Laugh Therapy

When challenges change into demoralizing obstacles, laugh. When misfortune clumps, laugh. When times turn toxic, laugh. This is what I’ve learned over a half century and change. Laugh therapy is the best therapy. For me. And my beautiful bride, Susan, is bar-none the best laugh therapist I’ve ever known!

May this marriage be full of laughter, our every day in paradise. — Rumi

Thank you, Susan, for so, SO many things. Most of all, thank you for your joy and energy and quirky sense of humor. Thank you for almost two dozen years of laugh therapy. You are my everything!

Now, back to your regularly scheduled programming…

Today’s tidings are a reminder to me and to you that laugh therapy works. And it works wonders! Our most human analgesic. But don’t take it from me. I’ve gathered a few laugh therapy advocates to make the case on my behalf.

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Laughter is the tonic, the relief, the surcease for pain. — Charlie Chaplin

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Laughter is the sun that drives winter from the human face. — Victor Hugo

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Laughter is a uniting force, it brings people together, and it makes hardship easier. — Montaigne

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You can’t deny laughter; when it comes, it plops down in your favorite chair and stays as long as it wants. — Stephen King

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Laughter and tears are both responses to frustration and exhaustion. I myself prefer to laugh, since there is less cleaning up to do afterward. — Kurt Vonnegut

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I would say laughter is the best medicine. But it’s more than that. It’s an entire regime of antibiotics and steroids. Laughter brings the swelling down on our national psyche and then applies an antibiotic cream. You gotta keep it away from your eyes. — Stephen Colbert

Are you convinced?

When trials and tribulations come in stacked waves, when your energy and endurance are failing, and when fear and anxiety are surging remember to make space for humor. Even a quick, nervous chuckle helps. A belly bursting guffaw even more so. Make time for laugh therapy!

What About Onioning!

Susan’s gloves and goggles in the photographs above are her onion cutting uniform. Consider it her tear-proof getup. And while it has a practical application, it also busts my gut again and again (not altogether unlike another onion that routinely transforms tears into laughter.)