It was brought to my attention by my 6 year old, that I am deficient in the ways of fun. Apparently my laugh o meter had been broken, in fact she has made it her personal mission to make me laugh and or smile whenever possible…and you know what? It’s a great thing!
I am the anti-smiler, always maintaining just a pleasant enough look so that people know I am plugged in, but truthfully I have never liked looking at smiling pictures of myself. So, I avoid smiling. However in a family of strange introverts, giving birth to an extrovert means things must change and thanks to my daughter I am smiling and laughing more. She told me recently that she loves to hear me laugh because it makes her happy…magic words.
Now I could just share this little tale and leave it at that, but I suspect I am not the only one who needs to change their ways. Hell, I see the other zombies walking around; we all have that same half alive look and why shouldn’t we? We are working, living and just managing life and heaven knows in 2012 there is just so much we have to do, and things like laughing and smiling? We fit em in when we can.
No my friends, smiling and laughing are priorities, in fact we need to stop taking ourselves so damn seriously. To fellow moms, we worry, it’s in our DNA and with so many battles to fight from true equal rights to keeping our kids away from evil consumption and battling just to use our boobs in public to feed the babies, it can be hard to smile and laugh but I insist we must.
Think about when you die, what do you want your kids to remember best about you? Sure they may care about the advocacy work you did but if it left you so drained that all you had on your face was a grimace then maybe it’s time re-evaluate. I want my kids to say she was passionate, open, loving and happy…all of which require smiles and laughs at times, preferably often.
So if you find it hard to be spontaneous with the goofies, just keep at it until you reach the place where your smiles light up your face and you beam like a 100 watt light bulb.
PS: I have learned that banishing negativity whenever possible helps make the smiles and laughs flow. Seeing possibilities instead of roadblocks has a funny way of making one happy!
Same here. If I am feeling crappy I take a deep breath a smile. It lightens up my mood. I am always smiling and laughing. Because I love to laugh. It’s free and easy. And sometimes to not to choke a mofo you have to laugh it off.
Girl, not to toot my own horn, but this is one thing people say about me: no matter how miserable (or good) my life may be, I am always laughing and smiling. LOL. I was even called joyful, and I never have considered myself a joyful person. Who would have thought, huh? Me? Joyful? Yes, indeed. I guess that is why I have managed to survive 35.6 years of nonsense. Smiling.
You have to laugh and smile and act a fool (within reason). You have to! Laughter is the elixir of life. 😀