Laughter is Like a Spiritual Milkshake

Have you ever noticed that when something starts to heal it can get itchy? I think that’s what happens to us sometimes when we are healing from something intangible like a broken heart. As we start to heal, something reminds us of what happened (that’s the itch) and if we go scratch it, we re-open the wound.

When you start healing from a hurt from the past, you will be reminded occasionally by photos, conversations, music and those reminders can be like scratching the scab off of a healing wound. If you’ve ever had an itchy rash, you know how good it feels at the time to scratch it! However, after you’ve enjoyed the scratching of the itch you are in trouble because you have reversed the healing process.

The best way to handle an itch (I am an expert on this one) is to distract the itch with some activity that gets your mind off it. Laughter is really the best medicine for an inside or an outside itch. Laughter is a soothing salve. As I say all the time to my inner kiddies, “laughter is a spiritual milkshake.”

Laughter is free. When’s the last time you got a statement in the mail for the laughter you used up? I’d have to say, if I got a statement from the Federal Bureau of Laugh Management, I’d be afraid to open it! I actually keep an alert eye out for things that make me laugh. I have many friends who I know if I make the call they are guaranteed to crack me up. My husband makes me laugh, all five of my kids are very funny and make me laugh and really, if I’m alone very long I crack myself up!

If you haven’t laughed really hard lately, think about using your timer to remind yourself to laugh. My mother told me I was a sulky child. I don’t remember that because she literally timed it out of me. I’d be in one of my “moods,” and remember her saying, “Pam, if you are going to pout, you need to go do it in your room and you’ve got ten minutes to get over it.” I remember going to my room and feeling so, so sorry for myself, as I’d whine, and tell myself how sad and unfair something was, and then I’d hear that timer ding, and my mother would be at the door with a hug and a kiss and a starting over plan of action. It was wonderful how good it felt to start over and wipe the slate clean!

Think of some positive ways you can use your timer to put more happiness in your life. You could put your timer on for ten minutes and make a tour through your favorite room and see if you find things that cause you to be sad or angry and get them out! They have no place in your home! As FlyLady says, “Everything in your home (including you) should make you smile.” How about putting things in your home that make you laugh!