‘How I (re)learned to laugh’ – Article

“I can’t remember the last time I had a really good laugh. You know, the kind of unbridled, cry-laughing where your knees buckle and you clutch at your friends with a stitch in your middle. My youth was full of unbalanced cackling on nights out, mid-exam sniggers and attacks of hysterical, bladder-melting giggles. But now that I’m a ‘proper’ grown-up, I don’t have the time – or inclination – to laugh. Life is all deadlines, laundry and toddler-wrangling. As a result, I’m a walking ball of stress. I’m always anxious and tired, with a low-level headache.”

“I promise Lotte that I’ll practise laughing at nothing on a daily basis, but the next day dawns grey and busy, with a teething toddler and only three hours’ sleep. Yet when I manage to grab 10 minutes of laugh-time in the shower, it comes easily. With hot water spraying on my head and my armpits full of shower gel, I just throw back my head and start laughing. At nothing. Within minutes, I’m giggling helplessly at my shampoo bottle. My husband smiles at me quizzically when I emerge. ‘What was so funny?’ he asks, laughing a little himself, as though in anticipation of the joke I’m about to tell. ‘Nothing!’ I trill, and we share a confused but warm giggle that leaves us both smiling as we pass each other on the stairs.”