Pick Yourself up with a Joke

With a joke?  That’s how you pick yourself up?  Yes.  Burst with a joke once in a while and cheer yourself up.  Perhaps you do have family and friends to cheer you up when you are down, or stressed out.  Well, what happens when they are not available?

I find it very helpful to concoct a funny scenario and that makes me smile already.  It takes all the tension away from my system, then I can get back to work and the rest of the tasks at hand.  Or I remind myself of funny stories my mom and grandma used to tell me so many times.  One of the stories was about the lazy young man, who laid down under an apple tree, waiting for the apple to fall into his mouth, because he didn’t want to work, or do anything.  Or I think about my mom’s laughter.  That is enough by itself to bring me back into a positive mood.  She used to have that rolling laughter that didn’t really leave you with any other option than to join her.

This is a little exercise I learned at one of my previous jobs at a media company.   My two coworkers and I shared a room at the office.  One of them came every day with a long face and never smiled.  She always had problems with her husband and his parents.  The other one, if she wasn’t busy eating, she was on the phone talking, or sometimes she would talk and eat at the same time.  I always kept myself busy typing a storm, calling a client, helping the other bosses and so on.  Needless to say, the days at the office with these two characters were pretty uneventful.  Thus, I plotted that idea which, from time to time I would take short breaks in my mind and just tell myself a joke, or a funny anecdote.  Any time I would feel left out, stressed, or negative in general, I would resort to this little secret game.  I picked myself up with a joke.  And the days became much brighter and funny too.

“Laughter is an instant vacation.”

                                                                                                                – Victor Berle

If you ever see me driving and smiling, or even laughing, you will know I am picking myself up with a joke.

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