A Cure for the Mother's Day Blues

Here comes Mother's Day, a day which makes lots of women feel loved and appreciated (go moms!) and lots of other people feel sad, angry, and depressed (boo). I straddle both categories, which means I spend the day feeling gratefully bitter... or bitterly grateful... I guess this is another one of those things we need a grief term for.

Here in the 11th hour, I realize that yet another grief article might not make a darn bit of difference, but fortunately, WYG has one final trick up our sleeve: Uplifting and funny YouTube videos! Yes, we're serious.

Now I know this might seem silly, but... When you're having a bad day, taking a minute to seek out things that will make you smile, laugh, and feel happiness can actually help you turn things around. Seriously, smiling and laughter can lower cortisol levels and increase the production of dopamine, endorphins, T-cells, and immune proteins. If you don't want to take our word for it, check out this video:

Listen to your grief friends, will ya? Just take a few minutes and give it a try, you have nothing to lose.

The Uplifting

1. A gentleman named Chase Jarvis of the Chase Jarvis blog put together the 6 Best Orchestra Flashmobs. I'll deny this if you tell anyone, but flashmobs (the good ones) make me cry. There's just something about them.

Of the six flashmobs Jarvis lists, the Ode to Joy and the Carmina Burana are the most impressive, but the Peer Gynt on the Metro (included below) is by far the most moving. The looks of joy and happiness on the passengers' faces as they remove their headphones and turn inwards towards one another is beautiful beyond words. This video reminds me that some days you need only leave your house, cross the street, and board the subway train to stumble upon beauty.

2. Although we don't know the context or background of this video, for some reason it needs no explanation. Here is the Free Hugs Campaign.

3. I am always a sucker for a movie montage. Here are 40 Inspirational Speeches in 2 Minutes from the silver screen.

4. The World is Just Awesome via Discovery

The Funny (and Cute)

1. Have you seen Jessica's Daily Affirmation? 13,170,637 people have. If you're not one of them, here it is.

2. Jimmy Kimmel challenged parents to pretend they ate all their children's Halloween candy. There is a lot of crying in this video, but it is still really funny. Please (oh please) watch to see the kids at minute 2:46.

3. Here's a baby hysterically laughing at ripping paper. Why not?

4.  OMG! This is just, oh my so adorable.

I Think Are Hilarious/Make My Husband Roll His Eyes at Me

1. The funniest play on words you've probably never seen on TV: KMart's Ship My Pants campaign.

For more uplifting YouTube videos, check out these posts:

• Coping With The New Year’s Eve Blues
• Kicking The Thanksgiving Blues
• The YouTube Cure for the Christmas Blues

What videos make you smile? Share in the comments below. We were serious about outside-of-the-box coping. Subscribe to receive all our posts by e-mail.