Recently I attended the Health Show in Las Vegas. The basics were covered from drinking 8-10 glasses of water, eating 5 fruits and vegetables a day and getting your exercise.
Health Benefits of Laughter
One of the classes that intrigued me the most was adding humor to your life. I would much rather spend my day laughing than exercising so I quickly found myself in the humor class. The teacher was Steven M. Sultanoff, Ph.D., a psychologist who specializes in teaching humor. I was anxious to learn how to bring more laughs into my everyday life. He said that children laugh on the average of 400 laughs a day and adults are found laughing only 15 times a day. I learned that some of the benefits of bringing humor into your life are that it builds relationships, increases communication, changes feelings and changes biochemistry. It is physically impossible to be depressed when you are laughing.
While playing with my three-year-old niece this weekend, I was amazed to observe her adding a laugh to catching a ball, saying hello to me, saying goodbye. I was amazed at how many times she laughed.
In the class is was suggested that as adults we work on collecting and putting more humor into our life. I decided after playing with my niece that I had to lighten up and smile and enjoy every moment.
How to Bring More Humor into Your Life
Dr. Sultanoff suggested that we carry a spiral notebook wherever we go writing down jokes, stories and humorous experiences. Our next assignment was to take the jokes we collected and share them. He also suggested that we carry things in our purses or pockets to add humor to our experiences. For example, he always carries in his pocket a sponge red nose that a clown would wear. Whenever he runs into a crying child in a restaurant or waiting in a line, he pops on the nose for a little entertainment. He said when the parents look to see why the child has stopped crying, he quickly removes it and gets another laugh out of the child.
Humor Makes Life More Enjoyable
Other items to add to your humor kit could be bubbles, spray foam, a train whistle, a ball and clown glasses. It was suggested that these go in your car and when you have a few extra minutes to wait at a hamburger stand, you can blow bubbles out of the car. Or if you come upon a child that needs some entertainment, why not give them a bottle of bubbles? I am always on the outlook for things that will bring humor into my life and to the people around me.
I have a shelf in my garage where I stash water guns, extra sparklers, cans of foam, balloons, confetti, clown hats and clown nose and glasses. I don’t know about you, but adding more laughter and humor certainly sounds like an exciting way to add health to my life.
For information on the Health Show, you can check out their web site: www.healtshow.com. For more information on Dr. Steven M. Sultanoff, you can check his website: (www.humormatters.com).
