Laughter is an emotion.
There are some people who find it hard to laugh, while others have no problem laughing at all. Why? What makes the difference, one might ask? I certainly am no authority on this subject but will express my opinions here.
I just happened to be born with what is called a sense of humor. I find the humor in life very easily. Yes, I find the humor in life…WHEN…I have not been living with heavy and unending, day to day stress. So, when we are living with heavy and unending day to day stresses, it clouds us so badly we cannot see humor in anything. Do you know what I am talking about? It can be hard to see anything positive about life at all, when we are over stressed. All we can feel is that life is “serious, hard, and heavy.” Have you experienced life like this? Many of us have, including myself. I may have quite a sense of humor, but a comedian I am not!
What I will say for myself is this: I have always loved comedies, but it was always the “actions,” that made me laugh not always the person. Herein lies the important difference I think. No one likes to be made fun of or laughed “at.” However, there are times, ones “actions,” can be quite funny and humorous.
Growing up, I was forever feeling like some kind of odd ball because I could find something quite funny that no one else did. Believe me, this sometimes caused me problems too, until I learned that I just had to muffle it and hide it. When that would happen, I would have had to go someplace else to let out my laughter – somewhere I would not be overheard and would not offend, but laugh I must. I would imagine you would like an example of what I am talking about, so I will share something I experienced. You may or may not think it funny, but for me, at the time, I was broken up into hysterics!
This was the first few months of my marriage to a Captain in the Marine Corp. At this point, I did not know about PTSD and surely did not know, he had it…nor did he know he had it.
We were asleep and were awakened to the sound of something making noise, under the house. The crawl space, under the house is only 3′ tall at its highest point, so it is not a human making this noise, it has to be an animal. My husband bolts out of bed, throws on his robe, grabs what looks like a rifle, from behind the closet door, and heads outside….in the dark….or so I thought. I am awakened to all this clamor, and have not quite got my senses about me yet, but I get out of bed, put on my robe and saunter into the living room…in the dark…open the door and walk out onto the porch. What do my eyes behold? This crouching man, in a red robe, high necked white socks wearing rubber flip flops or( “rubber slippahs” is what we call them in Hawaii) holding a “pellet gun” that had a little yellow and black flashlight taped to the end of the barrel! When he had put this flashlight onto this pellet gun, I have no clue. Yes, I went ballistic with hysterical laughter! It was not the man I was laughing at….it was his actions, the clothing, and that little yellow and black flashlight, that enhanced these actions that I thought was so funny. The laughing was so intense tears were running out of my eyes. Seeing and hearing this, he was not offended and ended up laughing too, as it “brought him BACK from where ever he was for that moment in time…..remember now…this is a person with PTSD…This was a trigger of remembrance of combat days for him….the laughter brought him out of it and made the whole incident change in character. It was healing. Even now, we can speak of this and laugh together. But we can speak of it with laughter because he knows I love him and I accept him. Without these factors, it would have not had this outcome.
As time went on, I began to see this humor in the actions of animals too! Yes, they too are quite capable of making errors in the things they do; especially the young; which brings to mind the old adage, “older and wiser.” It was at this point I realized that I was not a lone nut case. I learned that nothing in this world is perfect. Not humans and not animals. We all have an amusing streak in us. It is just up to us to see it and acknowledge it as being a loving, innocent, and acceptable part of ourselves and our life. Nothing is wrong with that. We just are what we are, and that is it! Well so it is with our animal friends as well.
Learn more on The Healing Power of Laughter Part 2
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