Kids can amuse themselves with almost anything.
Your attitude is like a box of crayons that color your world. Constantly color your picture gray, and your picture will always be bleak. Try adding some bright colors to the picture by including humor, and your picture begins to lighten up.
Any attempts at humor immediately after September 11th were deemed tasteless.
Zen teaches that once we can open up to the inevitability of our demise, we can begin to transform that situation and lighten up about it.
Sometimes it takes ten seconds to see some humor in your dilemmas, sometimes ten years.
While most of us know that we feel better after a good hearty laugh, science, in many cases, is yet to prove why.
Laughter can help relieve tension in even the heaviest of matters.
The tragedy of September 11th was so sudden, so enormous, and so horrendous, both in terms of lives lost and global consequences, that this country and the world went into immediate and prolonged shock.
The studies indicate that focusing our attention on someone else, takes our mind off of our own problems. We stay healthier and thereby live longer.
And, unlike the earlier bombing on the World Trade Center, a major landmark and symbol of the strength of the financial world was, not just damaged but, totally destroyed.
Today's business and health care climate may not be pleasant. Cutbacks, pay cuts and layoffs do not make anyone's job easy. But that does not mean that the humor need stop.
When we are dealing with death we are constantly being dragged down by the event: Humor diverts our attention and lifts our sagging spirits.
When times get tough, at some point, people instinctively know they need to lighten up in order to get through it.
Now, a recent study from cardiologists at the University of Maryland, has shown that laughter may have a beneficial effect on the heart.
When you do find humor in trying times, one of the first and most important changes you experience is that you see your perplexing problems in a new way - you suddenly have a new perspective on them.
Laughing is also good for your respiratory system.
In looking for humor, keep in mind this guideline: Sometimes it takes a little time to see the humor in your upsets; you may not find something to laugh about immediately.
When we can find some humor in our upsets, they no longer seem as large or as important as they once did.
