Just laugh….OUT LOUD!

I am sure there are times when my neighbours wonder what it is that I am laughing about.  As much as I am an introvert is as much as I love a belly full of laughter and will literally do so by myself – loudly; I simply refuse to stifle my laugh.

With all that is happening in this world, and specifically in the land of my birth, many will say that there is NOTHING to laugh about.  I understand the reasoning within the context of this pandemic, that there is hardly anything to smile about let alone laugh out loud about.  I argue, however, that even in the midst of that, we have to find something in each day that brings us laughter…. And if we don’t see it, we must seek it out – somehow – in our work lives, home, or otherwise.

I work alongside someone who loves to joke and laugh, so there is NOT a single day, once we are in the office, that we are not laughing.  We laugh about what some would consider the strangest and most mundane of things.  We laugh about our lunch, our shoes, our walk, our hair, her lunch bag (she has the largest lunch bag I have ever seen), our dry hands (from all the sanitizing), our hunger, the cost of sweet peppers, the cheapness of tomatoes (now as opposed to months ago), her dance, the way she sings without knowing the words… we find laughter in EVERY SINGLE THING, within the ambits of the workplace. 

This type of daily laughter helps to improve the work environment.

Laughter in the home is just as important: my offspring believes she is hilarious, which in itself brings comic relief and laughter.  She likes to give jokes… not true… she loves to give jokes, but is terrible at it.  So the telling of the joke is usually where the laughter resides, for me.  She knows this, which is why she insists…  “My jokes are hilarious,” she says.  I beg to differ.  Your jokes aren’t; YOU ARE!  LOL

Adding laughter to your home, makes for great stress-relief!

There are other impromptu moments of laughter that I enjoy throughout any given day.   For example, my niece makes me laugh; she is the funniest 2-year-old you will ever meet. Driving in my car and singing loudly makes me laugh; some of my outfits make me laugh (because why on God’s earth did I wear those two pieces – TOGETHER. Can someone say CLOWN SUIT). LOL

The same is true for my close friends.  The conversation may begin serious and by the end, we are laughing at ourselves. It might be the way that he or she said something that I found funny… or something that they did that they are sharing… matters not; once there is something to laugh about, I am going to laugh uninhibitedly, unencumbered and unabashedly. 

Me? Naah ask Christ! (something that Jamaicans say when they are very sure and do not need any type of validation or confirmation from any one).

Other sources of laughter can be found in many programmes on TV and YouTube.  Do not get me started on the reruns of Family Feud or the Dumbest Answers on Family Feud compilation; laughter for days!  Or it could just be me attempting a dance routine that I have no business doing.  Aaay sah!

No matter what, I make it my point of duty to seek out my daily laughter when it doesn’t freely find me! 

I have found that memory is also a good laughter-source:  I have very fond memories of living with my sister and cousins in my late teens and the ways in which we would laugh so often and so loudly that my grandmother would get home and tell us that she heard us from all the way down the road.  We would often laugh at the way in which she mimicked our sounds…. Maybe this is from whence my propensity for freely laughing originates!  Whatever the case…

Bottom line, we need to laugh.

 Sometimes while watching a youTube video, I scroll through the comments and burst out in belly-hurting laughter, because human beings are funny.  Have you ever started laughing because you heard someone else laughing?

I have….

Have you ever stifled your laugh because the person giving the joke is not a friend or you are at odds with that person?

I have done this before (a long time ago), but I caution you….

NUH DWEET! Spread out yuh mout and laaf!

So why is laughter so important?

We can all agree that the presence of laughter does not mean the absence of problems.  Nevertheless, every single source I consulted agrees that laughter has many benefits and encourages its daily dose. My findings substantiated what I already knew:

• Laughter is the best medicine
• Laughter provides stress relief
• Laughter makes you lighter
• Laughter activates many areas of the brain; it strengthens neural connections and helps a healthy brain coordinate its activity. [1]

On the other hand, there is something called “bitter laughter” that comes about because of something negative.  According to Volland (2020),  “while this kind of laughter may seem beneficial on the surface, it can leave you feeling worse afterward. Cortisol—aroused by negative reactions, including angry laughter—triggers the brain to scan for threats. When triggered, the cortisol response lasts within the body for about an hour, making it easy to get caught up in negative emotions[2].”

Prior to doing desktop reading for this blog, I had not thought about this “bitter laughter” concept; it makes sense and is definitely something I will explore further outside of this piece. 

In any event, the next time you find something to (positively) laugh about, let’s throw caution to the wind and allow the laugh to freely travel from your belly bottom and resonate out into the universe.  Trust me when I tell you that it helps with the mind, body and soul.  And if there is no one around to provide comic relief, the way my offspring, co-worker, friends and family do, search for your laughter and you will find it.  I know I do – almost every single day – even when rock-bottom lies to me and tells me I have nothing to laugh about.

Before I end, let me use the opportunity to remind that there IS a difference between a chuckle and laughter.  They are not one in the same nor do they yield the same results (mentioned earlier).  So don’t say you laugh all the time when all you do is chuckle.  A chuckle is merely a quiet internal response, while laughter can be heard by others and felt deep down in the recesses of your soul.

So, as for me and my belly-hurting laughter, I am going to let it go freely – under my mask of course in public spaces.  But while in the comfort of my home (and car), my neighbours will just have to learn to laugh at the sound of my laughter (or become annoyed by it – the choice is theirs), because I aint gonna stop….

…and that’s on Mary had a little lamb!

While you go in search of your laughter, check out one of the readings from my recently launched book of poetry, “The Chronicles of a Woman:  The Truth-Teller (available on Amazon), and have yourself a laugh; everyone in attendance was tickled by Claire’s recital. When you are done listening, etc., thank you for heading over to amazon and getting yourself a copy.

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[1] https://www.sciencealert.com/laughter-can-improve-your-mood-and-relieve-your-body-and-mind-of-stress

[2] https://nrchealth.com/the-importance-of-laughter/