Thankfulness Project Monday

"Gratefulness is the key to a happy life that we hold in our hands, because if we are not grateful, then no matter how much we have we will not be happy- because we will always want to have something else or something more." - Brother David Steindl-Rast

An interesting quote to get you all thinking this morning. So here are some of the things I'm feeling grateful for on this Monday morning.

• The Oscars! I've been a fan of Oscar Sunday for many many years. I love the anticipation when I wake up that morning, as I begin to prep food for the little get together I host every year, when people are walking the red carpet, and during the actual show itself. It's a little thing to look forward to, but adds a bit of excitement and joy to my life. It's the little things, right?
• My work schedule: I'm a fan of my work schedule right now. Not only do I have a full load of clients, but I have some free time to work on other things, such as researching and writing. I've found a great balance at work, and I like it!
• Chips and salsa. Delicious. Absolutely delicious. I love sweet things in life, but I REALLY love salty things, and this does the trick. I eat a little bit of chips and salsa at least half of the days of the week. 
• Pictures from vacations: Sometimes when it's cold, gray, or I'm having a bad day, it really lifts my spirits to go through some pictures from some of my favorite vacations, and remember the good memories from that time. 
• Old episodes of The Office. I have most of the seasons on DVDs, and sometimes I really enjoy whipping them out and watching a few episodes. I always laugh, and they bring a smile to my face. Plus, I enjoy watching awkwardness happen, and Michael certainly is awkward!

Now it's your turn:

What are you thankful for today? Is there a TV show you like to watch when you need a good laugh? Did you watch The Oscars? What were your thoughts?

Wellness Wednesday: {A Review Of Life Task 2}

Welcome back to Wellness Wednesday, a fun mid-week look at the areas of wellness in our lives. To remind you, in talking about wellness I'm discussing the positive factors in life that help protect us from the events of life. Wellness is therefore not about the absence of the negative, but the presence of the positive. I just finished talking about the 2nd (out of 5) life tasks, and I thought this would be a good time for us to review these components.

Source

Life Task 2 is made up of 12 subtasks:

• {Life Task 2: Self Direction}
•  {Sense of Worth}
• {Sense of Control}
• {Realistic Beliefs}
• {Emotional Awareness & Coping}
• {Problem Solving & Creativity}
• {Sense of Humor}
• {Nutrition Part 1}
• {Nutrition Part 2}
• {Exercise Part 1}
• {Exercise Part 2}
• {Exercise Part 3}
• {Self Care Part 1}
• {Self Care Part 2}
• {Stress Management Part 1- healthy coping}
• {Stress Management Part 2- Eustress}
• {Stress Management Part 3}
• {Gender Identity}
• {Cultural Identity}

A few questions to get you thinking:

1. What is your greatest area of strength? 
2. How does this strength further your overall wellness?
3. What are your greatest areas of improvement?
4. What is one step in each of these areas that you can take to help improve those areas? 
5. How does your overall wellness in nutrition affect your stress management?
6. What's one new healthy coping skill that you could implement?

It's interesting to think about how the health in one area of our life affects our health in another (either positively or negatively). It's important to regularly evaluate how each of the areas of our wellness is currently impacting us. 

Now it's your turn!

What are your thoughts on wellness in your life? What areas are easier to be healthy in, and what areas are a little more difficult? 

Thankfulness Project Monday

If you want to turn your life around, try thankfulness.  It will change your life mightily.  ~Gerald Good

Happy Halloween. This pumpkin above is about as much as I'm doing for Halloween this year. A little sad? Maybe. I'm just not into the halloween holiday itself. Fall, well...that's another story. On this Halloween day, here are a few of the things for which I am thankful:

• Pumpkins: I love my little light up pumpkin (pictured above), and love turning all the lights off at night and watching TV with just that light on in the room! From the little pumpkins and gourds I have in my house and on my desk at work, to the pumpkins I pass while driving around town, I think they add a lot of fun and "cheer" to some very early mornings in my life. It's the little things in life that we sometimes forget to be thankful for. 
• Fall Foods: I've been eating some DELICIOUS fall foods, some of which I've talked about on this blog. Click here for my latest fall recipe that I've made! Seriously- check it out. It's DELICIOUS! 
• Family Fun: I've spent this past week with variations of different family members. While it was unexpected, I sure enjoyed the time that I spent with them! 2 of them I haven't spent any significant time with in the last few years, so it was fun to catch up!
• Crunchy Leaves: Being outside in the fall is one of my favorite things! I know I talk about how healthy and important being outside in nature is, but I really do believe it! In the fall, I love walking on the edges of the road and hearing the sounds of the crunching leaves beneath my feet. I've loved it since I was a little kid, and I try to do it at least a few times every season! 
• Laughter: I did a post about a month ago on why having a sense of humor is critical to our health. You can read it here. This week was full of laughter, and it was fantastic. Of course there were a few tears and some stress too, but the bad doesn't have to discount what was good. Laughter is healthy, and I got to experience it this week...quite a bit:) 

Now it's your turn!

