Humor the healing tonic :

A good laughter emanating from the heart can be a tonic for the ailing mind and body. Humour can jo9g the organs, stimulate enzymes and transiently change our body's biochemistry. In short,humor is both a rejuvenating and healing tonic.
But what is humor? Humor consists of laughter(physilogical component), wit(cognitive component), and mirth (emotional component)

Most research focuses on studying laughter, not humor. The components other than laughter have not been studied for their health benefits.
We were familiar with the feeling of 'lightness' that follows deep belly laughter. Research has shown that laughter holds many physiological benefits.
The evidence to date shows many physiological benefits of laughter.

 Some are :
Hikes muscular and respiratory activity
Stimulates the cardivascular sysytem, sympathetic nervous system, and production of catecholamines (any of a class of aromatic amine compounds, many of which are neurotransmitter:eg.adrenaline,dopamine)

Increases antibodies =the body's first line of defense against respiratory illness
Decreases levels of stress hormones
Decreases heart rate (in "heavy laughters")
Increases pain tolerance
Stimulates the muscular and skeletal systems
According to Steve Sultanoff, a famous Mirthologist and Clinical Psychologist, apart from laughing at life's ups and downs, humor can be therapeutic.
 

Humour reduces Stress :

Work is often associated with stress, and we know that stress is one of the main causes of illness, absenteeism, employee burn-out, etc. Humor is a great stress reliever because it makes us feel good, and we can't feel good and feel stress simultaneously. At the moment we experience humor, feelings like depression, anger, and anxiety dissolve. Humor and, its partner, laughter also reduce stress by activating the physiological systems including the muscular respiratory, cardivascular, and skeletal.
In fact, we many even lose muscle comteol, as many of us have, when we laugh so hard that we fall down or wet our pants. Laughter has been labeled a jogging and juggling of the internal organs. When we laugh we feel physically better, and after laughter we feel lighter and more relaxed. In addition, humor provides a psychological stress reducer se it snaps our thinking to another channel. We know humor and laughter are valuable, but we do not have sufficient published "research" to support the conclusion that humor and laughter promote health and wellness. We feel good when we experience humor. Humor can act as a "social lubricant" by decreasing interpersonal tension and offering perspective on life's stressors.

Using humor for treatment :

A shriking Perspective Therapy is a process where councilors create intervention strategies that are designed to influence a client's emotions, behaviours, cognitions, and/or biochemistry. Each of these four aspects of the human system interacts with one another so that a change in one area (eg.emotion) is likely to create change in another (eg.behaviour). The therapeutic power of humorous interventions in its ability to stimulate changes in all four areas.
There are numerous ways in which a counselor can use humor in the therapeutic relationship. Humor can be used to build the therapeutic alliance, to increase client energy, to treat emotional distress and cognitive distortion, and to diagnose the client's ongoing progress.

Since humor directly changes our emotional states-humor and distressing emotions cannot occupy the same psychological space-it can be used as a treatment modality to alter these states. Clients can be taught to use humor to relive anxiety, depression and anger. The use of humor helps teach clients that they can not only relieve emotional distress but also be empowered to manage their emotional reactions.
In addition to treatment, humor can be used to diagnose a client's psychological state. A client's ability to perceive humor is related to his/her interaction of thought and emotion. Perception of humor can indicate (diagnostically) progress in therapy (treatment).

Humor in workplace :

How serious can we be about humor in the workplace, and how humorous can we be about the seriousness we often find there? According to Robert haft International 1985 survey, 15 percent of workers are fired because of lack of competence. The remaining 85 percent are let go because of their inability to get along with fellow employees.
When asked about the qualities of an effective employee, senior administrators and human relations personnel check humor as one of the choice attributes of a desired employee. Why was humor become a recognised asset in the work place? Humor facilitates communication, builds relationships, reduces stress, provides perspective, and promotes attending and energies.
Humor provides a non-threatening medium through which an employee or employer can communicate with others without intensifying the emotional temperature of the relationship. Consider the fazzled secretary who posts the sign "I have only two speeds, and if this one isn't fast enough then I'm sure you're not going to like my other." Or the somewhat scatmentered with a note that says, "A creative mess is better than tidy idleness."
The message is clear, yet the communication is done in a light and, therefore, less stressful way. The secretary's sign pokes fun at the situation, and the boss's note pokes some fun at himself.

Humor Builds Relationships :
The development of staff cohesion and a sense of team effort in the workplace can be effectively facilitated by the use of humor. Buleltin boards, electronic mail. intra-office memos, voice mail etc all offer mediums through which we can share humor with co-workers. Office jokes taking seriousness of work lightly provide us with the opportunity to become more connected with others.

Health Benifits :

What then are the conclusions about the health benifits of humor? There is some evidence that "laughter" may be healthful. "Laughter" may create physiological changes that help maintain health. Some potential health benefits of "laughter" may include increased IgA, increased killer T-cells, increased tolerance to pain, and lower serum cortisol. In a pilot study (Limited to 24 participants), researchers found that heart attack survivors who experience 30 minutes of humor daily are less likely to experience second heart attacks, required lower doses of medication, and had lower blood pressure. However, before we report this data, it is important to be aware of this limitations. There were only 12 patients in the experimental group, and in research this is a very small number of subjects.
This study suggests that there might be a health benefit of humor related to heart disease, but more importantly it indicates that there is a need for further research.


Indian Express July 24 2001

A sense of humor :

'A sense of humor' what is it ?? Many of us do not have any idea about what is it ?? A sense of humor is the ability to understand a joke-and that joke is oneself. It is a sense of proportion or is one of the traits of a self-actualised person. The father of the nation Mahatma Gandhi had written that it's only his sense of humor which kept him composed during the troubled times! All through history, one may find most of the achievers had exceptional sense of humor! Converting workplace blunders as jokes and sharing them among the teams on lighter vein creates a very informal and open atmosphere which can facilitate objectivity, trust, open feed back, and mutual sensitivity. Care should, however, be taken not to hurt anyone or trespass one's private boundaries
 

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Humorous Quotes by famous persons :

A woman is only a woman, but a good cigar is a smoke. (Rudyard Kipling)

By all means marry; if you get a good wife, you'll become happy; if you get a bad one, you'll become a philosopher. (Socrates)

Marriage is popular because it combines the maximum of temptation with the maximum of opportunity. (George Bernard Shaw)

Dancing is a perpendicular expression of a horizontal desire. (George Bernard Shaw)

Another fine mess you're gotten me into. (Stan Laurel)

History is more or less bunk. (Henry Ford)

What do I think of Western civilisation? I think it would be a very good idea. (Mahatma Gandhi)

I had the radio on. (Marilyn Monroe, asked if she really had nothing on in a calendar photograph)

Some people say there is a God; others say there is no God. The truth probably lies somewhere in between.(W.B. Yeats)

I am convinced that He (God) does not play dice. (Albert Einstein)

When you have to kill a man it costs nothing to be polite. (Winston Churchill)

If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs. (Rudyard Kipling)

In the future everybody will be world famous for fifteen minutes. (Andy Warhol)

He knows nothing; and he thinks he knows everything. That points clearly to a political career. (George Bernard Shaw)

What's wrong with being a boring kind of guy? (George Bush)
 

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