12.27.09
Blue Christmas
It’s not just a song by Elvis. It’s a phenomenon that various churches and support groups recognize is typical. Not everyone is ecstatic during the holidays. We know we’re supposed to be. But sometimes we don’t or can’t live up to what’s expected of us during this season.
Keeping a humorous outlook may seem impossible. But it’s the thing that will help us the most.
Consider this:
Humor relies on the truth. Forcing ourselves to keep our usual traditions may backfire. Pretending we’re happy doesn’t work. We need to acknowledge that we’re not in a celebratory mood.
Humor leads us through all our emotions, not just the pleasant ones. Lots of humor is based on pain. We need to remember that we have a gamut of emotions–even during a happy holiday season.
Humor draws out our positive energy, eventually. Research shows that merely anticipating a happy or funny event gives us the benefits of humor. Physical benefits like feel-good hormones, lowered blood pressure, and lower resting heart rate.
We can’t always be in control of what happens to us. But we can keep our HumoRadar alert and ready to note the humor that will–I promise–come back into our paths.
Copy and paste this link if you’d like to read more about Blue Christmas: http://onlineathens.com/stories/121809/liv_536762040.shtml
