Surging Ahead for Success, Issue 12
Monday. July 18, 2005
IN THIS ISSUE
Jokes and Humor for your Health
Stress Relief in Minutes
To Live a happy and fulfilled life, we need
to understand how to handle the "negatives" or stresses in our
lives. You see, no matter how happy and successful one is,
there are ALWAYS challenges to meet. After all, the
challenges and learning experiences are what we use to learn and
grow. So it's important to know how best to handle these
stresses in order to get the best results. The following
articles give us several ways to deal with life, and to enjoy it
as we go along.
...............June
Jokes and humor for
your health
by John Ryan
When thinking about alternative medicine, most people picture
plants, crystals, needles, maybe some bugs and leeches, but few
realize that jokes, humor and comedy are truly medicines, in
their own right. It has long been established that optimists
live longer than pessimists, but now there is some hard evidence
that people with a better sense of humor also have longer and
healthier lives. Your "stay healthy" plan should include a joke
and a 20-minute comedy show, to go with the broccoli and
carrots.
There are now various associations and physicians specialized in
the so-called therapeutic humor, who are still investigating the
roles of laughter in our lives. Perhaps the most obvious of
these roles is that related to the social life - jokes often
allow people to connect and to bond, and sharing a good laughter
is a good method to integrate in a team, to get along with the
coworkers, neighbors and so on. This function is vital from the
point of view of mental health, since it reduces loneliness and,
with it, depression and other problems associated with it. You
don't have to be trained in stand-up comedy in order to say
something funny, sometimes all you need is a change of
perspective or the courage to make fun at your own expense.
Humor is an invaluable asset in crisis situations, when it helps
us calm down and reduce the levels of stress (and all the
negative effects stress has on health). It is often considered
that, among patients with very severe diseases, those with an
upbeat approach, who are capable of making jokes about their
situations, have the best chances to defeat the illness. So far,
there have been no scientific studies to prove this, but the
patients themselves report feeling better after joining an
activity with humorous potential, even if it's just watching a
comedy show together with some friends or with other patients.
Recent researches suggest that laughter influences more than our
mental framework, it actually has a positive effect on the
physical aspect as well. It has been widely accepted, for some
time, that laughter increases the pain resistance level, but the
theory is still not proven. In fact, very few studies have yet
been made about the relation between comedy and health, but
those existing seem to indicate that a good joke may lower the
blood pressure, improve memory and cognitive functions and boost
the immune system. Moreover, these results are not short-term
only: it seems that a good sense of humor may protect you
against heart diseases and alter your biochemical state to a
level where the organism produces more antibodies. The lack of
research in the field is due to the fact that people have always
assumed that laughter is good for your health (along with an
apple a day and a breath of fresh air), but little has been done
to analyze this in depth.
There is also a "bad" humor (same as there is good cholesterol
and bad cholesterol). This category includes the approach that
makes people feel miserable about themselves, or angry, upset
and vengeful, as well as the skeptic and cynic attitude, which
is often the front for deep depression and indifference. Jokes
directed at other people are also "bad" humor, along with
ethnic, racial and sexist jokes, which are born out of
frustration, not out of optimism and cheerfulness. Also, people
who often make fun of themselves hide a low self esteem, which
is only worsened with every funny joke they invent (there is a
good reason why clowns and successful comedy actors are often
perceived as sad and depressed in their real lives).
If you decide to use laughter as a therapeutic method, the first
obvious issue is that there are no harmful side effects, and
you've got nothing to lose. The second issue is that you can
actually improve your sense of humor in time, same as any other
skill or ability, by constant training and exposure to jokes and
comedy. Next time you go to the movies, buy a ticket for a
comedy, no matter how dumb the poster looks. When you read the
paper, don't forget to check out their daily cartoon too. Spend
ten minutes every day reading jokes, and, when you find some you
like, share them with your friends. (And when your boss catches
you reading jokes instead of working, tell him it's just
therapy, he can't stop your from taking your medication at work,
right?) Last but not least, try to find the funny side of the
small things that happen every day around you - there is always
something absurd or plain stupid going on right near you, which
may provide five minutes of good laugher, which, in turn, may
unblock some arteries and keep the heart attack far away.