Are you dressing up for Halloween. If yes- what is it? If No- will you give out candy instead?

What are you thankful for this week? 

The Most Extravagant Dinner I've Ever Eaten

This post is pretty uncharacteristic for this blog, but I wanted to share it as it shows pieces of various components of the wheel of wellness, and gives an example of one evening in my life. This past weekend I went to an anniversary dinner for some family members. It was a wonderful time to celebrate the love and commitment these two individuals share for one another. This was BY FAR the most elaborate and expensive party I have ever attended in my life, and I still can't believe I experienced that evening. 

Let me paint a picture for you. I was given 4 forks with my place setting, and was given 3 more throughout the meal. There were two "cocktail hours", and 9 courses throughout the meal. A 9 COURSE MEAL! I was stuffed by the 3rd course, so I'm not quite sure how I managed to sit through 6 more courses. This food was absolutely delicious, and part way through I thought I should start taking pictures to share with you. Here are a few of them:

Twice baked potato, steak, lobster tail, and asparagus.

Dessert plate including cookies, chocolate covered strawberries, and cannoli!

A fruit tray with cactus fruit and fresh figs!

The night ended with drinking and dancing, which was a lot of fun. Because of some of the choices I've made, and because of my career, I've chosen to not share much about my life. I thought this would be a good little slice of my life to show that I do have family that I have fun with, I do like to have fun, and I enjoy good food:) 

Now it's your turn!

What's the most crazy or elaborate dinner you've ever been to? 

When I've Had A Bad Day...

"When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on"

-FDR

I'll be honest. I had a completely different post planned out for today, but when I got home from work last night, I was in a grumpy mood, and was in no mindset to type the post I had planned. So, this is what you get today. Let's be realistic though. We all have bad days once in awhile. We all have days that, when we come home, lead us to wanting to crawl into bed with some chocolate or ice cream, a movie, and a cozy blanket. That's life in an imperfect world. Sometimes it's easy for me to dwell on how bad a day I had, and because I'm indulging that feeling, it carries on into the next day. That's not fair to myself (or others around me!) and certainly doesn't lead to a healthy mood. 

I thought I'd give you a few of the things I do when I'm in a grumpy mood to help pull myself up:

• Talk about it with others, but don't ruminate on it: It's healthy to talk to others about your feelings, and it helps to not stuff the feeling. However, ruminating on how bad of a day you are having will only serve to make you feel worse about it.
• Exercise: If nothing else, it's a way to beat out (or sweat out) the negative feelings you have. Plus it's good for your health:)
• Eat a balanced dinner: When I have a bad day, all I want is something unhealthy. Because food affects our mental health, I'm careful of what I eat. But I also give myself some freedom to have something I will enjoy (and indulge a little in something sweet)! It's tempting to turn to food to cope, and this isn't healthy. 
• Engage in self care behaviors:  Do something that you enjoy! Read a book, take a bath, go on a walk with a friend or significant other, paint your nails, or work out in the garage. 
• Laugh : Do what makes you laugh. If that's a specific website, check it out! If it's a TV show, watch an episode! 
• Prayer: This refocuses my mind on what's important in life.
• Engage in The Thankfulness Project: I make a list of things I'm thankful for in life. This helps fill my heart with gratitude instead of ruminating on the bad aspects of the day.

Obviously these are only a few of the many things that you can do to help lift your mood. No matter what, remember that this won't last forever. The day will end and tomorrow you will wake up and have a shot at a new day. Choose to make the next day better.

And with that, I'm off to watch a little TV and label pictures from a recent trip! 

Now it's your turn:

What do you do to lift your mood when you've had a bad day?

