Laugh about it!

People, please take a step back and laugh! Whatever is going on in your life, there is humor to be found. The ability to laugh at life’s struggles will ultimately help you deal with them. Studies show that people with a well-developed sense of humor have stronger immune systems, less stress, and healthier attitudes about the challenges in their lives. So LAUGH!
When we are young, our sense of humor is naturally there. Children lack inhibitions so when they are amused, it’s evident. You see them laughing and smiling all the time. They don’t hold back those deep belly laughs. It’s such a sweet sound to hear. It’s literally contagious. You can’t help but smile and laugh with them. It’s said that healthy children laugh about 400 times a day while adults only laugh about 15 times a day! And I know quite a few that probably don’t laugh that much.
When my daughter was literally just hours old she looked up at me and smiled. I noticed the cutest little temple dimple that appeared. It was precious! I can only guess at what made her smile, probably it was my crazy hairdo after hours of labor or just maybe …. it was her smiling back at me since I was grinning from ear to ear with the joy of holding her in my arms. Either way, it proves that smiling is natural.
My question is, what happens to some people along the way in life that they lose this ability? They start taking themselves and life too seriously. They end up being uptight and unhappy.
I believe that having the ability to laugh at yourself is even more important. None of us are perfect and it’s so much easier to face your own shortcomings if you can laugh about them.
For instance, I had 2 major surgeries on my feet as a child. As a result, I have this big toe that is quite famous because it doesn’t go with my feet or my other toes. Seriously, it doesn’t look like it belongs. It’s really funny looking! It totally points away from the other toes and is twice as big as the big toe on the other foot. When I was a kid, I was really embarrassed about “the toe” and mostly wore closed toe shoes. I just wanted to hide it because when I did “let it out”, I noticed that people would stare at it. But as I’ve gotten older, I care less and less about the stares and my friends have officially named it “the toe”. We have laughed about it many times. One lady that used to give me pedicures had a little bit of a toe fetish and told me that it was good luck! We got a really good laugh out of that. Yeah, I no longer go to her. Kinda weird, right?
Now that I’ve put this out there for all to read, I’m going to know exactly who read this article. I’ll see you checking out my feet. Unless it’s cold, “the toe” will be on display for all to see. Those closed toe shoes are really uncomfortable because “the toe” doesn’t play well with the other toes and doesn’t like to be cramped up next to them. (I know, I know ….. it’s disturbing to talk about “the toe” like it has a life of it’s own)
There are many “toe” stories and perhaps I’ll write a bit more of them in the future. It’s my duty to give others something to laugh about and it keeps us healthy, right?