My friend Leslie is a school social worker. On a recent visit to a gift shop, she picked up a tongue-in-cheek guide to self-therapy, printed on a pad of tear sheets. The idea is to use each sheet to record clinical notes during a do-it-yourself therapy session. The first heading is Psycho Drama of the Moment. Underneath it are lines to record your notes. Then comes the heading How Do I Feel about It? followed by How Do I Really Feel about It? The next heading is This Problem Likely Stems From:
- mother
- father
- sex
- no sex
- early weaning
- original sin
- basic unlovability
- bad luck
I love the part about “Psycho Drama of the Moment” because if I’m not having one, it seems that one of my children is. That’s when emotions can really fly. At times, all of us find ourselves with people who are reacting in ways that are anything but peaceful. How can we keep our own emotions in check and avoid becoming part of a great big chain reaction of emotional instability?
In chemistry, a stabilizer is a chemical that inhibits a reaction that would otherwise occur between two or more chemicals. I like to think that humor can sometimes act as an emotional stabilizer, helping to restore a sense of equilibrium. No doubt all of us will experience our share of psycho dramas, many of which will not look half as bad in retrospect. With that in mind, let’s not miss the opportunity to step back and laugh at ourselves whenever the opportunity arises, mindful of Proverbs 17:22, which says in the King James Version,
A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones.
Let’s resolve today not to allow doom and gloom scenarios, our own or others’, to break our spirits and dry up our bones.
