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Grief: Tips for Healing with Laughter
Grieving is a natural part of life. We lose loved ones. We lose jobs. We have disappointments. We get discouraged. When you have a loss, you will continue to heal and grieve at different times in your life. There are no magic pills that will make grief disappear.
When my son died in 1993 and then my husband died in 2005, I made the decision to live life for all three of us. That includes finding the joy in life through laughter.
Laughter can support the healing process and lift us up. You may not think of laughter as a way to transform grief because loss is sad. We cry. We hold on tight and lock the feelings into our body. Laughter can help you release feelings that are locked in tight. It’s okay to laugh and grieve, at the same time.
Two days after our 19-month-old son died, my husband and I were lying in bed watching Saturday Night Live. We were numb from the pain of losing our son after 19 months of two open-heart surgeries, therapies and in the end a neuro-blastoma cancer, behind his kidney, that took his life. Even though we were both physically and emotionally exhausted, neither of us could sleep so we turned on the television and Saturday Night Live was on.
I remember lying in bed watching the show when all of a sudden I started to laugh. I was laughing so hard I had to get out of bed and stand…
