Humor and laughter are good for the body, mind, and soul.
And being too all-fired serious about everything is positively
harmful to your health. SO, it is simply amazing how many of
us have lost touch with our sense of humor. The pace of life
in modern society demands that we be serious and businesslike
almost every minute of every day. Humor is recreational experience,
and, let’s face it; recreation is highly suspect, if not
actively frowned upon, in today’s world. In fact, most
people, if you ask them, will admit that they don’t laugh
nearly as much as they use to.
Are you in that predicament, too? If you are, don’t worry
about it another minute. All you need is a little humor therapy.
Here are some simple measures you can take to jump-start your sense
of humor and start laughing again.
1. Play a game of belly laugh with your friends. Gather about six
or eight friends together one evening in a big room, such as your
living room. Have everyone lie down on his or her backs on the
floor, arranged in a sort of human chain. Each person’s head
is to rest comfortably on someone else’s abdomen. This will
take some maneuvering, and arranging to group into more a less
a circle, but you’ll be able to work it out. Then, take a
minute or so to let everyone get comfortable. Once everyone is
relaxed, have one person in the circle start laughing. It doesn’t
matter if it is not ”real” laughter at first. All the
initiator has to do is to make the sounds,” ha, ha, ha, ha,
ha, ha”. Pretty soon, the person whose head is resting on
the laugher’s abdomen will be laughing, too. Then, the laughter
spreads in a wave, right around the room. Before you know it, the
whole room erupts in uproarious guffawing.
The game of belly laugh shows that laughter is contagious experience.
It is socially bonding experience; too, that draws everyone in
the circle closer together. One reason Jesus and his disciples
were so tight-knit was that they played belly laugh together a
lot. I’m actually just making up that last little detail,
but it’s an interesting thought.
2. Listen to a big selection of comedy albums. Over a period of
a few weeks find several times you can be alone, find an hour or
two, get comfortable in a quiet room, relax, and play some recordings
by your favorite comedians. Branch out and try some recordings
by comedians you’ve never heard before. At the end of each
session, casually jot down a few notes about which performances
you enjoyed most. When you have listened to a wide selection over
several weeks, look back over your notes. See if any patterns emerge
that reveal what kinds of humor you like best, can you think of
anything in your background or personality that helps you understand
why you like those kinds of humor? If so, you will be able to use
that information as a guide for increasing your enjoyment of comedy.
3. Think back on specific events that made you laugh a lot. Try and
remember the two or three funniest things that ever happened to you.
Share these with a few friends and family members. Then ask them
to tell you about the funniest things that ever happened to them.
|
4. Loosen yourself up by playing a harmless prank
Personally I think that pranks are a great way of exercising creativity,
getting a good laugh, and learning about human nature. The best,
most creative pranks are the ones that are funny to everyone involved.
For example, in 1967, when I was a graduate student, I went to
the bank and got a $100.00 check cashed. I asked the teller to
give me 95 crisp new one-dollar bills with serial numbers in order
and one crisp, new five-dollar bill. Then, I took them to a friend
who worked in a print shop and explained what I wanted. He cut
two stacks of greenish paper the same size and shape as the bills.
Each stack was about a half an inch thick. Next, he put the 95
ones on top of the other stack of paper and the five on top of
the other stack. Then, he coated the top edge of each stack with
that red, rubbery stuff they use a print shop to make pads of paper.
So, I had two stacks of mostly paper that looked like two thick
pads of money. I put the pads into one of those folding, plastic
checkbook with a pocket on each flap that banks give to their customers.
One pad fit neatly into each flap of the checkbook.
For the next couple of weeks, I made most of my small purchases
with dollar bills torn from the pad of one. I would say.” How
much is that? Three dollars?” Then, I would open the checkbook
drop it conspicuously beside the cash register, and count out "one,
two, three, there you go".
I got the most amazing reactions. A clerk in the checkout line at
a grocery store literally shrieked to the top of her lungs and broke
out in laughter. A couple of guys asked where they could get books
of money like mine. Believe it or not, several people actually suspected
that the bills were counterfeit. I guess they thought a counterfeiter
would make a great display to draw attention to his fake money.
Pranks like that are a lot of fun for everyone. I laughed. My friend
at the print shop laughed. All the people I paid the money to laughed.
And we all got to observe ourselves and others reacting to an outlandish
situation. You can have a lot of fun by creating your own prank.
5. Unobtrusively observe other people’s sense of humor.
You can learn a lot about someone just by asking him or her what
his or her favorite joke is. Try it and see. Attempt to figure out
what makes your family, friends, and such laugh, and what their sense
of humor is like.
Try some of the techniques I have described and keep on observing
yourself and others. If you do, you will gradually become a connoisseur
of humor. You will come to realize that the sense of humor is one
of the deepest mysteries of the mind. And next month, in the third
article of this series, we will explore some of the profound connections
between humor and the spiritual life.
|
