A few weeks ago I was happily sitting in a café two blocks from home with my wonderfully intelligent brother who is undeniably philosophical by nature. We were casually conversing over bacon and eggs, when suddenly we were thrown for a loop as our delightful morning brunch turned into a ‘wipe your tears between every sip of coffee kind of meal’. You know, the type that has the potential to be either enlightening or extremely unproductive - depending on the progress that is made throughout the duration of the conversation. Luckily for us, it was in many ways a beneficial, eye-opening discussion.

After about ten minutes of engagement in average skimming-the-surface chatter, our minds wandered to more relevant, often unspoken of matters. Once the first controversial topic was out on the table, it was as if the floodgate had opened and nothing was off-limits. Suddenly we were found ourselves riding a train of incredibly morbid thoughts and we were by no means the conductors.

Our waitress continued to check on us in a timid and shy manner as she did not want to disrupt the emotional mayhem that was taking place. She sheepishly averted her eyes until she was standing directly at the edge of our table, and with a soft smile she quietly asked, “more coffee?” It was clear she was kind-hearted and wanted to keep our mugs full without getting in the way. We must have not been too overly disruptive as she refrained from giving us the boot and we certainly appreciated the refills.

I had never felt more comfortable opening up to anyone, sharing information that I had promised myself I would never tell a soul. My brother and I sat there dissecting various unsuccessful relationships, the recent death of loved ones, depression, psychological disorders – the list go on and on.

As we were bouncing these challenging ideas off of one another, digging deeper and deeper into their relevance to our own lives, it became apparent that we were both greatly affected by these life obstacles. Why had we not spent much time discussing this sooner? Well, the obvious answer is that it is not easy –hence the tears, but it dawned on me that we use a similar coping mechanism. Once there was a lull in the conversation, my brother uttered one simple sentence that struck a major chord within me. “You have to be able to laugh about it,” he said.

I often find myself giggling when I experience a range of different emotions. For a while I saw this as being a flaw, when in reality, it may just be my body's natural response in an attempt to not dwell on emotional baggage. Life has a way of getting extraordinarily messy, and oftentimes this mess is beyond our control.

Shortly after I left the café I found myself mulling over the topics we had discussed. Was laughing things off a foolish response to these hardships? Or was it a genuine, fair way to deal with these challenges? Is laughter really the best medicine? Or is it a way of running away from our problems?

I performed some research and began to see a pattern in many of the articles I came across being that laughter is an excellent cure for the mind and body. According to healthguide.org laughter has many positive effects, including but not limited to the ability to promote relaxation, reduce anxiety and stress, boost the immune system, trigger the release of endorphins, decrease pain, as well as protect the heart from heart attack and other cardiovascular problems.

Maybe laughing is not a foolish response after all, but rather an extraordinary way to help us get up and over the life hurdles that tend to hinder our health and ability to see the light in certain situations. Not only does it benefit us emotionally, but it has also proven to have positive effects both mentally and physically. Even during the most challenging times, it is important to maintain a positive outlook, even when it may not seem possible to do so. Although most hardships are far from a laughing matter, sometimes we just have to laugh about them in order to continue on with our day.