Help! I’ve lost my funny bone!
“The most wasted of all days is one without laughter” – E.E. Cummings
When last did you have a good belly-laugh? When last did the tears stream down your face from a hearty session of bending double at the knees to release your laughter? When last did you have to dash off to the loo for fear of losing all blabber control before you could get a grip of yourself after an incredibly funny moment?
Laughter is one of the God-given coping mechanisms that we humans can use to cope with the many stressors and demands of life. Problem is that we rarely use our ‘funny bones’ to their full extent as we go about our day. With bills to pay, relationships to negotiate, losses to face and world instabilities on which to ponder, life can get very serious and sombre, depressing even.
I think this is why God lets us arrive on this planet as babies – so we can have a period of time in our lives when we know what it is to live carefree and imaginatively. And so that, when we are all grown up, we can borrow those spontaneous, giggly, delighted moments from the young people around us to add colour and emotional sunshine to our own lives.
I have recently written a book – Have a Life Attack – in which I chat about some of the healthy benefits of rediscovering our happy handles on life, as well as some of the strategies that you can incorporate into your home and workplace in order to increase their funny factor (I will keep you posted on the launch date).
When we recognise why we need to laugh and what benefits a good inner jog can do for our health and outlook on life, I believe we will try our hardest to put away all sour grapes and pursue chuckling, chortling, giggling and guffawing instead.
Take a moment to list 10 things in your day over which you can have a chuckle – from how you look in the morning to something said by a colleague. Widen your eyes to take in all the opportunities that life is giving you to relieve some stress with a laugh.
I think it’s time to take a trip to Comedy Section of the local Video Shop!
See you there!
Sean Willard
Speaker, Coach & Author
