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Humor is necessary to avoid getting depressed

Welcome to my article.

I want to tell you that: No matter how great the misfortune you are going through, I have always said that you should not worry so much, because what you cry about today, you will be laughing about tomorrow.

I have said this many times. All my life. And one day I confirmed it when I read what the Bible says in Luke 6:21, “Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.”

There is no person on earth who has not experienced pain. When we are resilient, the wound eventually closes and we start over, with something we call Ciatrix: you can see that there was pain but it no longer hurts when you touch it.

We turn the page and begin to write another story in our life.
I clarify that when our wounds do not heal, life repeats the pain.

It is said that one of the essential characteristics of humor is to put all frustrations into perspective, including the strongest one, which is death; humor does this to prevent them from turning into bitterness, depression or addictions.

Humor offers precisely the opportunity to relativize, to de-dramatize potential misfortunes.

Humor takes misfortune as the starting point of a fictional scenario that ends with a jubilant conclusion.
Unfortunately, many people and organizations still do not understand humor as a topic that should be studied and applied to the misfortunes that people experience.

The most notable example was what happened with Roberto Benigni's film Life is Beautiful. It is a very harsh and comical film that tells the story and adventures of a father and his young son in a concentration camp during the Second World War.

The film was warmly received and appreciated by the old prisoners of war, but on the other hand, it was harshly criticised by humanitarian organisations for having turned the tragic and the terrible into a parody. A scandal was created.

Scott Weems, author of the book The Science of When and Why We Laugh, is a cognitive neuroscientist, and in his reflections he states that humor is like exercise for the brain, and just as physical exercise strengthens the body, seeing things from a funny perspective is the healthiest way to maintain our cognitive acuity.

Weems states that humor positively affects health, helps you get along with strangers, and also makes you smarter. More open and more understanding, I might add.

It is important to bring humor where it is needed. Many years ago, you surely remember, there was a project in several hospitals, pioneered by Patch Adams.

It was necessary to replace the silence of hospitals with some humour and laughter. I am talking about the 60s and 70s. The main idea was to bring humour and laughter to hospital patients to make their stay more bearable, as well as to prove that laughter and good humour have a very great power over health.

This technique is known as laughter therapy, and although it has been accepted in some cities, there is still resistance to its use.

Hospital patients become stressed and depressed during their hospital stay.

There is a lot of silence, and also complaints from other patients. Reflections and questions.
Through humor there is a radical change in these people. There are many dramas, traumas, difficulties in life, but I think that humor is fundamental to having another healthy perspective on life.

It is proven, therefore, that laughter is a very important ingredient in the development and stability of physical, mental and encyclical health.

In short, humor is something that should not be missing from our daily diet to be happy and have peace. And remember: if you want a helping hand, you will always find it at the end of your arm…

I am a lucky man because every year I am invited by Clown Timmy Bond, who is certified by Bellas Artes in Mexico, to his laughter camp, with Marabalist clowns, actors, magicians, and other people from the arts for a week of work in Cuernavaca. I feel very blessed by this experience where I am a teacher but I learn like a child and I laugh like a clown.

Thank you for reading me.
– DrRoch