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If You Laugh on Command is it Still a Real Laugh?
Reflecting on habit #11 in my journey
If you laugh, you think, and you cry, that’s a full day. That’s a heck of a day. You do that seven days a week, you’re going to have something special.
I’d prefer to skip crying every day, the wisdom of Jimmy V notwithstanding, but laughing and thinking, I’m all in. I need the laughs to balance out the deep thoughts or there will be crying. I’m not opposed to a good cry when necessary but I’d rather laugh more than cry thank you very much.
So how did I turn laugher into a daily habit?
Reading humor publications and funny writers is one way. I think it is a rare day where I don’t burst out laughing at something I read and most often because the writer intended and wanted me to laugh.
But for the purposes of my habit-forming journey, I sometimes laughed for no reason. I’d be going through my tracking spreadsheet and see “laugh”. Have I laughed yet today? I’d ask myself. I can’t remember for sure. And then I’d laugh out loud at nothing at all just so I could check the box in my spreadsheet with confidence.
Science backs me up on the value of laughter. According to the Mayo Clinic, laughter has short-term and long-term positive effects…
