Friday Thoughts August 7, 2009

Friday thoughts . .
Laughter – Our Subconscious Giveaway to our Mind Set

This week I thought about how much better I feel after laughing. I’ve heard that laughter heals the body from many ills including the damage of stress. I love to hear the infectious laughter of my youngest granddaughter, who seems to find everything to do with adult behavior quite funny. She sees humor in everything, including discipline.
Did you know that young children probably laugh the most? We first begin to laugh somewhere between 3.5 to 4 months of age, long before we’re able to speak. At ages 5 and 6, we tend to see the most exuberant laughs. Adults laugh less than children, probably because they play less. Laughter is associated with play. Thinking “playful” creates more opportunity for laughter. Researchers seem to agree - We don’t decide to laugh at these moments. Our brain makes the decision for us. These curious outbreaks of laughter are bits of social glue that bond relationships. Curiously, laughter seldom interrupts the sentence structure of speech. It punctuates speech. We only laugh during pauses when we would cough or breathe. I know from hearing my granddaughter laugh that laughter is social and contagious. I laugh at the sound of her laughter. That’s why the Tickle Me Elmo doll is such a success — it makes us laugh and smile. It is also why you find yourself smiling when you think of someone who does things on a regular basis that makes you laugh.
It’s obvious that humor is important to our everyday lives. It has been shown to help career advancement, speed up the healing process, reduce the risk of depression and heart disease and improve general coping skills. Humor helps us to deal with stressful or tense situations and gives us back some perspective to allow us to tackle the problems head on and get them all sorted out.
Contrary to folk wisdom, most laughter is not about humor; it is about relationships between people and other people, or people and their environment, or it might be about the relationship that a person has with themselves.

Andy Andrews www.andyandrews.com in his audio titled, “Baseball, Boys and Bad Words”, recognized that laughter traditionally requires a target. Picking on the weaker and fragile people around you isn’t going to be funny; in fact it could be devastatingly not funny. Your target either has to be a big strong, self assured person who may even throw the first humor assault at you or the target is yourself. He pokes fun at the adults in his life from the view point of a 10 yr old. He creates pictures in your mind – I get drawn into his stories. If you have not heard this story I’d be happy to play it for you. It brought tears to my eyes the first time I heard it.

Who creates more laughter in others – our right brained thinkers (creative, random, feely types) or our left brained (logical, analytical types)? I’d lay money on the people who look at life from different angles would find more ways to create pictures that are outside the box. Want to do an easy test to see if you are more right brained or left brained focused? Check this out:

http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,22535838-5012895,00.html
I wonder if someone can be commanded to laugh? I can hear the teacher now, “On the count of 5, Red Group, commence laughing” I don’t think so based on the research that I did. Laughter comes from your subconscious and happens without thought.
Want to know the two main reasons we laugh?
#1 Tension and Release. Someone provokes us an emotional tension and then he releases us. This sudden release of tension provokes laughter. Laugher is activated like a steam gauge, where a buildup of feelings prompts an outburst. It's nature's way of releasing tension this buildup of emotions,
From a recent email I received:

I was in the pub yesterday when I suddenly realized I desperately needed to fart. The music was really, really loud, so I timed my farts with the beat.
After a couple of songs, I started to feel better. I finished my pint and noticed that everybody was staring at me.
Then I suddenly remembered that I was listening to my iPod.


#2 Perceived Incongruity. When you are surprised about something that normally should not exist, it will provoke laughter.
Ie. "Flying is simple. You just throw yourself at the ground and miss."
- Douglas Adams

What’s your mindset? What makes you laugh?
Have a great week!
Deb
PS Our company sales rocked in July! We helped more clients buy or sell homes in July than we have in any other July for the past 7 years! Congratulations! RE/MAX sells more homes than any other Real Estate Company in the World.