Often times, I find myself reflecting on emotions, both mine and those of others. Now, I could attribute this to the fact that I am studying psychology in college, but I’ve always had a general interest in emotions and how crucial they are to our everyday life. One emotion in particular has always held my interest: joy. Sure, some people would argue that it’s not as complex as other emotions, but I would very much disagree, especially when it comes to the way joy can manifest itself in our life in the form of laughter.
Laughter and comedy have always played an important part in my life. I have grown up in a really silly family, particularly those on my late mother’s side. My mom was one of the silliest people you could ever come to know. She instilled in me an inherent love of all things comedy, even from when I was very little. I watched my first stand-up specials with her, and we always did silly impressions and accents together. She helped put a smile on my face whenever she could. She was the true embodiment of “laughter is the best medicine”.
Yet another influence in my life who has a similar approach to these things is my aunt. I can say that in the past two years my aunt has truly been an inspiration to me, and her sense of humor is one of the many reasons why I look up to her. When hardships come her way, she doesn’t resort to anger or frustration. Instead, she tries to immediately pull the comedy out of a situation and uses that to get through adversity. This is so interesting to me; I didn’t realize this until recently, but I also try my best to do the exact same thing when I am faced with hard times. I guess it runs in the family 😉
It may seem odd to say, but I believe there’s a strong sense of resilience that can be attributed to seeing the funny side of things in life. I know that personally it has helped me stay positive even in the hardest of life’s circumstances. Now, it is important to recognize and pay attention to all of our emotions as they come, don’t get me wrong (I would be a hypocrite in my psych studies if I didn’t realize that). However, I truly believe that if we take every hardship life throws at us with a grain of salt and attempt to see the funny side of things… Who knows? Maybe we can be a beam of positive emotions when we, and others, need it most.
-Andrea 🙂
