Belly-laughing & Self-betterment
From year to year, my resolutions don’t seem to change much. In general, they’re a collective vow to take advantage of the time I’ve been given — however much of it remains.
This year my resolutions came early. One November morning I found myself making a list of things I would like to start doing, toward the goal of self-betterment. Because the better I conduct myself, the more positively I affect the world around me.
Among those things: at least one belly-laugh per day. While I do laugh a fair amount on any given day, it’s usually a chuckle, or a giggle, or a sort of breathless squeal. Those are all great. But the belly-laugh — where you can’t help but throw your head back and just give into it — has therapeutic, cathartic qualities. When I belly-laugh, I feel different afterwards. My head feels clearer, and my body lighter.
For belly-laughs, I turn to many R-rated materials! The milder of those materials include the writing of David Sedaris and the “What Up With That” skits on recent episodes of Saturday Night Live.
This is rated PG; the penguins kill me. And of course I have a couple funny friends who can make me belly-laugh simply by raising their eyebrows a certain way.
What, or who, makes you belly-laugh?
And, what are your new year’s resolutions?
Happy New Year, everybody!
~Alicia Bessette
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