enda Junkins, LCSW,
PO Box 684, Ouray, CO 81427, (970) 325-0050
