After Break-up, Humor Helps

2. Keep your children in mind - you can always find something funny in something that a child has done that day, or week to chuckle over.

3. Rent a lot of really sappy movies one night and have a huge cry-fest. Getting all the tears out over something that's not related to your situation is very cathartic. Then you have a better handle on things and it's easier to be cheerful.

4. Become a bit fatalistic. Once you are actually taking the steps to divorce, it's pretty much over. I found that many people commented on how well I was taking/dealing with it, but honestly by that time it was a relief to have it over. I had already gone though the first few stages of grief.

4. Find a support group either through work, or a book club or a religious organization or something. The ups and downs of life are much easier to handle if you can go through them with friends.


From Lynn Pickett of Indianapolis, Ind.

1. Laugh! Even if you have to turn on Saturday Night Live and force yourself to giggle at the stupidity of it all.

2. Spend time with children....if they can't pry a smile out of you, you may be a lost cause....but I don't believe in lost causes.

3. Spend time with teenagers...they will make you remember why you're glad you're not a teen anymore!

4. Spend time with old friends and allow them to tell stories about you!

5. Keep a thankfulness journal and promise yourself that you will only be thankful for the funny things that happen to you each day.

6. Pray God grant you a light heart and a bit of humor every day.


John Buckles of Westerville, Ohio

1. Don't take yourself too seriously. If it starts and ends with you, you won't see the humor in the room or in creation but will only look at yourself.

2. Humor can be a superficial coping strategy or a powerful thing -- but it must be real to be a powerful thing and be effective.

3. Be careful if you use humor as a minimizing technique because it doesn't always fly with other people.

4. Humor is a tool that, like a lot of tools can be misused. It's a gift of God; use it as such.