UPBEAT TIMES, INC. • JULY 2017 • 21 Living the Upbeat Life [(SOH) HUMOR (hue-mur) ] SANTA ROSA, CA. ~


Q: There’s so much bad news seep- ing into my life most days –except of course from the Up- beat Times!


I try to


tune it out, fi lter it, but it’s hard to fi nd much to laugh about, with so much to wor- ry about: comment?


A: Celebrated New Yorker cartoonist/humorist James Thurber once quipped, “Humor is our greatest natural resource.” He might’ve added “national resource.” How do we “spell relief”? H-U-M- O-R, better medicine than taking Rolaids for ingesting too much bad news. Humor is especially healing when we laugh out loud, activating nature’s instinc- tive remedy for the blahs or blues. Light-hearted, play- ful perspectives liter- ally cause us to breathe easier, dissolve tensions, and overall, stay healthier. And while some of us are born more naturally upbeat than others, we can cultivate and express more fully our own native sense of humor (SOH).


The word humor comes from Latin


origins, and means to be fl uid or in the fl ow. An offi cial dic- tionary defi nition says humor is “the ability to perceive, enjoy or ex- press what is amusing, comical, incongruous or absurd.” Humor ex- perts suggest a SOH is a kind of intelligence –a complex response relat- ed to problem solving.


This helps explain why brain diseas- es like Alzheimer’s can not only rob us of memory and relationship rec- ognition, but the ability to perceive a funnier, easier side to life, and therefore to laugh or smile. .. So, humor blows our se- rious mind-sets, releasing new possibilities for hap- piness. A robust SOH lessens the ill effects of depression.


humorous tempera- ment can speed healing, dissi- pate anxiety and transform the experience of hardship, opening up hope and


optimism –even regarding a dire health is-


sue. “Dis-ease” conjures up a grim lack of any ease just when we need it most, blocking the relief that play- fulness brings. Finding a silly or funny angle on a problem helps us


“T e day will always have some bit of weird- ness in it like a piece of fruit with one bad spot.


Spit it out as fast as you can and eat the rest!” Raven Moore


see life’s Bigger Picture –relaxing the pressures. [Check out The Borowitz Report?]


The power of humor and its side- kick laughter to jumpstart the healing process is well documented in the famous lives of Dr. “Patch” Adams, and of Norman Cousins. Cousins was the UCLA professor and former editor of The Saturday Review who used laughter as medicine to help send an “incurable” collagen disease into remission. Given six months to live, Cousins decided to die laugh- ing. Visitors brought comical books, tapes, cartoons, gag gifts, helping him laugh himself into living another 15 years.


A


Equally inspiring is physician and visionary Patch Adams’ story. His penchant for wearing a red clown’s nose while visiting his patients nearly got him kicked out of med school. The 1998 fi lm, “Patch,” starring Rob- in Williams shows Adams graduating


by Marcia Singer www.lovearts.info


with honors and going on to inspire changes in medical practice using love and humor.


His famous Ge-


zundheit Institute, run as a free clinic for 12 years, and his traveling medi- cine show offer nutrition, exercise, wonder, laughing and friendship. His “happy hospital” plans in Virginia en- visioned free health care, community, performing arts and crafts, farming, nature, plenty of healing community fun.


Scientifi c reports tell how mirth has physical, emotional, and psycho- logical healing benefi ts. Belly laughs release endorphins –reducing pain. They increase blood circulation, aid digestion, elimination and respira- tion. Guffaws and even titters help boost immunity, reduce burnout, NK cell activity, T-cell counts, and lower the stress hormone cortisol. Witty a-muse-ments lubricate our creativ- ity wheels, make learning fun, while


... continued on page 23 JOKES & Humor # 7


Two salesmen were going door to door, and knocked on the door of a woman who was not happy to see them. She told them in no uncertain terms that she did not want to hear their offer and shut the door in their faces. To her surprise, however, the door did not close and, in fact, bounced back open. She tried again, and really put extra into it, and slammed the door again with the same result - the door bounced back open.


Convinced these rude young people were sticking their foot in the door, she reared back to give it a slam that would teach them a lesson, when one of them said:


“Ma’am, before you do that again, you need to move your cat out of the way.”


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(707) 526-1130 • Open Mon-Sat 1585 Terrace Way ~ Santa Rosa ~ Off Pacifi c Ave. “I believe and therefore I am.” ~ Truth Devour UPBEAT TIMES, INC. • JULY 2017 • 21


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