LAUGHTER SOOTHES THE SOUL
Padma Gordon
This week in our Rare Mothers in Relationships Workshop we had a fun discussion about how humor supports us to feel connected in our relationships. You really can’t underestimate the power of laughing together. It's soooo good!
Here are some ways humor serves in a relationship:
Laughing together can ease tense moments.
Laughter allows me to take myself less seriously and opens my heart to joy.
Humor creates closeness when we have “in“ jokes. Sometimes all it takes is a glance that passes between us.
We feel more connected when we laugh at the same joke.
Laughing together lightens our hearts and helps us appreciate each other.
We talked about accepting our own silliness. For example, in a moment when we get caught looking for something that we’ve lost and start getting down on ourselves (we’ve all done it). When we laugh at ourselves and at our own humanity, we may see how ridiculous we all are and maybe we can take things less seriously.
Be Light-Hearted
As a Rare Mother, sometimes sharing light-hearted banter with your partner can bring a little bit of levity to the intensity of raising a Rare child. For example, you may look at your child and see signs of increased neurodegeneration and laugh about it later (even though it’s not really funny). Laughing together is a healthy coping mechanism.
One of the wonderful mothers in our workshop told a story about her toddler son getting up and leaving the house alone at 5 AM. She related how both she and her husband were chasing their son down the front path barefoot in their pajamas and how they just had to laugh at the situation. Sometimes you choose to laugh about things together rather than cry.
Laughing together can shift your perspective. Looking at your child and recognizing that their condition is worsening can be rather horrific, sad, awful and humorous at the same moment.
As a Rare Mother, it’s important to give yourself permission to laugh in the hard moments. It helps you soften and let go. Laughing together is a form of caring for each other.
Coming up this week: Best practices to support you and your partner during the holidays
The holidays are wonderful. We get to connect with family, relax, eat good food and be out of our routine. The latter can create massive stress so it’s useful to have some tools to support you as you venture afar.
New Series
This workshop has been so rich and nourishing that we have decided to continue. We will open the workshop to new members and many of our old members will be continuing. The first date for the new workshop is January 4, 2022. Please join us.
Receive Support
We would love to meet you and offer our support to you and your family. This is an opportunity to come together with other Rare Mothers in an intimate setting. There are Rare Mothers who are at the beginning of their journey and others who are at the end. We are a wise community of women who meet on Tuesday mornings at 10am PST.
Register to join the current workshop here.
Register to join the next series of this workshop running January 4 - March 29, 2022 here. The first 20 registrants recieve a free copy of Padma’s book, Being Together: Practical Wisdom for Loving Yourself and Your Partner
