One of the best ways to cope is to laugh.

LAUGH??  Do you think Dave’s off his rocker??  Wait; it gets better… if you can’t laugh out loud then laugh on the inside; that works too! Uh-huh. 

Really. Laughing is serious business.

Numerous studies have shown that you not only FEEL better when you laugh, but you GET better when you laugh.  Let’s take those one at a time.

When you laugh, nothing changes, but you feel better.  Think about it: isn’t that the ultimate objective? 

My wife and I were walking into the hospital at 5:00am on the day of her big mastectomy/reconstruction surgery.  We knew she was going to be on the table for six hours and in the hospital for four days and, let’s face it, we were both nervous (who wouldn’t be?). 

Suddenly she stopped and said, “Oh, NO!”

I reacted, “WHAT? WHAT??”

She said, “I forgot to bring my boob!”

Oh, jeez… I responded, “What do you mean? I’m right here!”

..and we both laughed.  Nothing changed, she still went in and had her surgery (which came out fine, by the way), but we both felt better.  And that’s the point.

You also GET better because the physical act of laughing releases endorphins into your blood stream that promote physical healing.  And here’s a bonus: you get most of the benefits even if you don’t laugh out loud.

© 2010 by Dave Balch. All rights reserved.

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