Saturday 7 November 2015

Laughter as medicine for the soul!

"Always laugh when you can. It is cheap medicine." Lord Byron

Image Pixabay.com public domain


I was on the Macmillan communities site today and noted a post by someone saying that they had been to a comedy show. They stated they had not laughed for ages and posted a thread wondering about laughter as medicine for the soul. This got me thinking about bullying and cancer. During the period I was bullied which, if you count the work procedure the whole thing took nearly 7 months. That was longer than my breast cancer chemo.  I realised that my face had changed. My lips had turned down and one thing I noticed about myself was that I appeared to have aged since the bullying experience, even more so than when cancer took its toll. I looked a little sadder. The post on Macmillan got me thinking,  Had I stopped really laughing during the period?

This is not to be flippant, being bullied, being ill, having chemo, they are no laughing matter. However, when I was at hospital I buddied up with a stage 4 cancer patient who has never lost that sense of humour and self and she has battled cancer for 9 years. I learned and continue to learn a lot from her unbelievable faith and determination to make the best of life. Whilst being pumped full of the dreaded grog we used to sit in the chemo 'hairdressers'  and laugh. I don't know how we did it really, but we did. We still see each other and still find lots to laugh about. Now I am not for one minute suggesting this should be everyones journey, but it is ours.

Yet being bullied stopped me laughing dead and I suffered for it. If I had realised that I had stopped laughing and actively engaged in finding ways to laugh how might it have helped my low mood at that time?

Like I said, this blog is an aim to find coping strategies for bullying and to be honest the whackier the better, the more creative the better. There is bound to be something out there that might be missed and that might be the ultimate in aiding recovery.

There is now Laughter Yoga apparently to help you on your way? Lots of methods can be used, jolly good company, a joke book, comedians on Comedy Central or Dave, Live at the Apollo, a good comedy movie, I love Christmas with the Kranks, cat videos and pictures.....

So......

What would be the worst that could happen if you cracked a smile and laughed out loud even if just to  yourself, in the privacy of your own home? It might seem artificial, it might seem weird, but apparently laughing out loud actually tricks the brain into good humour. Give it ago. Here's a song to help you on your way.






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