Currently, I am working my way through Five Good Minutes: 100 Morning Practices To Help You Stay Calm & Focused All Day Long (Amazon Affiliate Link – That means if you click the link and purchase the book, Amakua Market gets a commission AND as always 10% of our profits are donated to social causes and charities). This book offers 100 morning meditations that are geared to help you stay calm and focused all day. Let me know in the comments section what you think about this series.

Trying to proclaim your sanity is a lot like trying to proclaim your sobriety. The more you say things are fine, the more people raise their eyebrows and try to take your keys…..

That’s kind of where I am right now. We had a full blown weepy, sobby, snotty meltdown at the doctor this morning. Something about all the medicine and how bad it tastes and the other medicine with the side effects that’s not actually doing shit to stop the seizures and…. Don’t you worry Bradyn is fine he was busy watching the ipad.

That’s why these meditation exercises have become such a big part of my life lately. I’m just trying to hold it together most days and every little bit helps.

So, practice number 7…

This practice is all about that old narrative… You know the one about laughter being the best medicine. The book tells us to do it alone, to lay on our back and think about a time when you did something ridiculous (I’ve got SOOOO many of those). It also tells us to think about a time when we laughed really hard, think about who was there and what happened to cause the laughter. The next step is to actually laugh. To lighten up and laugh alone, with friends, whenever, just laugh.

Bradyn needs this as much as I do so I modified the exercise a bit. I set my alarm 20 minutes earlier in the morning and instead of rushing around, jolting B out of bed and making him hurry through his routine. I started waking him up with kisses and tickles. Once he is awake, I lie next to him and talk about funny stuff. For some reason he thinks the word “picky” is HILARIOUS so its pretty easy. I just tell him how picky he is and he falls apart laughing and tells me “NO, YOU picky” and then falls apart laughing again. Before long the sound of his belly laughs makes me genuinely laugh and before I know it we are running late and I still have to jolt him out of bed and rush him through his morning routine…. But it’s so worth it.

I have also been making more time for me and the people who feed my soul. I spent a long time in a bad routine of just getting through the days. I would do my work stuff and I would do my family stuff and I would do my school stuff but never took anytime to talk to the people I love. I’m still busy but I have been making a real effort to steal a few minutes to re-energize with the people who know me and appreciate me for who I am.

I spoke to a girlfriend the other night that I haven’t seen in years. We worked together in Dallas years ago but I moved and she moved and I got married and she fell in love and I had a baby, she’s busy raising her babies… You know how it goes. Let me make this clear, we have no “new” stories, haven’t spent time in person in at least… 4 1/2 years… But we make each other laugh… The my side hurts, I’m coughing, I’m laughing, I’m gagging, STOP saying that and I’m gonna have to delete this text message kind of laughing… I LOVE talking to her. SO WHAT if we are just repeating the same old one liners from 10 years ago, SO WHAT if our jokes sound dumb to the people around us. When I spend time talking to her I feel all shinny and new.

I’ve also reconnected with an old friend from high school. We were besties back in the day and then one day we weren’t…. You know how that goes. We recently found each other on facebook and the friendship just naturally picked up where it was in 1991. This is one of those amazing friendships that just feels like there was a hole in my life that I didn’t even know was there. But now that it’s filled I don’t know how I survived so long without it. I needed it. When we talk I feel strong and competent as if things are actually going to be okay. One minute I’m venting about life stress and the next I’m laughing until I can’t breathe. We talk and we text and we laugh and we lean on each other and it makes coping oh so much easier.

So if you haven’t figured it out by now, I’m giving this weeks practice a big thumbs up. Figure out what or who it takes to make you laugh and spend more time doing it/doing them. Wait…. You know what I mean.

Ferg_e

Image Credit: prozac1

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