Wellness Wednesday: {Sense of Humor}

The most wasted of all days is one without laughter.  ~e.e. cummings

Perhaps I know best why it is man alone who laughs; he alone suffers so deeply that he had to invent laughter.  ~Friedrich Nietzsche

It's Wellness Wednesday time again! This is one of my favorite components of wellness, and one of the most fun to actually implement in life! If you've missed the other posts in this series, click here for the entire list, along with some basic information on wellness.

Source

Today I am continuing around the wheel in Life Task 2 to Sense of Humor!

Myers & Sweeney define this component of wellness the following way:

Ability to laugh appropriately at oneself, ability to laugh appropriately at others, having the capacity to see contradictions and predicaments of life in an objective manner such that one can gain new perspectives, ability to use humor to cope with one’s own difficulties, enjoying inconsistencies and idiosyncrasies of life.

Myers & Sweeney (2005) also state the following: "especially when accompanied by laughter, humor causes the skeletal muscles to relax, boosts the immune system, increases heart rate, stimulates circulation, oxygenates the blood, massages the vital organs, aids digestion, and releases chemicals (endorphins) into the brain that enhance a sense of well-being" (p. 24). That alone sounds incredible healthy, doesn't it? Laughter is free, easy to do, and lifts the spirit incredibly quickly. Overall, we feel better about ourselves and our relationships when we engage in regular laughter. 

The important word in the definition above is APPROPRIATE. Humor that is meant to tear down or be hurtful to others is not healthy, as it brings out a nasty side not only of yourself, but hurts the other person. This humor, while funny, is best avoided. I also think it's interesting that appropriate laughter at oneself is indicative of health. I think about the times that I have tripped and looked foolish. I can either continue to harass myself and beat myself up about it, or I can choose to laugh about it, make a joke, and move forward in my life. Which do you think is the better option?

Here are a few questions to ask yourself?

1. How do you benefit the most from laughter in your life?
2. How can you increase a sense of humor in your life?
3. Do you have the ability to laugh appropriately at yourself?
4. Do you resort to humor to put others around you down or hurt them?
5. What do you do to add humor to your life currently?

While going through grad school (and throughout my years counseling), I've come to realize how important humor is to refilling myself at the end of the day. This has been a crucial component to my self care, and it's something I can do with even a short 5 minutes of time. 

Here are a few things that will either bring a smile to my face or laughter to my life:

 a few things that are guaranteed to make me laugh in life:

1. FailBlog
2. Autocorrect!
3. Awkward Family Photos
4. LOL Cats
   
5. Favorite Comic Strips
6. TV Shows: Friends, The Office, 30 Rock
7. Conversations with my family or friends

What I'd like to know:
How do you add humor to your life? What's your favorite website to visit? 

Thankfulness Project Monday

"If you want to turn your life around, try thankfulness.  It will change your life mightily."

 ~Gerald Good

Snail Orgy?

Here are a few of the things I'm thankful for this week:

• Random funny moments that bring laughter: Seriously, look at that picture above! What you don't see is that there were actually about 50 snails in this little tiny area crawling all over each other. Funny. 
• Dress Up Events: I have about 5 different events over about 9 days that require me to dress up in fancy dresses. Although this might get tiring if I had to do it all the time, this is not my ordinary life, so it's a lot of fun!
• Mango: I wish mango was easier to cut because oh my, this fruit is delicious! I had the chance to eat it this summer straight from the tree, and it was honestly more delicious then any candy I've ever had (and I'm a huge candy fan!). YUM.
• New Books: I recently got a few new books in the mail, and I'm so excited to start reading them and applying them to my counseling practice! Plus, I think there's a smell that comes with new books that is just fantastic. 
• Good Conversations: Lots of good and fun conversations this week....

Now it's your turn!

What are you thankful for right now?

Thankfulness Project Monday

Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.  

~William Arthur Ward

What a great quote, don't you think? This is partly what this Thankfulness Project is about- expressing gratitude for the things I've been blessed by in my life. Of course the other part is that there have been proven benefits to this practice both physically, mentally, and spiritually. 

