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Ever felt like skipping down the street?  Humming in a store? Laughing over something silly and small?  Because you’re “in public” do you stop yourself from smiling, enjoying light moments? 

As adults, we are way too serious, and it’s killing us.

Did you know that most of our diseases are stress and diet related? 

If we believe that being an adult means taking yourself seriously every waking moment of the day, if we are stopping ourselves from laughing with a child, or playing with a pet, then we are way too busy and caught up in our own idea of self importance.   It is not up to us to solve the world’s problems or find every solution!  If your internal weather is dark and heavy, gloomy and without sunshine; if you’re walking in a cloud, there’s a storm brewing and it’s most likely showing on your face, and in your attitude. 

Lighten up!  Let the sunshine in!  Let smiles happen; let the lightness of laughter, and the joy of a childlike attitude bring brightness to your life!  Those around you will thank you, and you will wonder how you ever let laughter disappear.

With the stress of foster parenting, trying to heal wounded hearts of abused kids, and broken families, I found myself living in an internal hurricane.  I couldn’t let go, had forgotten how to laugh.  I felt guilty if I giggled!  With all the sad situations around me, the pressure of deadlines from college classes and the misery of families whose children we had in our home, it was as if my daily routine had sucked the enjoyment right out of me.  Hearing a giggle would make me cringe.  Within just a few years, I was paying a high price for “helping others.” 

When is that price too high?  When you no longer know or like who you are, and you have very little to give.

Misery forced me to take a good look at “me,” and I decided I wanted “me” back.  The “busy and important” things of life had dried me up.  I was a starving, thirsty woman, forcing smiles I did not feel, and trying to understand those around me who laughed and had fun.   Helping others wasn’t supposed to be this much work!  I read somewhere that Mother Teresa was actually a depressed woman.  I could understand that, seeing all that misery would make you think there is no joy, and how could you laugh, when others cried?

Stop the misery!  Turn on the music, the lighter, more wholesome movies, listen to an uplifting sermon or motivational talk.  Play, skip, hop, love, enjoy!  Laugh and concentrate and search for the good things in the day; form the habit, no matter the effort.  No one can make deposits in the lives of others, if their own emotional bank is overdrawn.  Give yourself regular emotional paychecks! You’re worth it!  Those you love need you to be whole and pleasant.  We change the world when we are happy, well-adjusted, content.  It’s contagious!

You will have bounce in your step, no matter the circumstances if you develop the habit of enjoyment.  Look forward to the day with hope, with opportunity, with gratitude, and you will discover solutions, and energy you thought had gone forever.

For health and the constant enjoyment of life, give me a keen and ever present sense of humor; it is the next best thing to an abiding faith in providence. -George B. Cheever

Enjoy your minutes!!  Enjoy your life!