Laugh & Learn

Live, Laugh, Love & Learn: Summer is the time of the fire element and is about the heart, relationships, joy, heat and laughter.

I don't know what it is that I laugh about but I know I laugh every day. It has helped me focus on joy and makes me feel younger. Acting silly and laughing with someone you trust, builds a connection and it boosts immunity. It benefits your health greatly to laugh and it helps set up a point of view about life. Instead of darkness and pain, it helps to look for that silver lining.

My husband and I went to a comedy show on our first date. It was in the middle of the week and raining. There were only a few people in the audience. We could not avoid becoming the brunt of some of the jokes. Nobody was able to escape. My husband, in particular, was a target and it was good for me to see how he handled that. A decade and a half later, we have been laughing every day since we first met.

My husband loves to make up his own jokes. He is also the first to laugh at them. Some of them are not very good but I laugh because he is laughing. I love to exaggerate to the extreme, to the point of being ridiculous to explore an important concept or idea. My husband applauds me, laughs and cheers me on. Our constant exploration of the lighter side has shaped the tone of our life together.

I also try to inject some levity into the world around me. I have put playful objects in the woods along my road and beside my driveway. My mother-in-law used to have a plastic pig, sheep and cow she would put out on her lawn every summer. After she passed away, these tacky items were headed for the garbage. Instead we rescued them and put them in our yard in memory of her. Children passing by love it. If they look closely they can also see Drucilla, my sleeping dragon, a bunny and a fairy.

If we are to find our true selves and heal ourselves and others, being able to learn from our experiences is key. The invisible world around us is not always so obvious. When we learn, we often make assumptions about a situation we experience because we already think we know or are too polite to ask a questions. We then draw conclusions about what we learned from that experience, based on those poorly researched assumptions.

When we make decisions based on incorrect assumptions, we don't actually learn anything new. We just reinforce what we already think we know. This endless cycle or loop keeps us spinning in the same thinking. I call it loopy thinking. You see it all the time when people use research they find on the internet, to support what they already believe. We all do it.

In addition to loopy thinking, there is also conditioned thinking. This is when we have been programmed to react and see things in a specific way. These are based on logical arguments built around how we think about what we experience. To combat loopy and conditioned thinking, we need to be active learners by listening to others, uncovering our assumptions and practicing frequent learning. Comedy is a really fun way to explore society's influences on what we believe.

In the end, comedy allows you to expand your mind to new angles and possible ideas. It helps open you up to unlearning and relearning what you thought you knew. It is a great way to foster creativity and build a connection to others. It allows you to question everything, even things considered sacred. I believe it can not only reduce stress and improve health but also change people's attitudes and change society for the better.

[Humanity] has unquestionably one really effective weapon—laughter. Power, money, persuasion, supplication, persecution—these can lift at a colossal humbug—push it a little—weaken it a little, century by century, but only laughter can blow it to rags and atoms at a blast. Against the assault of laughter nothing can stand. -Mark Twain