Reprinted with permission for personal or non-profit use. Visit www.helpguide.org to see the article with links to related articles.  © Helpguide.org. All rights reserved. This material is for information and support; not a substitute for professional advice.   Reprinted with permission for personal or non-profit use. Visit www.helpguide.org to see the article with links to related articles.  © Helpguide.org. All rights reserved. This material is for information and support; not a substitute for professional advice. Laughter is the Best Medicine The Health Benefits of Humor and Laughter Humor is infectious. The sound of roaring laughter is far more contagious than any cough, sniffle, or sneeze. When laughter is shared, it binds people together and increases happiness and intimacy. In addition to the domino effect of joy and amusement, laughter also triggers healthy physical changes in the body. Humor and laughter strengthen your immune system, boost your energy, diminish pain, and protect you from the damaging effects of stress. Best of all, this priceless medicine is fun, free, and easy to use. In This Article: Laughter is strong medicine Laughter and emotional health Social benefits of laughter Bringing more laughter into your life Developing your sense of humor Using humor to overcome challenges Related links Laughter is strong medicine for mind and body “Your sense of humor is one of the most powerful tools you have to make certain that your daily mood and emotional state support good health.” ~ Paul E. McGhee, Ph.D. Laughter is a powerful antidote to stress, pain, and conflict. Nothing works faster or more dependably to bring your mind and body back into balance than a good laugh. Humor lightens your burdens, inspires hopes, connects you to others, and keeps you grounded, focused, and alert. With so much power to heal and renew, the ability to laugh easily and frequently is a tremendous resource for surmounting problems, enhancing your relationships, and supporting both physical and emotional health. Laughter is good for your health Laughter relaxes the whole body. A good, hearty laugh relieves physical tension and stress, leaving your muscles relaxed for up to 45 minutes after. Laughter boosts the immune system. Laughter decreases stress hormones and increases immune cells and infection-fighting antibodies, thus improving your resistance to disease. Laughter triggers the release of endorphins, the body’s natural feel-good chemicals. Endorphins promote an overall sense of well-being and can even temporarily relieve pain. Laughter protects the heart. Laughter improves the function of blood vessels and increases blood flow, which can help protect you against a heart attack and other cardiovascular problems. The Benefits of Laughter Physical Health Benefits: Boosts immunity Lowers stress hormones Decreases pain Relaxes your muscles Prevents heart disease Mental Health Benefits: Adds joy and zest to life Eases anxiety and fear Relieves stress Improves mood Enhances resilience Social Benefits: Strengthens relationships Attracts others to us Enhances teamwork Helps defuse conflict Promotes group bonding Laughter and humor help you stay emotionally healthy Laughter makes you feel good. And the good feeling that you get when you laugh remains with you even after the laughter subsides. Humor helps you keep a positive, optimistic outlook through difficult situations, disappointments, and loss. More than just a respite from sadness and pain, laughter gives you the courage and strength to find new sources of meaning and hope. Even in the most difficult of times, a laugh–or even simply a smile–can go a long way toward making you feel better. And laughter really is contagious—just hearing laughter primes your brain and readies you to smile and join in on the fun. The link between laughter and mental health Laughter dissolves distressing emotions. You can’t feel anxious, angry, or sad when you’re laughing. Laughter helps you relax and recharge. It reduces stress and increases energy, enabling you to stay focused and accomplish more. Humor shifts perspective, allowing you to see situations in a more realistic, less threatening light. A humorous perspective creates psychological distance, which can help you avoid feeling overwhelmed. The social benefits of humor and laughter Humor and playful communication strengthen our relationships by triggering positive feelings and fostering emotional connection. When we laugh with one another, a positive bond is created. This bond acts as a strong buffer against stress, disagreements, and disappointment. Laughing with others is more powerful than laughing alone Shared laughter is one of the most effective tools for keeping relationships fresh and exciting. All emotional sharing builds strong and lasting relationship bonds, but sharing laughter and play adds joy, vitality, and resilience. And humor is a powerful and effective way to heal resentments, disagreements, and hurts. Laughter unites people during difficult times. Using humor and laughter in relationships allows you to: Be more spontaneous. Humor gets you out of your head and away from your troubles. Let go of defensiveness. Laughter helps you forget judgments, criticisms, and doubts. Release inhibitions. Your fear of holding back and holding on are set aside. Express your true feelings. Deeply felt emotions are allowed to rise to the surface. Laughter and Relationships Mutual laughter and play are an essential component of strong, healthy relationships. By making a conscious effort to incorporate more humor and play into your daily interactions, you can improve the quality of your love relationships— as well as your connections with co-workers, family members, and friends. Read: Playful Communication in Relationships: The Power of Laughter, Humor, and Play Bringing more humor and laughter into your life Anyone can join the laughter movement. All it takes is a willingness to risk some loss of control. The timid may start with a few shy giggles. The courageous may jump in with deep belly laughter. A sense of humor is not required. There’s more than enough stress to go around and absurdity abounds in our daily lives. All we have to do is believe, let go, clap our hands and laughter will live again. So will we. Laughter is feeling deeply which allows us to live fully. Source: We Need to Laugh More, Enda Junkins, LMFT. Laughter is your birthright, a natural part of life that is innate and inborn. Infants begin smiling during the first weeks of life and laugh out loud within months of being born. Even if you did not grow up in a household where laughter was a common sound, you can learn to