Here are a few of the things I'm thankful for right now:

• The Outdoors: Seriously- check out the picture on the link...isn't it BEAUTIFUL? I don't think I can tire of the beautiful aspects of nature. And, once you start looking for it, there are a lot more beautiful things then you originally realize. Why not spend time looking for something beautiful in nature that you hadn't noticed before?
• Fun TV Shows: I have the TV on a lot as I cook dinner, do dishes, complete tasks for work, or blog, and because of that, I'm always looking for TV shows to have on in the background. I love looking at these characters (either scripted shows or "reality") through the view of psychology and counseling! Plus, a little laughter in life is always healthy!
• Lightning Bugs: I think these little guys are so beautiful, and I'm so happy they are now out for the summer! Don't you think they make a summer evening even more beautiful and peaceful?
• Blogs: I'm thankful for the hours of time you each put into your blogs. Thank you for sharing your own pieces of advice and wisdom, and welcoming us into a piece of your life. I find myself motivated towards a healthier life just by reading each of your blogs! The blogging community is wonderful, don't you agree?
• Spinning: You can read my recap of my first spin class by clicking on the word "spinning". While I haven't been on a bike in a decade, i've recently started going to a spinning (cycling? does the term matter?) class on a regular basis. It's fantastic, and a great start to my morning!

Now it's your turn:

What are you thankful for today?

Is there a difference between a "spinning" class or a "cycling" class?

I Am Waiting For you, For An Interval.

I know I've taken a little break from my series on grief, loss, & suffering, but I've decided to add a few more things to this in the next few days. If you've missed my other posts on this topic, you can click here and go to the "loss" category. Each of my posts will be listed there by title. 

I was given this a number of years ago during a particularly difficult loss in my life, and it brought about such a beautiful image, so I thought i'd share it:

"Death is nothing at all. I have only slipped away into the next room. I am I, and you are you. Whatever we were to each other, that we still are. Call me by my old familiar name; speak to me in the easy way which you always used. But no difference in your tone, wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow. Laugh as we always laughed at the little jokes we enjoyed together. Play, smile, think of me, pray for me. Let my name be ever the household word that it always was. Let it be spoken without effort, without the trace of a shadow on it. Life means all that it ever meant. It is the same as it ever was; there is unbroken continuity. Why should I be out of mind because I am out of sight? I am waiting for you, for an interval, somewhere very near. Just around the corner. All is well."

-Henry Scott Holland Canon of St. Paul's Cathedral in London, England

When there is a death, I think it's such a shame when people refuse to ever talk about the person. I understand that sometimes talking can be painful, and trying to forget seems like the least painful route. However, the memories are still there, even if we try to avoid them. I think it's beautiful when people can sit and laugh about funny memories of the person, and carry them forward in life. People can continue to live on through our memories, and when we don't recognize the person and their life anymore, some of that goes away. Everyone deals with death differently, and I don't ever want to say there's just "one right way" to deal with it. There's not. But despite the pain, I've chosen to embrace the memories and share the stories. I found that this brings more joy then pain to my life, and throughout any given day, a little smile may come to my face at the memory of something. For me, this has been a much healthier approach to death.

What do you think of this quote? Is it hard to continue to talk about the person, or do you enjoy embracing the memories? 

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all you mother's out there! I hope you have a great day, and are spoiled by those around you:) Extra thoughts & prayers to all you mother's who have lost a child, and those of you who have lost your moms. Days like this can be hard and triggering (you can read some of my posts on loss here).

Because I have chosen to hold on to some anonymity on this blog (you can read my reason for this here), I can't post a picture of my mom and me, or share really personal stories. I would love to do this, though! But, because I like to have some personal touches on here, I thought I'd share a few things about my mom.
I've been lucky enough to be close to my mom my whole life. While we had a tense year back in college for a few reasons, we got that smoothed out, and it's been good ever sense. Is she perfect? No. Am I perfect in our relationship? Umm...NO. But we at least maintain communication and feel safe enough to bring things up as we need to. We won't always see eye to eye, and that's ok. I'm blessed to have the mom that I do. In a year of a lot of change in my life, she has been a steady force, and someone who always has a listening ear. While I can be emotional at times, she's good at listening and helping me to rationally think things out. We share a love of so many things in life, and it's fun to just sit and laugh for hours. I appreciate her very much. I appreciate the late nights she's spent with me throughout my life, whether that's because I was sick, crying over the death of a friend, or stressed about school. I appreciate the time she took to teach me to drive, read, write, be confident in myself, laugh, and be a healthy individual. And I appreciate that she realizes that neither of us are perfect, and that's ok.

My mom sent me a card in the mail this weekend, thanking me for being such a great daughter. I may have teared up just a little bit. She's always been there with encouragement, starting with the little notes i'd get in my lunch box as a child:)

Happy Mother's Day not only to my own mom, but to all you mom's out there!

Did you do anything fun this weekend? 

