You know what they say: "Laughter is the best medicine".
I've always agreed with this phrase. My outlook on life is that you need a sense of humour. My sense of humour is very dark and warped but people who have the same sense of humour have a great time with me. My foster family has that same sense of humour and we can have hilarious conversations about anything, and I mean ANYTHING.
Laughter can be a defence mechanism. It's definitely one of my defences. Even with serious subjects, I'll joke about them. Have you also heard the phrase: "If you don't laugh you cry"? That's my motto. Luckily, I live with people who share the same perspective. We turn even the most serious subjects (e.g. my self-harm) into something funny. It's not that we aren't taking it seriously because we do; as it can get quite dangerous. It's just that sometimes it's best just to laugh about it. If you don't laugh how can you expect to get through any rough patches?
When I did a year of DBT, one of the skills that we learned was 'half-smiling'. Basically, if you're feeling low then you have to look in the mirror and smile at yourself, even if you feel at your worst! I found this helped sometimes, mainly when I was doing the skill with one of my previous CPN's. She was brilliant, and whenever we did half-smiling with each other we couldn't help but start laughing. It's just the look of that strained grimace on our faces that made us crack-up.
Getting back to the point, the half-smiling thing is supposed to trigger something in your brain that releases something or other, I can't remember all the technical shizz. It never worked when I was on my own, but I found it worked when I was with other people. It did cheer me up.
I laugh more when I'm not on my own. Ever watched some comedy and not laughed or not found it very funny when you're on your own? Then you watch the same comedy downstairs with the rest of your family, or with your friends, and you end up laughing so hard that you have tears in your eyes and feel like your ribs are breaking and your lungs are going to collapse?
Like I said, laughter is the best medicine. Not other phrase can contain so much truth.
Learn. Laugh. Live. <3
I've always agreed with this phrase. My outlook on life is that you need a sense of humour. My sense of humour is very dark and warped but people who have the same sense of humour have a great time with me. My foster family has that same sense of humour and we can have hilarious conversations about anything, and I mean ANYTHING.
Laughter can be a defence mechanism. It's definitely one of my defences. Even with serious subjects, I'll joke about them. Have you also heard the phrase: "If you don't laugh you cry"? That's my motto. Luckily, I live with people who share the same perspective. We turn even the most serious subjects (e.g. my self-harm) into something funny. It's not that we aren't taking it seriously because we do; as it can get quite dangerous. It's just that sometimes it's best just to laugh about it. If you don't laugh how can you expect to get through any rough patches?
When I did a year of DBT, one of the skills that we learned was 'half-smiling'. Basically, if you're feeling low then you have to look in the mirror and smile at yourself, even if you feel at your worst! I found this helped sometimes, mainly when I was doing the skill with one of my previous CPN's. She was brilliant, and whenever we did half-smiling with each other we couldn't help but start laughing. It's just the look of that strained grimace on our faces that made us crack-up.
Getting back to the point, the half-smiling thing is supposed to trigger something in your brain that releases something or other, I can't remember all the technical shizz. It never worked when I was on my own, but I found it worked when I was with other people. It did cheer me up.
I laugh more when I'm not on my own. Ever watched some comedy and not laughed or not found it very funny when you're on your own? Then you watch the same comedy downstairs with the rest of your family, or with your friends, and you end up laughing so hard that you have tears in your eyes and feel like your ribs are breaking and your lungs are going to collapse?
Like I said, laughter is the best medicine. Not other phrase can contain so much truth.
Learn. Laugh. Live. <3
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