Tag: laughter

“Only three things in life are real:
God, human stupidity, and laughter.
But the first two pass our comprehension;
we must do what we can with the third,”

– Aubrey Menen in The Ramayana.

Is God real? Answer to this question depends on who you talk to.

Is human stupidity real? I don’t think there is much disagreement on that subject. I have done many stupid things in my life. And I know you have done the same.

Is laughter real? Yes, laughter is real. But we have to do something about that.

If you find something to laugh about every day then you are doing well. That will compensate for all the stupid things you have done that day, as long as you haven’t hurt somebody deliberately.

I love to laugh. I like to work hard and have fun. And I like to make people laugh – whether it is a member of my family, a friend, a patient I have met for the first time or a server at a restaurant. A funny one-liner is a good way to break the ice. Some people are just too serious and have no sense of humour. They seem to be angry about everything in life. They have no patience. I feel sorry for them. They miss out on so much fun. And this will affect their health.

We all face adversity in life. To survive such adversity is not funny. But laughter is our best weapon against life’s miseries. Scientific studies have repeatedly shown that there is a lot of truth in the old saying, laughter is the best medicine. The happier you are the better you feel. Ashley Montagu has written about the origin of laughter. She says the only animal that speaks is the only animal that laughs. Laughter is an expression of joy and can be infectious. This is one infection worth spreading!

Montagu says, “It is well known laughter has a tonic effect on the mind and body, suffusing the body with a feeling of well-being that few other activities are able to provide, refreshing, relieving, enlivening, and involving the whole body in its happy convulsion.”

We are lucky. We are blessed with the greatest gift of all: capacity to laugh.

Mark Twain said, “The human race has only one really effective weapon and that is laughter.” But the weapons we use against our fellow humans are weapons of terror, destruction, greed, treachery and hypocrisy.

In his bestseller, Anatomy of an Illness, Norman Cousins writes about his battle against painful condition of joints and muscles. He says, “I made the joyous discovery that 10 minutes of genuine belly laughter had an anaesthetic effect and would give me at least two hours of pain free sleep.”

Laughter has been known to be therapeutic for many centuries. But laughter is becoming a rare event in most of our lives as the world becomes faster, smaller and complicated. We live in a world of instant gratification and Band-Aid solutions. This does not allow us time to explore the beauty of the gift of laughter.

There are positive and negative aspects of laughter.

In a negative way, people use laughter to intimidate others and gain stature over them by humiliating them. We laugh when we compare ourselves with others and find ourselves superior. We laugh at the infirmities of others.

In a positive way, we laugh in order not to cry. We use laughter as a remedy for painful experiences. We laugh to show our happiness.

The average six years old laughs 300 times a day, the average adult laughs about 170 times a day. Can adults do better? Sure, we can do better if we have the determination to do something about it. First, we need to have a strong desire to live a pain free, stress free, happy and healthy life. Second, we have to be creative so that laughter is fun rather than a chore to be accomplished.

Next week: how laughing makes you stronger, friendlier and sexier.

Start reading the preview of my book A Doctor's Journey for free on Amazon. Available on Kindle for $2.99!

“Laughter is the closest thing to the grace of God,” says Karl Bath (1886-1968).

We all agree that laughter is good medicine. But our life is a race against time. And we are looking for instant results and gratification. There isn’t much time to stop and laugh.

Physicians are no exception to the rule. In fact, physicians have to deal with sickness, disease and death all the time. So, do they find time for laughter?

Many patients have excellent sense of humour. These patients have a positive outlook in life. They generally do quite well with whatever illness they have. They make our lives very easy and comfortable. They show us that we, as physicians, should lighten up and look at the funny side of medicine.

Physicians are lucky that they have a magazine completely devoted to making them laugh. Every physician in Canada receives a magazine called “STITCHES – The Journal of Medical Humour.” It has 160 pages. Almost every page has a cartoon or two. Physicians write most of the humorous articles.

In the February issue of the STICHES, there is an article by Simon Hally: “Where there is a smoke – A modest proposal for discouraging tobacco use.” He says that for some smokers –like teenagers- the risks of smoking are too remote to be effective deterrent. Hally says the real key to an effective anti-smoking program is to make the risks more compelling and immediate. He suggests the following plan:

1. Tobacco manufacturers must be required by law to insert a small explosive charge at random into every, say, 100th or 200th cigarette they produce. The explosive shouldn’t be powerful enough to be dangerous – the objective here is to protect people’s health, not harm it – but it should be loud and smoky and very startling. This would bring a nasty surprise and embarrassment to the smoker. If the smoker happens to be a teenager then the effect of embarrassment would be immediate.

