Anyone who really knows me, knows I love a good laugh. When something really tickles me, I have a choppy “ha-ha” that comes from the pit of my stomach and is sometimes followed by a high-pitched squeal. A good belly laugh makes me feel lost in the moment and like I don’t have a care in the world.
The past year has been very challenging. A pandemic, systemic racism, and continuous uncertainty about what the next few months hold have been stressful to say the least.
It is easy to get lost in the challenges we are facing, but I want to encourage you to make a conscious decision to seek out joy and laughter.
Laughter is therapeutic and a great pressure release. A study conducted in 2015 (Bains et al.) found that laughter helps reduce unpleasant feelings such as tension, anxiety, hatred, and anger, alleviates feelings of depression, improves insomnia, memory failure, and dementia. These are just a few reasons you should make sure you’re finding time to tap into that release.
Let’s commit to smiling and laughing more. Do you have a funny show, comedy special, or funny content creator that you can lean into this week? I love Martin and plan to get lost in some of my favorite Sheneneh episodes over the next few days! Let’s get our laugh on people!