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This weeks’ list included a tip about managing
stress by laughing at it. They cited the journal of Anxiety Stress and Coping as a basis for this tip.
I know the benefits of
laughter as a stress reliever, but this seemed a little overly simplistic to
me. You can’t solve all problems be laughing at them, I thought. Plus
that’s one way to really get in trouble with management at work. Laughing at
the boss is generally NOT a good idea.
But I was curious about
this, so I tried it. Trying it on a Monday was the perfect test.
Darn it if it didn’t work! Not exactly as I
expected, It certainly didn’t solve
anything, it just helped my attitude. I didn’t have to meet each stressor with
a huge guffaw, just an inner chuckle was enough to change my outlook.
When the man came in with his large list of orders that he sped through, without taking a breath, all the while holding his money out, seeming annoyed when I wasn't following as fast as he was ordering, I just smiled.
When the really high-maintenance lady came in who likes
the whipped cream for her third-caf mocha on the side, in a separate cup, like
she always does, I chuckled to myself.
I laughed and calmly switched the trash bag which
one lady dumped her entire Venti coffee in it after putting the wrong
creamer in it. Because what else would you do with it? [My boyfriend insists
that this isn’t all that clear].
When the lady who doesn’t acknowledge me, because
apparently I am invisible to her; I laughed to myself, very pleased with my newfound
shape-shifting abilities.
Ordinarily the combined angst of these individual annoyances
would have put me in a none-too-pleasant mood. These things would have
momentarily bugged me, and I would have given them more space in my brain than
they deserved; ruminating over them and getting annoyed over and over again.
But today I was laughing at them and forgetting about them.
c.2011
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