Whatever you do, don’t take yourself seriously, and let that laughter bubble up and start to heal you from the inside out.
79
Mary sat at the reception encased in a wall of grief. She buried her husband that morning, her best friend for over fifty years. She wasn’t sure if she could ever be happy again. The bitter cold outside mimicked the brittle, icy hardness she felt in her heart. She had the uneasy feeling that at any moment she might shatter into a million pieces on the floor, and there would be nothing left of her. But that didn’t happen. She held her cup of tea stoically on her lap and halfheartedly listened to the continuous stream of condolences that floated past her.
One of Mary’s grandchildren was summoned to play a tune on the violin to cheer Grandma up. Mary grimaced as the six-year-old tucked her little violin under her chin and started to play one of three tunes in her repertoire. Unfortunately, the child had no idea that there were words to the song she played. It was an old traditional tune, and the culminating line was, “The old gray goose is dead.”
Mourners started to shift in an uncomfortable silence at the end of the performance, and then suddenly Mary started to giggle. Her giggles soon erupted into a huge belly laugh, and her granddaughter joined in, not really knowing why. Soon, the entire room was rolling with laughter. It was as if a burst of sunshine filled the room, and the healing began.
Your assignment today is to never underestimate the power of a good laugh. Take every opportunity to laugh today and every day. This is far too important a journey to be taken seriously.
80
All right, so there’s a time to laugh and a time to run! But seriously, all of this information the last few days about laughter and happiness may be a little nauseating if your life is in crisis. You can’t slap on a happy face and pretend everything is okay if it’s not. The laughter therapy suggested two days ago in no way promotes insincerity or pretends certain realities in your life do not exist. Your laughter must be genuine. It has to burst forward from the depths of your soul. Sometimes real life prevents that from happening.
That is when you need to look at what is blocking you from happiness. What stops your laughter? Seek out those live dragons and face them. Are you grieving over the loss of a loved one? Are you in fear of financial ruin? Do you face the demons of addiction every day and lose?
Face your dragons and fight them head on. If you want to bring laughter back into your life, you need to clear out the scary stuff to make room for the sunlight. Give names to the dragons you face. Write them down in your journal today. Be honest and jot down specifically what blocks you from happiness. Then pick at least one of your dragons and devise a plan to battle it and win.
Live dragons aren’t funny at all, but dead ones are hilarious, because they can’t hurt you. Pick your battles today, and defeat the dragons that block your happiness. Be brave, and your reward will be a soul that is overflowing with joy.
81
Wouldn’t it be great if everyone just did what they were supposed to do? The world would be a much better place. But who is in charge of the plan? Do you want to be? That might be your problem. There are nearly seven billion people in the world, and every single one of us has a different agenda.
Now, here’s a news flash. You are not in charge. You don’t get to control whether or not your neighbor shovels his own snow, so stop wasting your time worrying about it. You are powerless over the actions of others. If you want to be successful, concentrate on your own actions. What can you do to make this world a better place? How can you contribute?
It is so easy to get stuck complaining about the actions of a boss, a spouse, a friend, a relative, or a co-worker and blame them for sabotaging your road to success.
“If she would have just done her job, I wouldn’t be in this mess!”
Does that line sound familiar? Has it come out of your mouth recently?
