Laughing at Life

It is hard to overemphasize the value of laughter as a great stress relief strategy. It is hard to overemphasize the value of shared laughter as a bond between people. I use it at every opportunity.

One of the other benefits of laughter is that it has also been proven to increase our body's own healing abilities. Don't you just love those metaphysical effects? We engage in a kind of thinking that lifts our spirits and it also helps us heal.

Sometimes it is hard to be more absurd than real life. I heard one person say recently that he didn't need to go see Alice in Wonderland because he is on the other side of the looking glass already. He said that he can take a trip to Wonderland by pouring himself a cup of tea and watching the news.

The ironies of some news stories just beg to be parodied. On one day, you have someone proposing to pass new laws to regulate yoga teachers, and the next someone opposes regulations for payday loan companies. Last year political drag queens included a Libertarian running as a Republican and a Republican running as a Libertarian, while Sarah Palin kind of reminded me of a cross between Peter Sellers in Being There and a character from a Monty Python movie.

Various characters surface in the news who prompt new versions of blonde jokes and who hasn't seen or heard a Tiger Woods joke by now?

When we are feeling stressed, there is nothing that can break the tension better than a good comedy or stand up routine.

Stand up comedians are today's court jesters. The best have a knack for picking up on cultural trends and current events and evoking laughter through the recognition of the contradictions and absurdities posing as reality.

The number of new comedians seems to have increased during in recent years, perhaps because the news has become so absurd.

Laughter can make us feel better while we get on with what we have to do next and can prompt us to look at new solutions. We need to laugh so that we don't take ourselves so seriously. Often, truth is revealed in silliness. And it feels so good. Don't you feel lighter after a good laugh? Laughter is like love. Everybody appreciates it.