Choosing To Love After Loss

“The problem of choosing to love again is that the choice to love means living under the constant threat of further loss. But the problem of choosing not to love is that that the choice to turn from love means imperiling the life of the soul, for the soul thrives in an environment of love. Soul-full people love; soul-less people do not. If people want their souls to grow through loss, whatever the loss is, they must eventually decide to love even more deeply than they did before. They must respond to the loss by embracing love with renewed energy and commitment” (p. 183). 

-A Grace Disguised (Jerry Sittser)

If you've lost someone before, you may understand the fear of choosing to love (remember this point?) . After experiencing my first "really painful" death (I knew others before, but never a good friend), I seriously questioned whether or not it was ever worth it to love if it meant experiencing the screaming pain that I felt. To be honest, for a few weeks I had myself convinced that I not only needed to not love new people in life, but I also needed to pull away from my current friends. My rationale: If I don't love, I can't hurt, and I won't ever be in this position again. It took about 5 weeks of really rationalizing with myself about why I HAD to love and connect to be healthy. Since that decision, I made friends who I have since lost. And every time I experience that pain again, the thought floats through my head that loving is not worth it. 

I have learned to quiet that voice. If I hadn't loved, I wouldn't have the joy, laughter, and memories that I do. These are PRICELESS and of great worth to me, even if I have to pay the price with tears and pain. Loving after loss is scary...very, very scary. It's hard to make a choice to open yourself to pain and hurt. But in choosing the pain, we choose life, joy, happiness, and laughter. You can't have one without the other... It's part of the experience of humanity. 

Have you ever been tempted to stop loving after loss? How did you convince yourself that loving is worth it?

Also- Happy Cinco De Mayo! Any fun plans tonight? 

When It Comes to Loss, Remember... {Part 2}

"No one ever told me that grief felt so like fear."
- C.S. Lewis, A Grief Observed

In yesterday's post, I listed a few important things to remember when going through a loss of any kind. Here are a few more:

•       Sometimes it can be very difficult or scary to let others close to you after you’ve lost someone. That’s a normal thing to feel! However, social support is incredibly important when going through the grieving process. (It sometimes seems that it's not worth the pain to love or to hope...IT IS, even when it doesn't feel that way!)
•      Grief isn’t a purely emotional experience. Grief will affect you emotionally, mentally, physically, and spiritually-it will affect the entire person, not just the emotions of the person.
•       Sometimes people feel guilty or like they are discounting the grief or the love they had for the person if they laugh or have any moments of happiness. Again, this is normal for many people going through the grieving process. However, laughter doesn’t take away the love that you have for the person, or mean that you aren’t in pain. You can grieve and laugh all in the same day-that is OK and even healthy!

         Have you ever felt like any of these things when going through a loss? How do you think grief & fear are similar? 

Dealing With Grief {Part 3}

As the title suggests, this is the 3rd post in my discussion of healthy ways to deal with grief (let's be honest- if I'd included 12-15 things in one post, who would've actually stuck around to read the entire thing?). You can click here and here to read the other posts.
Here are a few more healthy ways you can choose to deal with grief in your life:

•         LAUGH. Find something (a funny website, TV show, favorite comedy, etc…) that will help you laugh a little bit.
•         Create a memory scrapbook: Sometimes when we lose something or someone important, we retell the stories and memories over and over and over again so we don’t forget them. Instead of having to do that, it can be helpful to create a book of memories and pictures and funny stories. Then you don’t have to retell the stories over and over because you always have a place to go back to. This can be freeing.
•         Journal! This can be helpful in identifying and processing, and even expressing, the various emotions and experiences that you are going through. Sometimes, writing can be difficult, so typing something like an online blog (you can block to private so no one else can read!) can seem a little less overwhelming to do.
•          Figure out a special way to remember your loved one: Pick up an interest they loved, get involved in an organization that they valued, or create an organization/walk/group they would’ve loved (i.e. your spouse dies of cancer so you hold a cancer walk once or twice a year). 

After looking at the 12 ways I've posted here to help deal with loss, do you think any of these might be beneficial in your life? How was your weekend?

10 Ideas to Refill Yourself {I can't give what I don't have pt 2}

In yesterday's post I introduced the idea that "I can't give what I don't have." Unless I'm healthy and taking care of myself, I will very quickly not have much to give to my clients. So this begs the question, "how do I take care of and refill myself"?
Of course I'd love to say that I can afford to get my nails done every week, and go to the spa each weekend (I think I'd definitely feel relaxed if I could do that!). However, I can't afford that, but that doesn't mean that I can't still take care of myself.