laugh at any stage of life. Begin by setting aside special times to seek out humor and laughter, as you might with working out, and build from there. Eventually, you’ll want to incorporate humor and laughter into the fabric of your life, finding it naturally in everything you do. Here are some ways to start: Smile. Smiling is the beginning of laughter. Like laughter, it’s contagious. Pioneers in “laugh therapy,” find it’s possible to laugh without even experiencing a funny event. The same holds for smiling. When you look at someone or see something even mildly pleasing, practice smiling. Count your blessings. Literally make a list. The simple act of considering the good things in your life will distance you from negative thoughts that are a barrier to humor and laughter. When in a state of sadness, we have further to travel to get to humor and laughter. When you hear laughter, move toward it. Sometimes humor and laughter are private, a shared joke among a small group, but usually not. More often, people are very happy to share something funny because it gives them an opportunity to laugh again and feed off the humor you find in it. When you hear laughter, seek it out and ask, “What’s funny?” Spend time with fun, playful people. These are people who laugh easily–both at themselves and at life’s absurdities–and who routinely find the humor in everyday events. Their playful point of view and laughter are contagious. Bring humor into conversations. Ask people, “What’s the funniest thing that happened to you today? This week? In your life?” Creating opportunities to laugh ·         Watch a funny movie or TV show. ·         Go to a comedy club. ·         Read the funny pages. Seek out funny people. Share a good joke or a funny story. Check out your bookstore’s humor section. Host game night with friends. Play with a pet. Go to a “laughter yoga” class. Goof around with children. Do something silly. Make time for fun activities (e.g. bowling, miniature golfing, karaoke). Developing your sense of humor: Take yourself less seriously One essential characteristic that helps us laugh is not taking ourselves too seriously. We’ve all known the classic tight-jawed sourpuss who takes everything with deathly seriousness and never laughs at anything. No fun there! Some events are clearly sad and not occasions for laughter. But most events in life don’t carry an overwhelming sense of either sadness or delight. They fall into the gray zone of ordinary life–giving you the choice to laugh or not. Ways to help yourself see the lighter side of life: Laugh at yourself. Share your embarrassing moments. The best way to take ourselves less seriously is talk about times when we took ourselves too seriously. Attempt to laugh at situations rather than bemoan them. Look for the humor in a bad situation, the irony and absurdity of life. This will help improve your mood and the mood of those around you. Surround yourself with reminders to lighten up. Keep a toy on your desk or in your car. Put up a funny poster in your office. Choose a computer screensaver that makes you laugh. Frame photos of you and your family or friends having fun. Keep things in perspective. Many things in life are beyond our control—particularly the behavior of other people. While you might think taking the weight of the world on your shoulders is admirable, in the long run it’s unrealistic, unproductive, unhealthy, and even egotistical. Deal with your stress. Stress is a major impediment to humor and laughter. Pay attention to children and emulate them. They are the experts on playing, taking life lightly, and laughing. Checklist for lightening up When you find yourself taken over by what seems to be a horrible problem, ask these questions: Is it really worth getting upset over? Is it worth upsetting others? Is it that important? Is it that bad? Is the situation irreparable? Is it really your problem? Using humor and play to overcome challenges and enhance your life The ability to laugh, play, and have fun with others not only makes life more enjoyable–it also helps you solve problems, connect with others, and be more creative. People who incorporate humor and play into their daily lives find that it renews them and all of their relationships. Life brings challenges that can either get the best of you or become playthings for your imagination. When you “become the problem” and take yourself too seriously, it can be hard to think outside the box and find new solutions. But when you play with the problem, you can often transform it into an opportunity for creative learning. Playing with problems seems to come naturally to children. When they are confused or afraid, they make their problems into a game, giving them a sense of control and an opportunity to experiment with new solutions. Interacting with others in playful ways helps you retain this creative ability. Here are two examples of people who took everyday problems and turned them around through laughter and play: Roy, a semi-retired businessman, was excited to finally have time to devote to golf, his favorite sport. But the more he played, the less he enjoyed himself. Although his game had improved dramatically, he got angry with himself over every mistake. Roy wisely realized that his golfing buddies affected his attitude, so he stopped playing with people who took the game too seriously. When he played with friends who focused more on having fun than on their scores, he was less critical of himself. Now golfing was as enjoyable as Roy hoped it would be. He scored better without working harder. And the brighter outlook he was getting from his companions and the game spread to other parts of his life, including his work. Jane worked at home in her apartment complex designing greeting cards, a job she used to love but now felt routine. Two little girls who loved to draw and paint lived next door. Eventually, Jane invited the girls in to play with all the art supplies she had. At first, she just watched, but in time she joined in. Laughing, coloring, and playing pretend with the little girls transformed Jane’s life. Not only did playing with them end her loneliness and mild boredom, it sparked her imagination and helped her artwork flourish. Best of all, it rekindled the playfulness and spark in Jane’s relationship with her husband. As laughter, humor, and play become an integrated part of your life, your creativity will flourish and new discoveries for playing with friends, coworkers, acquaintances, and loved ones will occur to you daily. Humor takes you to a higher place where you can view the world from a more relaxed, positive, creative, joyful, and balanced perspective.

