Stress management is a hot topic; stress-related illness and
suffering is at an all-time high in America and increasing every
year. Cliff Kuhn, M.D.'s work with the powerful natural medicine of
humor has uncovered the primary culprit behind your unhealthy stress
symptoms, as well as the solution to simple, healthy stress
management.
Astronomer-mathematician Ptolemy (85-165) devised a theory of
planetary motions that placed the earth at the center of the
universe. The sun, moon, and planets revolved around the earth in
the Ptolemaic universe. This notion was accepted for approximately
1,500 years. More on this in a moment...
Shelly was in such need of stress management that she was unhappy
much of the time. Shortly after she became my patient, I was able to
help Shelly see that, just like Ptolemy's theory, she was casting
herself as the center of the universe, thereby causing unmanageable
stress levels in her life. We began a regimen from my Fun Factor
prescription that afforded Shelly proper stress management,
reintroduced joy and happiness, and brought her life back into
balance.
Shelly's problem was common; I see more and more people each day
who suffer from unhealthy levels of stress. Whether it is
sleeplessness, weight gain, mood changes, hair loss, worry,
agitation, or any other of the myriad symptoms commonly associated
with stress, stress-related illness and suffering is at an all-time
high in America and increasing every year. Luckily for you, my work
with the powerful natural medicine of humor has uncovered the
primary culprit behind your unhealthy stress symptoms, as well as
the solution to simple, healthy stress management.
My medical practice, involving decades of work with chronically
and fatally ill patients, has clearly identified the cause of our
painful stress symptoms - seriousness. Seriousness means taking
yourself too seriously; seriousness means over-reaching - taking
responsibility for things beyond your power, such as the outcomes
and results of all your hard work. Consequently, you're positioning
yourself incorrectly as the "center of the universe."
Seriousness causes so much pressure that effective stress
management, which I will teach you in this article, becomes
impossible.
The antidote for your seriousness, and your foundation for
healthy stress management, is the natural medicine of humor. Humor's
incredible power is harnessed to maximum impact through my unique
Fun Factor prescription. Based upon my Fun Commandments, which were
forged in unison with some incredible patients of mine, my Fun
Factor prescription is capable of producing such profound positive
change to your health and personal success that you will soon have
people whispering, "Is she always this happy?"
In this article, I will explain how my Fun Factor prescription
can be directly applied to your stress. You will be amazed at how
much lighter and happier you feel, with each passing day, as you put
the following Fun Commandments to work in your life. You are about
to discover that the natural medicine of humor produces flawless
stress management, putting an end to your painful stress symptoms.
The Fun Factor Stress Management Formula
Step One: Laugh with Yourself
My first stress management Fun Commandment is: Laugh with
Yourself. This Commandment is not about humiliation or
self-denigration, it is the ultimate in self-respect because it
teaches you to appreciate your "perfect imperfection" and
to find gentle amusement in your foibles. And, when it comes to
stress, there is plenty of amusement to be found which will greatly
aid your stress management.
Here's the first amusing thing about your stress: you can't live
without it, yet too much is bad for your health. Like many of the
essential things in life: we need a certain amount of stress to
survive, yet too much can kill us. For example, we die if we are
without water for more than a few days; but submerge us in water and
we die a lot sooner.
It is said that we can die from boredom. I don't think there is
any scientific evidence for that theory, but one thing is certain -
stress relieves boredom. Ending boredom, indeed, could be considered
a form of stress relief. An amusing paradox, no doubt!
Without stress, also, we might not eat. Hunger is a form of
stress our body needs occasionally to remind us we need food. Stress
causes the adrenal glands to work. Athletes would not perform at
their best without stress-induced adrenaline. Every activity causes
a certain amount of stress. So does inactivity. In fact, to be
completely stress-free we would have to be dead - not a highly
recommended stress management technique!
The idea that stress is a killer is exaggerated, which is also
humorous. Too much stress can be a killer, and it is against too
much stress in our lives that we need to guard. Fortunately we are
equipped with the finest possible stress management mechanism: the
natural medicine of humor and the ability to laugh with ourselves.
Far better and safer than Valium, it is our built-in stress
management system.
As you learn to laugh with yourself you will become like an
athlete - who can have fun running the mile or the marathon and
still turn in peak performance. In fact, since too much seriousness
can tighten muscles through negative tension, laughing with yourself
may even enhance performance. This Fun Commandment works wonderfully
on many levels.
Step Two: Choose To Motivate Yourself With Fun, Not Fear
Step two in my Fun Factor stress management formula is one of my
newest Fun Commandments. Motivating yourself with fun rather than
fear is a crucial step that allows your commitment to laugh with
yourself to fully impact your healthy stress management.
