There are so many aspects of life we take seriously.

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Pain, death and suffering are very somber experiences.

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Usually we feel there is no way to make things feel better.

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Yet we actually do have a choice.

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How we approach these situations can make all the difference in the world.

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Sometimes, when we are engaged with healing work, our traumas and our pain comet to the surface.

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So we think our healing process has to be something difficult and sober.

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We think there is no other way to approach it.

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Yet if we bring a sense of humor, fun and play to it, we can make the healing process so much easier for ourselves.

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Yes, it can be challenging to see a painful experience through the lens of levity.

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And when we are able to joke about it, laugh at it, tease ourselves about it, we take the power away from it being able to hurt us again.

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We cannot change what happened in the past.

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And we can say it is true what we felt at the time.

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To continue to feel that pain in a painful way is a choice.

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We can make a different choice.

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And we can choose to see it as something comical or slapstick.

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To laugh at our own pain is sometimes the best medicine.

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Like seeing a comedian slip on a banana peel.

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It helps the pain and trauma to lighten it's grip on our present.

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And allows us to experience healing and having fun at the same time.

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There is no rule or universal law that says we have to continue to suffer and be serious about our pain.

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We can make up stories about what happened to inject humor into the situation.

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Or change our existing stories to make them funnier.

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For ultimately it is not about what we experienced in the past.

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It is about what we want to experience right here and right now.

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Do we want to keep crying or do we want to start laughing?

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This is a question we can always ask ourselves when we find we are wallowing in our misery.

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To remind us that we have a fundamental choice.

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We can continue to allow the pain from our past to have a hold over us.

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Or we decide that we have suffered enough and it is time to start enjoying life more.

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For if we can learn to laugh at our pain and suffering, then we can truly live a joyful and exuberant life.

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Maybe not all at once.

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Yet if we can do it even a little, we have made a great breakthrough.

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So where can you learn to laugh at the pain in your past?

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Is there even one small pain or trauma that you can practice honestly laughing at it?

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~ Sam Liebowitz, The Conscious Consultant

Host of The Conscious Consultant Hour