 

 

Why Spirituality is so Important?

Why Spirituality is so Important?

“Spiritual activities such as prayer, contemplation, and meditation

can reduce stress, promote a healthier lifestyle, and intensify

our sense of belonging.  Spirituality can also have a positive effect

on brain activity.”

Robert Sherfield

Building a strong spiritual connection can provide strength and hope during difficult times. It can serve as a reminder that good and beautiful things co-exist in a world with violence and suffering. Spirituality is unique and personal and can be achieved in many ways, from a walk in the woods or belonging to a church, to participating in a 12 Step program.  It is the essence of one’s soul, an individual’s innermost nature, and represents the synergy in all things, animate and inanimate. Spirituality does not only represent tolerance and acceptance, it is the feeling of universal oneness and unity in diversity and includes an awareness of the connectedness of all that is, and accepts that all of life has meaning and purpose and is accordingly blessed.  It could be defined as the animating force in life, symbolized by breath, wind, vigor, and courage and can be considered an active and passive process.  Spirituality is inborn and exclusive to all people, and represents a tendency to move towards knowledge, love, meaning, hope, transcendence, connectedness, and compassion.

Prayer and meditation are other ways to seek spiritual solace.  A life force does exist that makes things grow, makes rain, rivers, mountain ranges, and the perfect banana.  Childbirth is another representation of the miracle and mystery of life.  Spirituality is the maintaining of a connection to a part of each of us when we are seeking a healthy, integrated, fully alive life.  Much of this close connection to the spiritual realm was lost because of the legislation banning traditional spiritual practices for Native Americans from the late 1800s to the 1970s.  To address spiritual deficiencies, we can explore our cultural roots and enhance our spiritual connections.

