The Joy Diet: Laughter

This week's Joy Diet menu item was laughter.  I will be honest and say that I did not get around to reading this chapter until Thursday night, which turns out to be exactly when I needed to see it.

I had a stressful day last Thursday.  So stressful that I felt like all I could muster the strength to do was crawl into bed with this book.  Beck writes, "The more stressful, dangerous, baffling, or unpleasant your situation, the more important it is to laugh at it."  I immediately thought, "Yeah right, Martha.  I am in no mood to laugh!  I just want to be annoyed and sad".  I closed the book and went to bed.

The next day I had to leave work to go take my Spanish language exit exam for graduate school, which you have to do well on to get your degree.  On the way there, the sky opened up and it rained sideways, soaking me even with an umbrella.  I was drenched.  I thought I didn't do so well on the test, which was devastating (I have been studying Spanish for almost 15 years now).  I fumed my whole way back to the office, my sneakers making squishing noises the entire time.  Then, when I got back and realized how silly the entire thing was and how little the entire past two days mean in the grand scheme of things,  I began to laugh.  And laugh some more.  It was nearly uncontrollable.  That night, I curled up with some tea and watched "The Wedding Crashers" in my pajamas.  The dark clouds, both outside and in my head, started to go away.  Then I spent the weekend watching episodes of "Glee", which I loved.  It's hysterical.  I'm starting to feel back to normal.

Okay, fine, Martha, so you were right.

"Living your right life is a process that needs the smoothing and bonding effects of laughter."

{Photo credit: sarniebill1}