Find The Funny

People around me often wonder how I’m able to keep moving forward with a smile in spite of my challenging situation. Let me ask you this, have you ever been at a funeral and found yourself feeling guilty when you laughed at something humorous? It happens. Even in our darkest times, our funny bones can get tickled. Bottom line, our body wants us to relieve the pressure. Babies know it. Thanks to survival of the fittest, our bodies know we can’t be high-functioning in a constant state of turmoil. In fact, dealing with my own disease has been cushioned by having a sense of humor.

Taking ourselves too seriously creates stress and since stress is a powerful force in our health and our relationships it needs to be avoided at all costs. Here’s some WebMD info to back up my lay-woman’s hypothesis: https://www.webmd.com/balance/stress-management/stress-symptoms-effects_of-stress-on-the-body#1 

It was at a point in my life when I was dealing with angst that my MS chose to come out of hiding. I was 27, and had just relocated to St.Louis where I hardly knew anyone. I was determined to make my new business thrive but faced daily rejection. I was stressed. As I share in Stumble to Rise, “…My dream of making my mark on the direct sales world … looked rather bleak. I was barely contributing to our household income with my fledgling business, and I began to question my objective. I was personifying the idea of “failing forward” on a daily basis.”

When you really break it down, we are all pretty hilarious beings. The things we get so worked up about are usually temporary and won’t matter on our deathbeds. I use this technique to remind myself of what’s truly important. When I’m at the very end, will this matter? Nine out of ten times the answer is nope — it won’t!

When I was newly diagnosed, finding the humor was not easy. Now after becoming an expert on navigating hardship, I can see the comedy where many can’t. When I stumble and fall, sometimes with no warning, it can be rather humorous. Like I’ve said many times, “I do all my own stunts.” As long as blood and broken bones aren’t involved, I’ve been known to LOL as I’m flat on the floor. I can now understand why many of our greatest comedians came from a background of struggle. Wouldn’t you rather laugh than cry?

I challenge you that whatever happens to you today that might frustrate you or cause stress, find the humor. Imagine you’re an observer looking at your situation from outside yourself. Look for something completely silly in even the darkest situations. So you didn’t get the job. Someone cut you off on the highway. You miscalculated your bank balance. I promise, once you deal with the consequences and clean up the mess, there’s something funny there. What you focus on expands so if you can only see the misery, that’s all you will find. But if you search for what’s good, what you’re thankful for and yes, what makes you giggle, I promise you’ll find it! It’s there. Keep looking until you FIND THE FUNNY!