Since the goal of my programs is to show audiences how humor can both help them heal as well as deal with not-so-funny stuff, I decided to discuss the events of the previous week, the pain all of us were feeling, and how humor and some laughter might be beneficial.
When you think about advertisements, it makes sense that they want to hold and retain our attention.
Whether planned or not, humor takes our mind off of our troubles.
While most of us know that we feel better after a good hearty laugh, science, in many cases, is yet to prove why.
You may not be able to change a situation, but with humor you can change your attitude about it.
Your attitude is like a box of crayons that color your world. Constantly color your picture gray, and your picture will always be bleak. Try adding some bright colors to the picture by including humor, and your picture begins to lighten up.
Zen teaches that once we can open up to the inevitability of our demise, we can begin to transform that situation and lighten up about it.
The studies indicate that focusing our attention on someone else, takes our mind off of our own problems. We stay healthier and thereby live longer.
When we can find some humor in our upsets, they no longer seem as large or as important as they once did.
Sometimes it takes ten seconds to see some humor in your dilemmas, sometimes ten years.
The tragedy of September 11th was so sudden, so enormous, and so horrendous, both in terms of lives lost and global consequences, that this country and the world went into immediate and prolonged shock.
Research has shown that people who volunteer often live longer.
Now, a recent study from cardiologists at the University of Maryland, has shown that laughter may have a beneficial effect on the heart.
No matter what has happened, you too have the power to enjoy yourself.
Like sheep that get lost nibbling away at the grass because they never look up, we often focus so much on ourselves and our problems that we get lost.