It is vital to keep your spirits up, and to learn to laugh at yourself and all the situations you can get yourself into with this condition.  Laughing has been proven to produce pain alleviating chemicals, like endorphins, in the brain and boosting the immune system.  Also, a sense of humor is a basic ingredient in keeping a positive outlook in life, which is vital in keeping depression away.

   Many times, with lupus, while feeling really horrible, your attitude becomes pretty pessimistic and you tend to depression and complaining.  Whereas it is understandable and natural, it always leads to hopelessness, a dark abyss which is difficult to get out of.  

   One of the exits and also one way to keep this horrible feeling at bay is precisely having and keeping your sense of humor.  A fellow lupus warrior, Carla Ulbrich, has found laughter to be her ally in living with lupus, you can find funny stories and all the research about laughter and it’s health benefits in her book How can you Not Laugh at a Time like This. 

   I wholeheartedly agree with this point of view, and when I am feeling sad, I try to alleviate my mood with funny stories, jokes, comedy movies, TV shows, laughing with friends, doing something silly, etc.  Anything you can think of that will get that laughter going!

   If you cannot find anything funny, you can try this exercise.  It’s called the laughing breath: