Life can be serious, let’s have more fun!
My theme for October is ‘be light-hearted’. I think it’s such an important part of happiness and being resilient. When I say ‘light-hearted’, I mean not taking things and yourself too seriously, having a sense of humour, and being prepared to be a bit silly. You may be thinking this a ‘nice’ idea and it’s easy to be like this when things are going good and there’s plenty to be light about, but I think being light-hearted and having a sense of humour is one of the best qualities we can have when shit goes down.
We probably know someone who can always crack a joke or lighten the mood when a situation gets serious, and for me they are the heroes. There’s enough serious stuff happening in the world without us adding to it with more doom and gloom.
I used to work with young people living in a children’s home and when I told people my job, they would say ‘Oh that must be so sad’, and yes it is a very sad situation when I child can’t live with their family, and yes their stories would make anyone cry, but anyone who visited the home would always say what a warm, happy place full of laughter. That was probably one of the best tools we had working with these children – humour. Not only to help them feel better, but also as a team to help us do a difficult job.
There’s even research that shows that having a sense of humour is linked to a more optimistic outlook on life, can ease physical and emotional pain, increase trust between people, make us more creative, and even reduce our risk of heart attack and stroke.
So how much laughter do you have in your life? Maybe you have a fantastic sense of humour and can see the funny side of most things, or you’ve got people around you who are always quick to see the lighter side of life. Even if it’s not a natural trait, you can still train your laughter muscles and with practice start to feel a little more light-hearted.
Here’s some of my ideas to get you giggling……
Watch something that makes you LOL! I have a few favourites like clips of Micky Flanagan and talking dogs (just my sense of humour, so choose your own)
Play with your kids or your pets, dress up, mess around, be silly!
Remember something funny that happened and laugh about it (preferably with anyone else who was involved!)
Ask yourself daily – ‘Have I laughed or had fun today?’ – Go and do something light-hearted now!
Or if you’re feeling adventurous and really want to be silly and try something new find yourself a morning rave!!! You may have heard me talk about this before, but getting dressed up in something sparkly at 6am and dancing at a party puts an injection of light-heartedness into your soul like nothing else.
Check out my recent article in The Huffington Post ‘Could Morning Raving be the Antidote to Loneliness?’ where I talk about why it’s so important for our health and happiness to have an outlet where we are free to be silly, be ourselves and connect with other people where we don’t have to make adult conversation.
Laughter really is the best medicine, so please make this important in your life, I want you to be happy, healthy and you!