All work and no play makes Jill a dull girl

Gita put the phone down slowly, her ear still ringing with the echo of her friend Sushma’s laughter. Her friend had gone to see a funny movie with her family and they had had a whale of a time, gorging themselves on popcorn and ice cream.

Gita felt a sudden pang of envy at her friend’s happiness. The word ‘fun’ sounded so unfamiliar to her. When was the last time that she had ‘fun’? When had she last laughed, laughed till her stomach hurt? When was the last time she had done something spontaneous and unplanned with her family?

Life, she believed, had become a series of routines – home, office and back home. Sundays were devoted to cleaning the house, catering to relatives and catching up on her children’s activities at school. Where was the time to have fun? Her laughter had seemingly disappeared in the dull monotony of life.

Do you, like Gita, believe that life has turned too serious? Do you feel the urge to throw caution to the winds and do something unexpected and exciting? What are you waiting for? Life is meant to be lived, and lived happily. Daily doses of fun and laughter are necessary to improve the texture of life.

There are strong scientific reasons to support the fact that he or she, who laughs, lasts.

People who know how to have fun are generally healthier and better able to handle stressful situations.

Humour is not just about telling and listening to jokes. It’s about perceiving and chuckling at the absurdities of everyday life–from hassles to heartaches to hard times–and taking yourself more lightly even when you are doing serious work. And it’s about laughing, harder and more often than most of us do.

Make ‘fun’ a necessary ingredient in your life. Even when there is not much going on in your environment, use your imagination and innovativeness to keep you out of a mental rut, to enjoy yourself and prevent boredom and depression.

Take a break from routine. Let your cleaning keep for a day. Do something different and exciting with your family and friends. Have a picnic, get up a little late, watch a funny movie, do something that you did as a kid, make a funny face or roll about in the grass.

A quick infusion of light-heartedness can not only boost your energy but will also chase away the cobwebs in your mind.

Allow yourself to relax. Start seeing the funny side of things and point them out to others. Record all the funny things that you see and relate them over a family dinner.

Practise smiling for at least twenty minutes a day. Put up some funny posters or sayings that will keep the smile firmly in place.

Interact and play with children. You don’t need a better tonic than that.

Listen to a funny tape or collect some funny movies and watch the depression disappear.

Pay attention to whatever tickles your funny bone. Make it a point to surround yourself with more of it.

Above all, look for more of the positive humour embedded in your life experience. Seek out other people you can laugh with.

Life can be hard and difficult and sometimes horribly tedious. Use laughter as your constant companion on life’s long journey.