FS Extra šŸ‘£ An April Fools moment and a reminder we all need sometimes

Published: Wed, 04/01/26

Updated: Wed, 04/01/26

Somewhere along the way, things quietly became more serious than they needed to be. A little lightness helps.

Today, I shared a small April Fools joke with my husband. Nothing complicated at all, just a slightly sneaky moment that caught him off guard and turned into genuine laughter. It reminded us how little it actually takes to bring that sense of lightness back into a day.

There’s a growing understanding that humour contributes to both physical and psychological wellbeing. Not in a vague or motivational way, yet in a very real, measurable sense.

When you laugh, your body responds.

Serotonin levels increase, which helps regulate things like mood, sleep patterns, memory and even body temperature. At the same time, cortisol levels tend to decrease. That matters because cortisol, when it stays elevated for too long, can contribute to things like weight gain, lowered immunity and a reduced ability for the body to recover and repair itself.

In simple terms, your body does better when there is more lightness in your system.

Enjoy my April Fools joke

There’s a kind of tension that builds when you’re always trying to handle life correctly.

You think more. You second guess more. You become slightly more careful in situations where you used to be relaxed. Even small things start to carry unnecessary weight.

The strange part is, it rarely improves anything.

It just makes everything feel heavier.

Think about how often you replay small moments in your head. Something you said slightly wrong. Something you could have done better. A situation where you didn’t quite come across the way you intended.

Now compare that to how often you laugh at those same moments.

There is a short video at the top of the following page that captures this idea in a very simple way, along with a free ebook containing 88 humorous thoughts and lines about life.

Some are playful, some are unexpected and some make you pause because they reflect everyday thinking.

Smile at yourself a little

Fun isn’t just something extra. It quietly changes how you think, how you feel and how you move through your day.

Most people underestimate that. They treat fun as optional. Something to get to later. Something that belongs after everything important is done.

Yet that way of thinking slowly drains the energy out of everyday life.

Lightness interrupts that pattern.

Shift how your mind processes what’s happening

The April Fools joke I played on my husband wasn’t elaborate. Just a simple, slightly sneaky moment.

Yet it created something far more valuable than the effort it took. A shared memory. A break in routine. A reminder that fun doesn’t need planning or complexity.

Fun isn’t just fun.

It might feel like something optional, something we squeeze in when everything else is done, yet it actually plays a far more important role in how we feel than many of us realise.

View and share a few previous emails here too

See you soon.

Thea Westra Signature Someone else might need this today!

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