If you can’t make it better, you can laugh at it. ~ Erma Louise Bombeck
My daughter recently said, “Mama, you seem so serious sometimes.” I chuckled at her since I have been thinking for a while now that I would like to relax this serious and stressful side that I have carried with me since childhood. I know how good laughter is for a person and how incredibly healing it is. It is wonderful how simple and truthfully children will express themselves. I cherish the innocent keenness of a child.
I also recently read where someone expressed that they feel their personality changed due to chronic stress. This person felt sensitized to suffering, but at the same time felt the need to shut it out. They even wondered about war veterans and if they had similar feelings. Moved by such a comparison, I desire for this person to be strengthened and to feel the warm comfort of God’s abiding love, wisdom and peace.
Stress comes in different forms and in different ways for people. What might be stressful for one person does not even faze another. What seems to be painful for one might only feel like a small discomfort for others. Each of us is different. Depending upon our make-up and background, we learn to deal with our difficult times accordingly.
Chronic stress, however, is something different. I would have to agree with the idea that it does change our personality, and perhaps for some, it can change their moral compass. Chronic stress is something that needs to be evaluated and healed on some level in order to function as a whole person again. It takes a willingness to look at life differently and to find a deeper meaning to the suffering we experience. Suffering certainly is very real to many, and I would never want to diminish that for anyone. To do so would be cruel and very wounding in itself. However, the deeper meaning to suffering is just as real, and finding it can set a human being free to find joy and happiness in life again. Even in our deepest pains are gifts to be found that one could never have thought possible. Then, hearing oneself able to laugh again becomes the evidence that a transformation has taken place.
There have been times in my own life where I felt that I could not handle even one more stressful circumstance. I have had to make adjustments to my own belief system and my own way of evaluating what really matters in life. At times, I needed to withdraw into my own space in order to clearly hear Wisdom speak to me.
As tears come from brokenness, so it seems that laughter builds our hearts back up. It seems to heal us as the echo of our laughter is heard and felt throughout ones entire body. Laughter’s joyous sound seems to elevate the spirit and distances the noisiness of this world. Laughter can bring perspective to our difficult situations and diffuse the dreadful momentum that stress can create.
Scientist have determined that our very cell structure changes when a person is happy and feels a sense of well-being. Finding ways to laugh each day is one of the best prescriptions for wellness anyone can offer. Pretty soon, one does not have to find laughter any longer, but with diligence, our vision changes and we see beauty, joy, and happiness everywhere we go. Our faces soften into smiles and laughter bursts forth as our hearts are set free from so many heavy burdens.
I am learning more each day to not take myself so incredibly serious. I am learning more each day to allow myself the freedom to feel joy completely, to notice the happy moments completely, and to embrace life with a thankful heart. It is with gratitude and grace that many happy moments are recognized. It is also with a lighter heart that I am able to see humor in even the most serious of situations, and simply realize that all of us are doing the very best we can. We all stumble along, fall over our own feet, and certainly make many messes. It is in those messes that humor can be found, and the seriousness suddenly diminishes into compassionate acceptance . . . and, with a chuckle on our face.
