Tuesday, November 19, 2019

To laugh or cry?

Too. Tired. To. Do. The.Things.

Seems like a mantra.  

I’m so tired, my tired is tired.

I’m not at early bird nor a night owl…I am some form of permanently exhausted pigeon.

Why am I soooo tired?

I keep hearing it over and over again.  

From my own mouth.  

From my peers.  

From my friends.

So much to accomplish but too tired to make it all happen.

I don’t know about you, but I get tired of being tired.

I do all the things.  I go to bed early, I work at managing my stress, I eat well, I work out (not as consistently as I wish, but I do), we don’t use chemicals in our home, we have plants, I get fresh air, and I take my vitamins.

And I’m still so tired…almost exhausted.

It’s annoying and frustrating!!

My morning routine consists of me sitting on the edge of my bed for 10 minutes, thinking about how tired I am ;-)

But there is a good side to being so tired….there really is….

Being tired makes life funnier.  

I don’t know why.

Maybe our defenses drop a bit when we are tired, or our standards are lowered, who knows, but life sure is more humorous when I’m mentally numb with exhaustion. 

It may have something to do with the fact that if I don’t laugh, I may cry instead.  

Perhaps my body is just protecting me, and my laugh track jumps in before the tears can.

Whatever the cause, I know I have my best belly laughs when I am so exhausted, everything seems silly.  Ludicrous even.

The memes get funnier, the sarcasm, the dry humor, the really bad jokes, and even the cat videos.  

I know that sighing and yawning are two of the best ways the body reduces stress, so maybe laughter is up there as well.

And I’m ok with that.

I mean, who doesn’t love a good gasping-for-air-pee-your-pants guffaw now and again.

I do agree….we don’t laugh enough…

We are so serious, us adult humans, too much to do, too busy to slow down, too chained to the phone/computer/tablet/tv….thinking the ‘hustle’ is the only way to succeed.

I know it’s been said that children laugh 300 times a day and adults about 15…if we’re lucky.  I have no source for that, I actually don’t think anyone does.

But it is true that children find more things to be delighted about in their day than adults do…and maybe that’s a lesson we can learn.

To lighten up.

To find more things in our lives that give us joy.

To focus more on what is yummy in our day rather than what is yucky.

It is proven that laughter changes us.  It brings up our vibe and our immunity. It can actually help us sleep better because we are reducing tension and stress, and it’s a known fact that laughter can help reduce pain and inflammation!

Another thing laughter does is makes us feel lighter, more optimistic, more connected, and less focused on our troubles and grief.

It even makes us more attractive and appear friendlier! Turning that resting *itch face into something more pleasing!  J

So even though we are all dragging our butts, and all feeling the exhaustion of highly busy and long to do list, I hope we can get through the daily suffering with some lighthearted laughter. 

That we look for the fun and funny in our day.

We look for the folks who we can laugh with, rather than the folks who get on our nerves and stress us out even more.

That we take the time to laugh with our children, our partners, our co-workers….and spend less time isolated on our technology.

For today…look for reasons to laugh, instead of reasons to be offended, angered, and shamed.  

Search out the tribe of people who help keep you lifted instead of the ones who take you down.

Maybe, just maybe, if we all do that, we can bring up the vibe of our workspace, our home, our community…..our world.  

We’d still be tired, I’m pretty sure…but at least we can laugh about it...~M  …. J