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E A
Laughter
Laughter is a great stress reducer. If you have never
read Norman Cousins’s account of his experience
of self-healing as described in Anatomy of an
Illness, I encourage you to do so. When diagnosed with
an incurable illness, he brought a movie projector into
his hospital room and watched reel after reel of old
classic comedy movies, laughing himself into hysterics.
He found he could relieve his otherwise significant pain
on a consistent basis through laughter. That practice,
along with some other novel therapies, resulted in his
healing. He left his prestigious journalistic career and
taught on the faculty of a major medical school about
the power of the mind and emotions in healing the body
of disease.
Next to love, laughter has been described as the
second-most powerful emotion we can express. It has
been said that laughter is like internal jogging—it
stimulates the respiratory system, oxygenates the body,
relaxes tense muscles, and releases pleasure-producing
chemicals in the brain. You cannot laugh and be mad,
laugh and be tense, laugh and be stressed. Laughter is
low-calorie, caffeine-free, and has no salt, preservatives,
or additives. It’s 100 percent natural and one size fits all.
Laughter is truly God’s gift to humankind. You can
get high on laughter but never overdose. Laughter is
contagious—once it starts little can be done to stop it.
Laughter never felt bad, committed a crime, started a
war or broke up a relationship. Laughter is shared by
the giver and the receiver. Laughter costs nothing and
its non-taxable. Laughter is a trend-setter. If we can find
ways to laugh first thing in the morning, it may in fact
set the trend for the rest of the day.
Let me close by telling you the most important use of
laughter I have ever discovered: The ability to laugh at
ourselves. I stopped taking myself too seriously years
ago and it was the best decision I ever made. Don’t get
me wrong—I’m still serious about what I do. But not
so serious that I can’t be the first one to laugh when I
mess up (which happens all too often—it’s why I spend
so much time laughing!). When you’re the first person
to laugh at yourself, you leave little room for others to
laugh at you.
Zig Ziglar is a beloved author and America’s motivator.
He is the author of 25 books and offers training and
consulting to organizations all across the globe. To
learn more about Zig and his business visit his website
at www.ziglar.com
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