2. These explosives should be booby trapped with greenish, gooey substance. When the teenager smokes, the substance would explode on his face and on his designer clothings.

3. Some of these explosives should be booby-trapped with foul smelling gas, dye that will stain teeth, or substance which will give the smoker 48 hours of horrible breath.

Do you think this will stop people smoking? Especially teenagers?

***

Here is a doctor joke from Dr. Howard J. Bennett, a paediatrician in Washington, D.C. who has written books on medical humour. In one of his articles in the STITCHES, he relates the following joke:

A doctor died and went to heaven, where he found a long line at St. Peter’s gate. As was his custom, the doctor rushed to the front, but St. Peter told him to go back and wait in line like everyone else. Muttering and looking at his watch, the doctor stood at the end of the line.

Moments later, a white-haired man carrying stethoscope and black bag rushed to the front of the line, waved to St. Peter and was immediately admitted through the pearly gates.

“Hey!” the doctor said angrily, “How come you let him through without waiting?”

“Oh,” said St. Peter, “that’s God. Sometimes he likes to play doctor.”

Start reading the preview of my book A Doctor's Journey for free on Amazon. Available on Kindle for $2.99!

“Only three things in life are real: God, human stupidity, and laughter. But the first two pass our comprehension; we must do what we can with the third,” says Aubrey Menen in The Ramayana.

We must do what we can but are we doing enough?

We are lucky. We are blessed with the greatest gift of all – capacity to laugh. But quite often we are trapped in the cycle of fear, depression, and panic. We forget our best weapon against pain and misery is laughter.

Mark Twain said: “The human race has only one really effective weapon and that is laughter.” But the weapons we use against our fellow humans are weapons of terror, destruction, greed, treachery, and hypocrisy.

But, of course, there are exceptions. In his bestseller, Anatomy of an Illness, Norman Cousins writes about his battle against painful condition of joints and muscles. He says, “I made the joyous discovery that ten minutes of genuine belly laughter had an anaesthetic effect and would give me at least two hours of pain free sleep.”

Laughter has been known to be therapeutic for many centuries. But laughter is becoming a rare event in most of our lives as the world becomes faster, smaller, and complicated. We live in a world of instant gratification and band-aid solutions. This does not allow us any time to explore the beauty of the gift of laughter.

Ashley Montagu, who has written about laughter, says that only those animals capable of speech are capable of laughter and the humans being the only animal that speaks, is the only animal that laughs.

So, why do humans laugh? We laugh for many reasons. And for centuries biologists, philosophers, psychologists, and medical doctors have sought a definitive explanation of laughter.

Like anything else, there are positive and negative aspects of laughter. In a negative way, people use laughter to intimidate others, and gain stature over them by humiliating them. We laugh when we compare ourselves with others and find ourselves superior and in fact we laugh at the infirmities of others.

In a positive way, we laugh in order not to cry, we use laughter as a remedy for painful experiences, and we laugh to show our happiness.

The average six years old laughs 300 times a day, the average adult laughs about 170 times a day. Can adults do better?

Sure, we can do better if we have the determination do something about it. First, we need to have a strong desire to live a pain free, stress free, happy, and healthy life. Then we need to assign certain amount of time everyday or every other day to be creative so that laughter is fun rather than a chore to be accomplished.

Here are some helpful hints from www.laughter.com:

-Think funny – find humour in different situations
-Personalize material – adapt humour to personal situations
-Be the target – poke fun at yourself
-Share your humour with others
-Play with children
-Watch comedy shows and movies
-Read funny books, comics, cartoons
-Sing and dance to music
-Seek company of people who are happy and funny

Let me end by telling you couple of doctor jokes taken from laughter.com:

How many psychiatrists does it take to change a bulb?
One, but the light bulb has to want to change!

“Doctor, I can’t stop behaving like a dog.”
“How long have you been acting this way?”
“Since I was a puppy!”

Start reading the preview of my book A Doctor's Journey for free on Amazon. Available on Kindle for $2.99!