FROM MOPING TO COPING: HOW HUMOR CAN HELP

One of the best feelings in the world is a good laugh. Yet many of us do not avail ourselves to this free pleasure as often as we can. The health value of laughter has been well-documented. Laughter boosts the immune system and thereby helps the body’s ability to fight infections and tumors. Laughter causes stress hormones to plummet. Laughter enhances the flow of blood and may therefore speed healing, reduce inflammation, and stimulate alertness. William Fry, a psychiatrist, wrote that laughing one hundred times a day is like doing ten minutes of rowing. Laughter has been referred to as “internal jogging.”

If you are still not convinced of the health value of laughter look at some of the famous comedians of the 20th Century:

• George Burns (“Retirement at 65 is ridiculous. When I was 65, I still had pimples”) lived to be 100.
• Bob Hope (“You know you are getting old when the candles cost more than the cake.”) lived to be 100.
• Milton Berle (“I feel like Zsa Zsa Gabor’s sixth husband. I know what I’m supposed to do, but I don’t know how to make it interesting.”) died at the age of 92.
• Groucho Marx (“I’d never belong to a club that would have me as a member.”) died a few months shy of 87.
• …and Henny Youngman (“I just got back from a pleasure trip: I took my mother-in-law to the airport.”) died at the age of 92.

We can reap the ultimate rewards of humor when we have the courage to laugh at our own frailties. Once we learn to laugh at ourselves, we no longer need to be perfect. Let’s face it: The need to be perfect is sooooooo draining.

Although humor might help us feel better, it cannot change the situations in our life that cause us physical and emotional pain; however, humor does give us the ability to view our circumstances from a different perspective and thereby minimize our suffering. It gives us power in a situation in which we would otherwise be powerless and it can help us transcend our situation by helping us gain a new point of view.

Keep your eyes open for humor in unlikely places. For example, has the receptionist or nurse in a doctors’ office ever greeted you by asking, “How are you?” Is that not a silly question? Why are you there, for a golf lesson? Even stranger, inevitably, we find ourselves responding, ” Fine, how are you?”

Try to see the humorous irony that often manifests itself in everyday life. Did you know that Charlie Chaplin once entered a “Charlie Chaplin Look Alike Contest” and came in third?!!!

Try to stop worrying about silly things. Leo Buscalia, an educator, once wrote that 95% of the things we worry about never happen. Unfortunately, the only people who really believe this in their heart are those who own insurance companies; that is why they are so wealthy.

When you see a funny comic or joke, cut it out and put it in a “Humor Scrapbook.” Share your joke/ comic collection with friends or re-read your scrapbook when you need a good laugh.

Research has shown that even the act of smiling can help improve our mood. Rabbi Nachman of Breslov may have already known this over two hundred years ago when he wrote, “If you have nothing to smile about, put a smile on your face, and God will give you every reason to smile.”

In the words of Mother Theresa: “Smile at each other, smile at your wife, smile at your husband, smile at your children, smile at each other — it doesn’t matter who it is — and that will help you to grow up in greater love for each other.”

But remember what George Carlin said: “If a man smiles all the time, he’s probably selling something that doesn’t work.”