macular degeneration, macular, diagnosis Laughter IS Good Medicine – My Macular Degeneration Journey/Journal

Laughter IS Good Medicine

We don’t normally buy tubs of ice cream but one ‘mysteriously’ showed up in the freezer this week. I was told it was my duty to help eat said ice cream.

I guess wives are supposed to help husbands destroy the evidence of their impulse buys.

I helped myself to ice cream. The next time my husband went for ice cream, he declared we were different! Well, no shit. To what do we owe this discovery? It turns out he is a ‘skimmer’ and I am a ‘dipper’. While my husband skims across the entire surface of the ice cream, I dig in!

A couple of points here. First of all, being beholden on others for rides, I have discovered how ‘strange’ other people are. They drive all sorts of different ways to places. Why they go their ways I just don’t understand. The ways I used to go are obviously superior! I have had to exercise forbearance  and not shout at these people for going the ‘wrong way’. Tolerance of differences can be tough.

The other point? My husband and I started laughing about the ice cream service difference. This takes me back to a point I wanted to make about laughter. To wit, laughter is one of my coping skills. In addition to reminding me to get over my big, bad self, laughter dissolves distressing emotions and helps me relax and recharge. In DBT speak laughter is an opposite to emotion response when I am really upset. Physiologically speaking, it is difficult to be angry or sad when the corners of your mouth are pointing up (remember half-smile?).

Laughter boosts the immune system and triggers the release of feel good chemicals into my blood. It strengthens the heart and other organs.

And what was I talking about when I said it helps me to get over myself? Laughter puts things in perspective. It is hard to be overwhelmed by something you are laughing at. It is hard to take yourself too seriously when you are giggling about one of your foibles or a crazy thing that happened to you.

In short, laughter is good medicine.

And the ways other people do things? Those are just strange.

Next: COME DANCE WITH ME

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