This brings us to the only true choice you have in life. Will you
be inspired by fear or by fun? One choice is all we have for our
health, wellness, and fitness - fear or fun. It all boils down to
that. It is your responsibility to choose one or the other.
The question is, which is the responsible choice? Which of the
two is a powerful medicine, which will give you health and motivate
you greater success, sustaining you over time? The natural medicine
of humor gives us the answer.
There is no doubt that both fear and fun are potent stimulants to
behavior over the short run. So the question becomes one of
sustainability. Will fear or fun best help us sustain our excellence
over time? Which of the two is a powerful alternative medicine that
you can learn to use for your greatest health, wellness, and
fitness? (That's a trick question, by the way)
Let's Encounter A Man-Eating Bear!
The fear of being eaten alive motivates us to run as fast and as
far as we can when chased by a bear. There is little to no fun in
that experience. It is purely fearful, but the energy it provides
maximizes the possibilities of sustaining life for that moment. For
the moment, in such a life-threatening situation, fear seems to be
an efficient and productive choice. Though full of stress, it
relieves us of the immediate threat!
But let's take it a step further. Having survived my wilderness
encounter with the bear, I return to my home in an urban
environment. The next morning, as I start out for work, I run
desperately for the car, quickly jumping inside and locking the
doors.
When I arrive at my workplace, I race into the building. Before I
get down to work I suspend my bagged lunch high above my desk,
roping it to the light standards. I insist upon all doors being
locked and secured. When asked why, I answer, "I'm merely doing
what got me through my wilderness experience over the weekend. I
don't want to be eaten by a bear."
You'd think I was over-reacting just a wee bit, and you'd be
right. You could say that my stress relieves my anxiety, but my
anxiety is based on a lie conjured and sustained by my fear! Not
exactly the greatest of stress management techniques.
The Three Biggest Dangers Of Our "Run-From-a-Bear"
Stress Management Techniques
1. We live our lives as though every day was an emergency; as
though a bear is chasing us all the time. This is unfortunate for
three reasons:
2. We now know that such a constant state of "wariness"
or agitation breaks down our coping mechanisms over time. It is
impossible to sustain the fear-based behavior without breaking down
or burning out.
3. Of all the stress management techniques, this is the absolute
worst to choose because it only increases our stress! It reduces the
effectiveness of humor's natural medicine to zilch.
A more pernicious error occurs. We begin to think that the
avoidance of whatever we fear is the same as having fun. Joy becomes
synonymous with the avoidance of fear.
The Absence Of One Thing
Does Not Indicate The Presence Of Its Opposite
If this sounds ridiculous to you let me put it in more familiar
terms that have become acceptable where your health is concerned.
With rare exception we have agreed in our society that health is
synonymous with absence of symptoms. Do you really believe your
health is merely the absence of your symptoms? My Fun Factor
prescription teaches you that, not only is the absence of symptoms
not synonymous with health, but also that you never have to fall for
that lie again.
You never have to settle for second-rate health! You can use your
powerful natural medicine of humor to stave off seriousness'
debilitating effects.
Therefore the issue becomes balance. Fun balances fear. The
ultimate question is not, "Are you without fear?", but "Is
your fun in balance with your fear?" If you're not 100% certain
of a "yes" response to the later question, then you need
to STOP - RIGHT NOW - and take the last step in my Fun Factor stress
management formula to ensure that your life is as healthful as it
could be.
Step Three: Tell the Truth
The final step in your Fun Factor stress management formula is
the Fun Commandment, Tell the Truth. This Commandment refers more to
self-integrity than it does "cash register" honesty.
Getting in the habit of telling yourself the truth will cement
humor's powerfully positive effect over your stress. Your stress
management becomes second nature when you are honest with yourself
each day, because you can then immediately, easily, and simply apply
steps one and two to your life.
Telling yourself the truth, for our purposes, focuses on knowing
when your stress levels are rising. As we noted in step two,
everyday activities normally produce a baseline level of stress and
this stress is usually alleviated by your daily routines (for
example, when you experience the stress of hunger, you eat). Step
three in my Fun Factor stress management formula teaches you to
recognize the signs of unhealthy stress and take corrective action
immediately.
Here are some simple stress management techniques to apply when
your self-honesty reveals rising stress levels:
1. Start your day off by singing in the shower at the top of your
voice. Make up your own song that incorporates the idea that you are
embarking upon a glorious day in which great things are going top
happen to you. Can't sing? Good! Can't rhyme? Who cares? The words
are for you alone. This is not a contest. Be as off-key as you need
to be...unless you are Placido Domingo.