According to tribal ancestors, spirituality was of the utmost importance and needed to be nurtured starting at a young age. Children were encouraged to become aware of their dreams and learn how to examine the latent and manifest messages portrayed by their dreams.  Vision quests, fasting and other forms of communicating with one’s higher power were strongly encouraged.  All inanimate objects and animate beings possessed spirits requiring mutual respect and honor.  

A belief that is supported by those who practiced a traditional form of spirituality is that everyone is given gifts from the universe at birth to use as medicine for the mind, body, heart and spirit. These sacred gifts are: Respect, Humility, Compassion, Honesty, Truth, Wisdom, and Love.  Each gift comes with a teaching which offers direction and guidance in finding balance and purpose in life by:

·         Acceptance of who we are as individuals, and members of our families and communities,

·         Understanding our responsibilities, and

·         Doing what we are supposed to do at the best of our abilities.

Elders, adult males and females have provided teachings to prepare the youth for their path in life.  It was important to learn how to live in a gentle way with humbleness and respect accomplished through prayer, fasting, and listening to everything and being open for what our spirit guides are trying to teach us. The beliefs associated with the path of life included the following:

·         Honor Gitchi Manito (The Creator).

·         Honor elders.

·         Honor our elder brothers (all animals are considered to be elder brothers because they were here before humans, and they are relied on for teachings, as well as for sustenance).

·         Honor women.

·         Keep promises and uphold pledges.

·         Show kindness to everyone.

·         Be peaceful in body and spirit.

·         Be courageous.

·         Be moderate in dreams, thoughts, words and deeds.

            Cognitive Dissonance is referred to as any idea, belief or practice that is contrary to our actual beliefs. There are so many contradictory messages portrayed in religious practices.  We are told to fear God; but at the same time we are told fear demonstrates a lack of faith.  If you find comfort in attending organized religious practices because of the support obtained from having a connection with the congregation and church leaders, by all means continue this practice. However, be careful not to fall into the guilt and shame traps. We need to build up a personal system in which we protect ourselves by gaining a very good understanding of what our values are and we can take what we need from each church service and leave the rest. Attending religious services does not ensure that we are addressing our spiritual needs. We cannot replace our spirituality with religion.  They are not one in the same.

Spirituality is usually personal between us and divinity.  It is a way in which we take care of ourselves, and gain a better understanding of who we are.  When we engage ourselves spiritually, we can explore our gifts, strengths, and strive to seek peace, harmony and a deeper understanding of the universe, meaning our personal connection with divinity.  When I was experiencing episodes of deep depression, I asked divinity for guidance and support. Turning things over to divinity was calming for me.  I didn’t feel alone. 

Native American people have questioned why white people only practiced their spirituality one hour per week. To the traditional people in the past, spirituality was practiced 24/7, it was a way of life.  We live as one with Mother Earth and all its creatures.  When the Native American people were driven from their homelands, they were subjected to a harsh loss. Living on reservations and being forced to rely on others to provide for their basic needs such as food and clothing went against their beliefs.  Many Native Americans were introduced to a foreign form of spirituality referred to as religion when they were forced to attend the boarding schools. They were told that the spiritual practices of their families were of savage origins. Talk about being brought down into the depths of cognitive dissonance. 

Beliefs have power to guide our actions and behaviors, either positive or negative.   We need to examine what beliefs are working in our lives and leading us down the right path and what beliefs have been destructive.  Our spiritual beliefs can guide us on how to view matters such as death to understanding the meaning of life, faith and trust, trust that important element in any healthy relationship.  Our spiritual beliefs are usually the most avid gauge of our actions and behaviors.  Our self-esteem is associated with our spiritual beliefs.  When we act in a way that is in agreement with our beliefs we feel elated, when we act against our beliefs it is detrimental to our psyche.

Spirituality and self-esteem are key ingredients concerning character development.  They serve as a road map when interacting with others. People with ingrained spiritual beliefs carry themselves with deep sincerity of character.  When we have maintained a strong character base we behave the same way when we are alone as we do in the company of others.  Character can be described as how we would act if all of a sudden there were no policies or consequences for our behaviors.  We are free to treat anyone however we wanted without taking responsibility. I have viewed television shows and movies in which the police were busy or distracted from policing specific areas so there was looting going on.  The individuals stealing others’ property did not have strong character. 

