Didn’t we already do this one?

                 A while back, we addressed Fun. For this book, we define fun as something you have with others, whereas humor is something you have within.

                 Humor is the state that lifts our spirits. It is derived from our outlook and our environment. We see something, we laugh, and we feel better.

                 Medical fact.

                 It’s been shown that laughter is the best medicine (well, maybe second to aspirin). Laughing aloud releases pent-up stresses. It also puts everything into perspective. A good hearty laugh can turn a bad day around. