Surviving the office party aftermath – find the humour.



Life is full of small disasters. It is easy to become overwhelmed by the guilt and embarrassment of your office party behaviour; the things you said, memories of your loud voice, flirting with someone you should not be flirting with, being on drugs in front of your boss, inappropriate dark jokes, controversial opinions, secrets, confessing your childhood traumas to people who don't want to hear it, letting your defences slip so your mental illness ends up on display, mad stupid dancing, crying, falling over.

After all the carnage, you might find yourself, as I often do, huddled in the foetus position in turmoil over the memories that clank around your brain like a washing machine full of bricks. But there is still one little emotional safety boat. – Laugh. Laugh at the absurdity of your life. It’s all meaningless. There is no real purpose to it yet you’re lucky to have it. Even in the bleakest of moments, you might as well make light of it. Enjoy what you can of it. You could be dead. Think how crazy and mad and beautiful and weird it all is, and let yourself laugh at it. Don’t take yourself too seriously. You are one in 8 billion people. One in a trillion odd animals. You are just a speck of dust in the galaxy. Things that happen makes no real noticeable difference on the grand scheme of things anyway. Nothing changes whether you laugh, cry, cringe, run away, hide or scream. The result is all the same, but at least laughing feels good. Sure, things can be tragic but if it’s not war and only a little bit of embarrassment or guilt or making a fool of yourself, take a step back and realise it’s all a great big cosmic joke, and your life is the punchline. 

Throw your head back and laugh "hahaha, fuck me, right? You have a sick sense of humour, universe. hahaha. What a classic existential prank. You gave me the gift of life and then let me ruin it by causing my own suffering. I love it. What a clever joke!"

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