Here are a few of my tips and ideas for refilling myself:


1. Limit my number of one way/helping relationships: I give all day at work to my clients, and obviously it isn't appropriate for them to refill me. Because I'm giving all day, I need to have two way relationships with others after work, where there is a mutual give and take. It's fine to give of yourself, but you need to be able to receive as well.
2. Unplug! It's tempting to be constantly checking emails, texts, twitter/facebook updates, etc...but it's not a mental break. One of my rules is that I don't check my work email when I'm at home at night. And I'll check it at most one time over the weekend. Nothing is an absolute emergency that can't wait until the next morning.
3. MOVE. Whether you turn on music and dance in your living room, go on a walk with a friend, go on a run, or some other form of physical activity, it is important for your mental & physical health! This will help to decrease some of the stress and tension that easily builds up!
4. Enjoy Nature. Find the beauty in nature, capture it in a photography, or mix nature and moving together.
5. Keep a Thankfulness Journal. Remember my post on the Thankfulness Project? This can help to increase mood and to refocus on the positive.
6. Incorporate Deep Breathing. Establish a regular practice of deep breathing in your life. This helps slow down heart rate, decrease stress hormones, and increase focus and concentration. Whether you are sitting in a meeting, cooking dinner, or having a conversation with a friend, you can engage in this process!
7. Take a Bath
8. Read a Book For Fun
9. LAUGH. Remember that Sense of Humor is one of the 17 components of wellness. Spend a few minutes laughing every day.
10. Learn to say no! There will always be more good things to be involved in then there is time. Learn to say no so you don't overcommit yourself or stretch yourself too thin. Engage in a few things wholeheartedly instead of giving half-heartedly to many things.


Those are a few of the things that I have found to be helpful in giving to myself so that I can keep giving to others. Let me say this: It can be incredibly hard to do this, so in no way am I suggesting this is always simple to do. However, to be healthy you MUST take care of yourself!

What activities do you do to refill yourself? 

Laughter IS the best medicine...

The most wasted of all days is one without laughter.  ~e.e. cummings

Laughter is an instant vacation.  ~Milton Berle

Perhaps I know best why it is man alone who laughs; he alone suffers so deeply that he had to invent laughter.  ~Friedrich Nietzsche

I grew up laughing. I probably remember laughing more then I actually did as a young child, but in my memory I remember spending a lot of time laughing and joking about things. As I grew up with my brothers, and went to college, my laughter became more and more of a staple in life, and I intentionally tried to incorporate it into daily living. I must confess, sometimes my laughter is not all that appropriate, and i don't always have control of when it comes out (I often use it as a defense mechanism of sorts). However, I'm so very glad that we, as humans, can have a sense of humor.

So, as you might imagine, when I found out that "sense of humor" was one of the 17 components of wellness in Myers, Sweeney, & Witmer's Wheel of Wellness Model, I was quite pleased. They describe a sense of humor as: "Ability to laugh appropriately at oneself, ability to laugh appropriately at others, having the capacity to see contradictions and predicaments of life in an objective manner such that one can gain new perspectives, ability to use humor to cope with one’s own difficulties, enjoying inconsistencies and idiosyncrasies of life" (from Counseling for Wellness). 

I think sometimes we can take our situations in life too seriously, and we feel that it is inappropriate to joke about it. Of course things need to be done in an appropriate matter, but we should be laughing more then we do in life. Notice that they say laughing APPROPRIATELY at others (not inappropriately making fun of them!!). 

When I was in grad school, I got stressed very easily, especially during my first semester counseling. In order to help with this, I decided to create a "Laughter" folder on my computer to bookmark websites that I knew would make me laugh. At the end of a day, I could spend 10 minutes looking at sites that I knew would make me laugh, and this decreased my stress tremendously. Below I've included a few things that are guaranteed to make me laugh in life:

1. http://failblog.org/

2. http://mylifeisaverage.com/

3. http://www.peopleofwalmart.com/

4. http://awkwardfamilyphotos.com/

5. http://icanhascheezburger.com/

6. Any of your favorite comic strips

7. TV Shows: Friends, The Office, 30 Rock

8. Conversations with my brothers or friends

So, i try to bring as much laughter into my day as I possibly can, because I believe that laughter is good for the soul, and can greatly improve our mental health. 

What do you do to increase your sense of humor? Tweet me or leave a comment if you have any other great sites to check out:) Happy laughing!