Welcome to - This column will hereafter be a permanent feature of this web site, although its content will change monthly. It is dedicated to all individuals (and their loved ones) who are now battling cancer, and to Survivors whose cancer is in remission. I’ll occasionally leave you with a joke. This will usually be related to cancer, or some other source of stress in our lives. If you’ve heard a joke along these lines that you love, and would like to see it made available to everyone in this column, please send it to me at HaHaRemedy@viconet.com. Humor Your Tumor Have you ever noticed how much more often young children laugh than adults? Is this a coincidence, or do we lose something as we get older that is somehow central to our sense of humor? After spending 20 years as a researcher studying this question, I have become convinced that as we get older, many adults lose the quality that I consider to be the basic foundation for your sense of humor. It's the sense of fun and the playful attitude that young children bring to everything they do. Among both children and adults, it's when we are within this playful frame of mind that we are most likely to see humor around us, or to create our own humor. That's why it's the basic foundation for your sense of humor. If you (or a loved one) are learning to live with cancer, access to this playful attitude probably disappeared the moments you heard the words none of us wants to hear: "You have cancer." One of the goals of this column, however, is to remind you to take yourself lightly as you take your cancer and your treatments very seriously. If you can do this, you'll boost the quality of your life as you go through the ordeal; you'll take an important step in learning to cope with the stress that automatically goes with battling your illness. You need to know that your cancer makes you very vulnerable to another condition. It's called TERMINAL SERIOUSNESS. Cancer produces terminal seriousness, because it robs you of your ability to shift gears and adopt a playful or fun attitude--even when everyone around you is laughing and in the spirit of fun. The one thing I hear over and over again from the cancer patients for whom I do humor programs is that it is this ability to lighten up and laugh while going through chemotherapy or radiation therapy that gets them through the tough days. That's why, if you want to begin improving your humor skills in the months ahead, this is the place to start. Rediscover the sense of fun and the ability to play that you used to have. Before you begin working on specific humor skills (to be discussed in the months ahead), spend some time making the effort to let out the playful child within you. As you do this, you will notice that your own natural sense of humor will begin to re-emerge. Even if you've managed to keep a good sense of humor as you've faced life's challenges, you will benefit from building up this playful attitude. You will acquire the skill of having access to a playful frame of mind even on the days when things aren't going well. You will take control over your mood, instead of having it depend on whether good or bad things are happening for you on any given day. Next month, we will continue this discussion of the importance of a playful attitude in life, and will offer additional specific guidelines for learning to develop it. HOMEPLAY: For each of the steps in the 8-Step Humor Skills Training Program, I'll provide Homeplay (not homework!) for the weeks ahead. This will include exercises and activities for you to practice in order to develop the skills associated with each step. 1) Think about how playful/serious you are on a typical day. Are you always pretty serious, or do have times when the spirit of play and fun comes alive in you? 2) Think about the situations in which you're always serious, and those in which you can be playful. Make it a point to spend more time in situations which bring out your sense of play. Also think about this in connection with specific people. Spend more time around the people who make you laugh and bring out your own sense of fun. 3) Write down what you think would be the benefits in your own life if you could strengthen this ability to adopt a playful outlook on a daily basis. Also discuss this with your friends and loved ones. (Reminder: This doesn't mean you should be playful all the time. The goal is to develop the ability to be playful when you choose to.) For a detailed discussion of how to strengthen this basic foundation for your sense of
humor, see Step 2 of Health, Healing, and the Amuse System: Humor as Survival Training. [Note: Check this site every month for new information on how humor improves the quality of your life and helps you cope with cancer.] HaHaRemedy@viconet.com. Click here to link to Dr. McGhee's web site at www.LaughterRemedy.com. Click HERE for additional articles by Dr. McGhee on Humor and health/coping. |
||
