Laughter is the Best Medicine

Laughter is the Best Medicine.  A good knee slapping laugh with friends as you go for a walk together, playing with your grandchild or having a new adventure, they will all add years to your life.

Many experts say that laughing even in the hardest of times is good for you, mentally and physically. Laughter will release your stress, strengthen your immune system, improve sleep, lower your tension and give you a boost. You can’t hold onto tension when you are laughing.

Small changes can be enough to see significant improvement in happiness. Taking action steps is the key- just wishing for things to change isn’t going to cut it.

Put best friends first by being socially available. There is a special joy shared with friends who care about you just the way you are.

Happy people allow themselves to be happy. They start their days with the expectation that it’s going to be a great day. The pessimist on the other hand just knows that they are going to have a miserable day and they are usually right.

Fun is a necessary part of self-care and has a positive impact on your health and wellbeing.  Building fun into your life on a regular basis will help you to take life less seriously.

When you are ready to move from grief to healing remember that laughter lines are what you should be striving for at this time of your life.

• What have you done for fun lately?
• If you could do anything, what would you do?
• Do you think that spending money on fun is an “OK” expense?
• Have you turned down a chance to play with family and friends? Why?
• Were you brought up to think that fun wasn’t a valuable use of your time?

Please answer these questions honestly and consider how far you have come.

You need to work through your grief and I hope that you were able to check off some items on the above list. Remember it is a journey and it takes time.

 Laugh Even When You Don’t Want To

There is no predictable timeline as the changes are coming from within you. Don’t be surprised that when you start enjoying life again you have conflicting emotions about being happy – that’s normal.

Nowadays, we all want instant gratification and don’t have patience. We want everything this instant and we don’t always understand the value of waiting. But we are looking for change over the long haul, change that is going to be with us forever.

In order to make these changes, we must be aware of our strengths and weaknesses, because we all have them.

The key is not only knowing which ones are which, but also knowing how to manage them. Our job is to define our new role in life – a role that will maximize our strengths and minimize our weaknesses.

Many experts say that laughing even in the hardest of times is good for you, both mentally and physically. Laughter will release your stress, strengthen your immune system, improve sleep, lower your tension and give you a boost.  You can’t hold onto tension when you are laughing.

Laughter is the best medicine and its benefits are free to everyone:

• Laughter causes the blood vessels to dilate and increase blood flow.
• It helps the immune system by raising the level of infection fighting antibodies.
• Laughter lowers blood pressure.
• Ten minutes of laughter can provide up to two hours of pain relief.
• Best of all – one minute of laughter is as good as ten minutes of exercise.

Transition is realizing that there are no clear answers as to why some things happen. Transition represents a period of transformation, as you learn new ways of living on your own. It is the beginning of becoming free from grief and moving into healing.

This is where you face yourself, learn who you really are and start to rebuild your life.

To Our Shared Journey,                                                                                      

Mary Francis is a Certified Grief Recovery Specialist®,  Certified Law of Attraction Facilitator,  Early Intervention Field Traumatology (EIFT) and Author/Founder of “The Sisterhood of Widows”