CRY SOME – LAUGH MORE
The mature in emotional intelligence can shed tears and also laugh often. Both crying and laughter have a healing effect and seem to cure a “multitude of ills.”
Laughter makes the heart glad! Joy is God’s gift to us. When a child has grown up in a home with lots of laughter, that child laughs easily and often. Research says children laugh on an average of 200 times a day, while adults laugh 28 times a day. The mother is most often the inspiration of the generational laughter.
Laughter can be a valuable, preventive form of medicine and a natural defense against illness. It can diffuse bad stress and counteract depression. It touches our soul, helps to keep things in perspective, supports positive outlook. Laughter can be an empathetic lubricant in relationships and help us accept one another as imperfect.
Thankfully, laughter can be a learned behavior. The more you laugh, the more you want to laugh! Practice laughing. It works wonders! Charles Dickens said, “There is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter.“
On the other hand, tears can also be a learned behavior. Charles Dickens also said, “We need never be ashamed of our tears.” Tears are God’s gift to us. They heal us as they flow. They can be triggered by many kinds of events, emotions, relationships.
Yet, why would so many fathers view crying as weakness, especially calling sons big babies when they “tear up” at an emotional movie? Why would a father beat a son and then demand his son stop crying or else have another beating? This has caused many men to NOT show their gentle, kind and vulnerable emotions.
Regardless, crying is cleansing, especially of stress. It is self-soothing and initially helps babies breathe. It will dull pain and help restore emotional balance. Amazingly, a long session of weeping can make us feel better even if our circumstances have not changed. Someone said, “The soul would have no rainbow had the eyes no tears.”
So allow tears to come as a normal, healthy way to express emotions. Then allow laughter to make the heart glad. Cry some. Laugh more!