We all know people who are poor in character.  They are the people we can’t trust.  These individuals make decisions based on how the outcomes will affect them and can be extremely self-serving. They don’t keep their promises, do not tell the truth, they do horrible things to others to get ahead, and do not respect the needs and wants of others. Again, I am reminded about why many Native American people still suffer from historical trauma. 

A person of character accepts responsibility for his or her actions and does not place blame on others for their own wrongdoings.  He or she does not take the credit due to others. A person of character treats everyone fairly.  I am reminded of how poorly the native people were treated when Columbus thought he arrived in the West Indies.  Did Columbus have strong character and ingrained spiritual beliefs?  Did the caregivers at the Indian boarding schools have strong character with solid spiritual beliefs when they abused the children at these institutions?

Enhancing our spirituality can provide us inner strength and hope. Our spirituality is usually unique and personal and reminds us that we can co-exist in a world filled with good and suffering.  Many ways exist in which we can enhance our spirituality from meditation to a walk in the woods. Again, we need to examine what is working in our lives and what is not concerning our beliefs and establish a deep-seated understanding of what our values are. We need to work diligently to prevent ourselves from doing things which go against our values. It is also important to explore and nurture our spirituality to enhance and/or maintain our self-esteem and build a strong character if our character is broken.

 

The Essential Ingredients of Mind-Body Health

The Essential Ingredients of Mind-Body Health

The assumption that healthy people are just lucky, have good genes, or practice preventive medicine is no more than a half-truth. The healthiest people in our society – meaning those who avoid catastrophic disease and live to a happy old age without any major debilitating illnesses – fall into a different profile. According to current medical understanding, here are the essential ingredients of mind-body health:

1)  Emotional adaptability. This is the single most important factor in staying well and living long. It’s the ability to let go and remain open to change. Everyone suffers losses and setbacks, but some get stuck in their pain, storing emotional toxicity or ama that contributes to imbalance and illness. Fortunately, emotional resilience is a quality that we can develop in ourselves. For those struggling with emotional pain, the Healing the Heart and Emotional Freedom programs offer a powerful process for releasing the past and reclaiming emotional balance and wholeness.

2)  Good coping mechanisms. There are two ways to cope with life’s uncertainty: acceptance and resistance. Acceptance is allowing events to unfold around you and reacting to them spontaneously, while resistance is fighting against the natural force of evolution. Nature will ultimately win, and our struggle against the river of life creates a lot of wear and tear on our body and accelerates the aging process. Cultivating acceptance is a powerful coping skill that doesn’t imply being passive or letting go of desire; it is actively practicing the Law of Detachment, which is based on an unwavering belief in the power of your true Self. Learn more about the Seven Spiritual Laws of Success at the Seduction of Spirit retreat.

3) Self-empowerment. Numerous studies show that people who feel victimized or out of control are at higher risk for physical and emotional illness.  Those who constantly feel like a victim of life make the mistake of false identification: They see themselves as limited and isolated, not realizing that our essential nature is pure potentiality.

4) Stress reduction. Stress exacts an enormous toll on our mental and physical health, including high blood pressure, heart disease, stomach ulcers, cancer, insomnia, depression, and autoimmune diseases. While many claim to thrive under pressure, no one maintains health and well-being in the face of constant long-term stress.

One of the most effective stress relief tools we have is meditation. When we meditate, our breathing slows, blood pressure decreases, and stress hormone levels fall. Beyond these significant health benefits, the greatest gift of meditation is the sense of calm and inner peace it brings into your daily life.

5) Feeling loved, wanted, and useful. All three are necessary for optimal health, and the healthiest people make choices to maximize their experience of these positive qualities. In fact, emotional deprivation is as unhealthy as a lack of good food, essential vitamins, and adequate sleep.

If someone were to come to me for a physical exam, I'd certainly comply, but before they left I would do everything possible to put them on the right track to optimal health, which has little to do with doctors and everything to do with self-awareness and balance.

Love,
Deepak