John Ryan is the author of the famous 10-day Free online Quit Smoking Course at www.quitsmokingonline.com In his spare time, he likes to rewrite classic jokes at http://www.jokes-comedy.com Email john@quitsmokingonline.com
Stress Relief in Minutes
by Trevor Dumbleton
For those who are suffering from stress,
just about the hardest thing to find is stress relief. Stress
can often continue itself on its own energy and, as it mounts up
upon itself, it builds itself into an absolute mental frenzy.
Unfortunately, this sort of mental frenzy is ultimately
counter-productive and leaves the mind so frenzied that it
cannot actually take care of whatever is causing the stress.
Thus, stress relief is a way to help the mind attend to the
necessities of life.
The first thing you need to realize about stress is that you can
get rid of it. In fact, you can control your mind and your
emotions and you do not need to hang on to stress. If you learn
to get rid of stress all on your own, you will be able to get
rid of it that much easier the next time. You control your brain
a lot more than you know.
With that in mind, the first way to help give yourself stress
relief is with your feet. That is, if something is causing you
all sorts of stress, you need to simply stand up and walk away
from it. This will give your mind the break it needs to calm
down and come to grips with the situation. Simply allowing it to
stress you out more and more is simply not a productive plan. So
get up, walk away, and give yourself a break.
Once you have walked away, there are several things you can do
for stress relief. One of the easiest things is simply cleaning
the house. That's right, vacuuming, dusting, ironing, scrubbing
the floors and cleaning the countertops will actually help you
relieve stress. Simply organizing messes and cleaning away dirt
will help you immeasurably. This is because you will be taking
care of messes, much in the manner you want to clean up the
messes in your life. By sweeping away the dust and grime, you
will be taking charge of your own home and, in a way, removing
the clutter from your life by removing the clutter from your
home.
Another method of stress relief is through a hobby. This can be
model ship building, stamp collecting, or any number of other
means to help you keep your mind off of things. Likewise,
woodworking or even fishing can help you get some stress relief
and clear away the fog of anxiety that can arise from the
stresses of everyday life. By focusing on something other than
what is pressing you, you can get rid of those piling stresses
that threaten to take you over. Hobbies give your mind something
to concentrate on. And by concentrating on something completely
meaningless, your mind can finally relax and let go of the
pressures that build up with every little concern.
For those who like to be a little more active, playing a sport
is a great way to relieve stress. Just going outside and
shooting some hoops or joining a league can give you stress
relief through simple physical exertion. These activities will
keep your body active and provide some necessary relaxation to
your mind.
You can also get stress relief through writing. By concentrating
on what is on your mind and putting it down on paper, it allows
the stress to have an outlet. It puts your concerns into words
and those words can be either kept or discarded. This is
particularly effective for people who don’t have anyone to talk
to and need to tell someone about what is going on or even what
is going wrong. So keep a diary or a journal and let yourself
get rid of your stress by putting ink onto a page.
However, the most important method of stress relief is the
method that works for you. Many people like to take a nice hot
bath to get rid of stress. Some enjoy playing with a pet. Others
find excellent stress relief through meditation. It doesn't
matter what you do, just make sure it works and then make sure
that you do it.
Stress relief is hard to find, but it is necessary in the hectic
lives that we lead. But many other people have managed to rid
themselves of their concerns for a little while and get on with
their lives. Stress does not need to overcome you and, though it
may seem like a monumental task, it can be removed. So find a
way to relax and make sure that you do it. Once you learn how to
remove your stress, you will find that you are much happier and
much more productive and much more able to deal with the issues
that can cause stress every single day.
Trevor Dumbleton is the owner of http://www.LowerYourStress.com/ , a categorized resource directory for everything to do with stress.
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