ART HEALS

Laughter.  It is said to be the best medicine.  What they don't tell you is that you need to be able to laugh at yourself!  I don't mean laughing at yourself before someone else laughs AT you;  I mean to really laugh at yourself.  When you're alone, when you're with people, even when you do something you feel is dopey and you're in a crowd.  You know -- the kind of thing where you look around to see if anyone else noticed.

When things aren't going so well, you have to find something to laugh at.  I mean, what's your alternative?  To crawl under a rock somewhere and hope that sometime you'll feel like crawling back out?  Trust me, I've been there, done that.  It doesn't work out.

I am caregiver for three special needs boys.  They are my grandsons and they each have VERY different challenges.  I have my own challenges as well.  Needless to say our family dynamic is not the usual. 

I went to a caregiver's conference in New Jersey a few years ago and although I can't remember the particular speaker's name I will never forget what she said.  It was a tip on how to enable us to laugh at ourselves.  When she first came in she handed out a red sponge clown nose to everyone.  By the end of her time at the podium she told us all to put the clown noses on, no matter how stupid we felt it looked.  Then she told us that when we felt really crappy and couldn't find anything to perk up our day to stand in front of a full length mirror with the clown nose on --  NAKED. 

I guarantee you, it works!  There is no way you can do that and NOT laugh at yourself.  And once you do, you realize that you really can keep on going.