The important thing is to be loud (your inner ear has to hear
it), upbeat and convincing. The subconscious believes what it is
told. Start your day by telling it that it will be a great day and
you will be more than halfway to producing exactly that result.
Think of your singing not as singing but as a stress relief game
played before stress has a chance to rear its ugly head.
2. Travel to work alone, along the same boring route every day?
Make up a game to play as you look out the window of your car, bus
or train. For example, how many dogs will you see on the way to
work?
Try to guess before you set out and see how close you are when
you arrive. Reward yourself every time you guess correctly to within
a certain number. Drivers: limit yourself to dogs (or green
elephants) you see through the windshield only. This game does not
work well in subways; there are no green elephants in subways.
3. Have a routine job? One that you find boring? Does it produce
stress symptoms, such as drumming your fingers or tapping your toes?
Perhaps you need to introduce fun into your workday.
For example, if your job is to make identical widgets each day,
how could you do something different to give variety to what
otherwise could become a monotonous task? Could you, for example,
place each new widget relative to the others so that together they
make a pattern, or spell the name of your sweetheart? How many do
you make an hour? Could you make one more than that the next hour,
safely and with the same excellent quality? Make a stress-relieving
game out of your work and it will feel less like work and more like
fun.
4. Smile. You feel stressed? Smile. It is a simple activity, so
simple that even infants can do it. Just for kicks, count how many
times you smile in an hour. None, you say? Then this stress relief
game is even easier for you, and more important than it is for those
who smile all the time. (No wonder they don't feel the same degree
of stress that you do!)
Your smile doesn't need to be a broad grin that suggests to those
around you that they need to call the men in white coats. But it
should be more than a mental smirk; your facial muscles should be
aware that they are smiling.
It is possible simply to paste a smile on your face without any
reason other than you want to smile. After a while, your
subconscious will take over, lighten your mood, and the smiles will
come easily and naturally.
It's best, if possible, to think of something that can give you a
genuine smile, a reason you can talk about if called upon to do so.
Each of us, no matter how depressed, has something in life to
celebrate.
5. Recognize that stress is a choice. We can accept it and put up
with it, and the damage it can cause our bodies. We can avoid it,
but that could be a difficult choice; especially if it means
quitting the only job we know in a tough job market. That choice
might easily create worse stresses. Or we can deal with it and
defeat it.
That is not as difficult as it might sound if you make up your
mind to use my Fun Factor prescription in everything you do. That
doesn't necessarily mean, laughing, joking and playing the village
idiot - though all those activities can relieve stress too. You can
have fun without ever cracking a single joke.
A game of tickle with the children or grandchildren can be fun
and bring energetic screams of delight from them and you. Touch
football or, for the less energetic, lawn darts or horseshoes can be
fun. For others, it's a walk, socializing with friends, admiring the
beauty around us or following a hobby - especially if it is an
engrossing one.
Attitude Is Everything
The key is to recognize stress symptoms when they occur,
recognize what's causing them, and use my Fun Factor formula for
healthy stress management. Since fun is the best natural stress
reliever known, it makes good sense to incorporate my Fun Factor
stress management formula into your daily life.
But don't get obsessive about it. Don't be stressed by removing
stress. Be content with removing some of your stress, and with
taking the edge off it so that you function as a healthier, happier
and more productive humor being. After all, perfectionism produces
stress.
Shelly, by the way, has learned to take herself much more lightly
now and she does not suffer nearly as many stress symptoms. The
paradox she loves is that taking herself less seriously actually
permits her to take her responsibilities more seriously than ever
before! The natural medicine of humorr, supercharged by my Fun
Factor prescription, has allowed Shelly to easily and simply manage
her stress and enjoy a life others have started to envy.
Just as Polish astronomer Nicholas Copernicus disproved Ptolemy's
earth-centered universe in the 16th century, so the natural medicine
of humor disproves that you must suffer from being the center of
your universe. Remove yourself from the pressure and stress of a
life where everything revolves around you...start using my Fun
Factor stress management formula, and the rest of my Fun
Commandments, today!
Clifford Kuhn, M.D., America's Laugh Doctor, teaches people and
organizations to be more healthy and successful through the use of
fun and humor. A psychiatrist, and the former associate chairperson
of the University of Louisville's renowned Department of Psychiatry,
Dr. Kuhn now dispenses his prescription for turbo-charging your
health, success, and vitality from
http://www.natural-humor-medicine.com/EZA4
On his website you will find tons of fun, free ways for you to
maximize your sense of humor, and enjoy a life others will envy.
