My friend Jennifer used to laugh at everything. Everything. Even if I was recounting something that really annoyed me. She would laugh. Sometimes I would think, Does she think it’s stupid what I’m saying? Is it really not important? And then one day I decided, I’m going to try that: I’m going to laugh instead of get annoyed. When the guy cuts me off on Mopac I’m going to laugh at him for being so ridiculous instead of being affected by his anger. When the end of a stressful day is accentuated by a new mess from the three dogs, or maybe a temper tantrum from the child….laugh at how crazy life can be instead of fill with anger.
It was a pretty amazing feeling. And that laughter creates its own momentum of happiness and release in your body, instead of the stored anger that can stew and fester. When I hear myself laugh, when I feel that smile on my face and experience the feeling it brings inside, the annoyance leaves and the anger melts and it feels GOOD to laugh. It’s intoxicating. I actually do it a lot. And it always makes me feels better. Apparently Botox is like laughter too.
Wait, what?
I heard a few weeks ago that Botox can make you happy. My first thought was, Well, I guess if having less wrinkles makes you happy, sure, that makes sense. Or maybe you’re just happy that you have enough money to pay for the Botox. That’s good too. So, I decided to do some reading and see what this is all about.
Sure enough, there’s a lot of information out there on Botox and its effect on depression. Here’s the general idea behind the link between Botox and mood improvement: