HUMOR THERAPY—a cool tool to manage your STRESS.
In 1964, a man admitted himself to a hospital for severe pains throughout his body. After a series of tests, he was diagnosed with a rare rheumatoid disease called ‘Ankylosing Spondaylitis’, a progressive deterioration of the body’s connective tissue. Chances for recovery were predicted to be roughly one in five hundred; the disease was quite advanced.
Like most people, Norman Cousins decided to learn all he could about the etiology of his disease. He soon discovered that there is a strong correlation between stress, particularly negative perceptions and emotions, and his specific disease. So the question occurred to him: It negative emotions like guilt, worry, and anxiety are thought to be related to, and perhaps even to promote, disease, is it possible for positive emotions to maintain health, or even restore one’s health? He came to the conclusion that to increase his chances of recovery, he had to assume responsibility for his treatment. And that he did. He had nothing to lose.
With a defiant determination to recover and the support of his personal physician, Cousins checked out of the hospital and into a nearby hotel. As the story goes he acquired copies of humorous movies and TV shows, including those of Laurel and Hardy. After a time he checked out of his hotel and went home, his disease had gone into remission. On the advice of his doctor, Cousins wrote up his story as a case history for New England Journal of medicine. The interpretation of the article was Cousins literally laughed himself back to health. Cousins later wrote in his now-famous bock, Anatomy of an Illness, that "ten minutes of laughter allowed two hours of pain-free sleep."
Norman Cousins's story is now just one of many supporting the idea that positive emotions do indeed have healing effects on health. However, it was this single case study of comic relief, perhaps more than any other, that paved the road to a whole new field of study called Psychoneuroimmunology (PNI), and Cousins will always be remembered for his generous contribution to it. What has been learned since his hospital discharge is that positive emotions play an incredible role in maintaining the health of the human body. Humor therapy, or comic relief, is the use of humor to promote well-being through positive thoughts, attitudes, and emotions by counter-balancing the deleterious effects of negative thoughts, perceptions, and emotions on one's health. Humor as a coping technique is not a panacea for all ills, but it does provide benefits in a bad situation, whether in a hospital bed or outside a locked car, with your keys still in the ignition.
Historical Perspective
Humor is a human magnet. It attracts all ears and minds. And laughter is a universal language, breaking through cultural barriers when words cannot. Cousins certainly was not the first person to use humor as a coping technique, comic relief has been pondered since men and women first tickled their funny hones. The ancient Greeks held humor as a virtue. The philosopher Plato, for instance, believed humor nurtured the soul, and he advocated its use as a healing practice. From the ancient Greeks came the formula for theater, including comedy, still used today. And as far back as Old Testament times, people in the Middle East believed "A merry heart doeth good like a medicine, but a broken spirit drieth the hones." In fact, humor as a "healing medicine" can be found at the root of virtually every culture on the globe, from the earliest practices of the native peoples of Africa to those of the Americas.
The word humor comes from a Latin word of the same spelling that means "fluid" or "moisture." According to the physiology of the medieval period in Europe (the age of alchemy and potions), there were four basic body fluids, with each "humor" associated with a specific mood or general disposition. Choler, the yellow bile produced by the gallbladder, allegedly made one melancholy and depressed. Similarly, black bile, produced by the kidneys or spleen, was blood; responsible for anger and hostility. A happy, cheerful spirit was associated with while phlegm, produced by the Respiratory system, was the reason behind apathy and sluggishness. If any of the one humor was produced in excess, it was thought to change mood. If all body fluids were balanced, however, a person was said to be "in good humor."
But laughter has not always been looked upon with favor. Europeans in the Middle Ages and Puritans on the eastern shores of North America, among others, perceived laughter to be the work of the devil. People caught laughing out loud were often denounced as witches or believed to be possessed by Satan. The expression of humor was considered a sin in many Christian denominations. Laughter on any occasion was considered to be immoral and indecent.
And if you look at the portraits of European nobility commissioned over a period of several hundred years, you are hard-pressed to find anyone smiling (except the Mona Lisa). The words "say cheese" were not coined for use with the first camera in the nineteenth century, in fact people were afraid of being caught sinning in public. It was not until the twentieth century that people would risk a smile in a photograph.
Steps to Initiate Humor Therapy:
Followings are a few steps one must take to start the journey of Humor.
- Learn not to make life too seriously.
- Find one humorous thing a day.
- Work to improve your imagination and creativity.
- Read more books( fictional & Non-fictional)and watch less television.
- Play with children.
- Build a humor library consisting of jokes books along with a collection of DVDs of different comedy programs and TV shows.
BEST APPLICATION OF COMIC RELIEF:
Humor therapy integrates a little behavior modification and a lot of fun. Employing comic relief as a coping style involves a conscious effort to love life on a higher side. Humor therapy does not try to eclipse the emotions associated with anger, fear or sadness; it only attempts to neutralize them so that there is balance to your emotional responses. There are many types of humor including parody, satire, slapstick comedy, absurd/nonsense humor, Black humor, Irony, Dry humor, quick wit and puns. To best apply the humor in your life, take note what sense of humor you best identify with and see if you can sharpen this edge a little. Self-parody is thought to be the best type of humor to reduce stress, whereas sarcasm is the worst. In addition monitor your high and low moods and their durations. If you find that majority of your thoughts are negative or laced with pessimism, try to balance these out with a greater number of positive and humors thoughts. No one who advocates humor therapy that everybody should always be smiling. This is neither realistic nor healthy. Emotional well-being is the ability to feel and express the full range of human emotions, both positive and negative. The danger lies in the imbalance of positive and negative emotions. Use humor therapy to find and maintain that balance of human emotions in your life.
Times have changed since the days of Victorian prudery. With the help of entertainment industries, humor has gained wide acceptance throughout the world. Fact of the matter is that Humor and comic relief arc no less important now than when Cousins first checked into the hospital decades ago. Some would say that given the state of the world today, the need for comic relief is at an all-time high. Perhaps for this reason, a recent study was conducted in England to determine the funniest joke—ever! A multitude of submissions were sent via email from around the world and screened by a group of expert. Before completing this article I would like to share the following ‘winner joke’.
Famed fictional detective Sherlock Holmes and his gruff assistant Dr. Watson pitch their tent while on a camping trip. In the middle of the night, Holmes nudges Watson to wake him up.
Holmes: “Watson, look up at the stars and tell me what you deduce.”
Watson: “I see millions of stars. And if there are millions of stars, even if a few of those have planets, it is quite likely there are some planets like earth. And if there are a few planets like earth, then indeed, there might be intelligent life, much like our own. Sir.”
Holmes : “Watson, you idiot, someone stolen our tent.”
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Dr. H.S. PAL, is a leading Stress Management Consultant and author of Best-seller book, ‘Tit For Tat to Treat For Tat’. He can be contacted at; drpal262@yahoo.com