A Trip To The Dentist

Recently during lunch with a friend he mentioned he was on his way to his dentist after lunch, which brought up the famous Carol Burnett episode with Tim Conway as a dentist and Harvey Korman as the patient. As we know, everyone's humor is different. There are times when friends find something extremely funny and I don't and is probably true in reverse.  For me, and many people, this is hilarious and a classic: Tim Conway, the dentist 

A few years ago I had the pleasure of seeing Carol Burnett in person. She talked about her show and brought clips from several episodes. According to her, Tim Conway's goal was to make Harvey Korman laugh when scripting said he was supposed to serious. They never knew what Tim was REALLY going to do in a skit. I laughed so hard that night my sides ached, eyes were sore from tears of laughter and I definitely got a cardio work-out!

Laughter Buddies

Do you have someone in your life (or is it you?) that is stressed out, has bad days, etc. We all have days that makes us wonder why we even got out of bed. Think about being or finding a Laughter Buddy to help change a days' outlook. 

So what is a Laughter Buddy? Call a friend or relative and ask them to be your Laughter Buddy on the telephone. The rules are:

1. Talking is not allowed.
2.  Laughing is the ONLY acceptable communication.
3. There are no "hellos" or "good-byes".
4. The initial caller determines when the laughter session is over, which might be only after a  minute or two.
5. If either Buddy wants to discuss why the laughter session was necessary, that is a different phone call!

If you are the initial caller, as soon as the phone is picked up at the other end, start laughing. If your Laughter Buddy said hello, laugh over it. Your Buddy will know this is a laughter only call. When you feel your outlook on the day is better, hang up, no good-byes. Your Laughter Buddy, because they know the rules, will not take it personally.

And if a call results in voice mail? Laugh!

Whether A Burst Or Muffled

 

I love this definition of laughter!

Stressed--Are We Or Are We Not?

 

I don't know about you but I have had stress in my life, sometimes worse than others. And I have been burned out. I didn't realize I was burned out at first but exhaustion was my first clue. Once I identified it, I had to seriously look at what was causing my burnout as I did not have the luxury of  not working and heading to an island in the middle of nowhere to re-cooperate. What I realized was my life was unbalanced, not drastically, but enough to cause me to burn out. I am one of those crazy people that loves to work, which is why I graduate rather than retire, so it is very important for me to stay as balanced as I can. I relate life, and the balancing of it, to a table with 4 legs. If all the legs are upright, and solid, the table is functional and can hold a lot. If one leg breaks, everything on the table falls off, and it has a hard time functioning. A balanced life can sometimes be like that, but the more I keep my life balanced, the easier it is to function if one of the "legs" falters.

The Mayo Clinic had an excellent article on stress reduction, Stress relief from laughter? It's no joke.
Over the years if I felt I didn't have enough laughter in my life...even laughing by myself, I would call up friends for a get-together, knowing it would always involve plenty of laughter. And then I found Laughter Yoga, which meant I had regular laughter sessions in addition to laughing with my friends and family. 

Instead of "Stressed--Are We Or Are We Not?" l decided to "Laugh, Laugh And Laugh Some More".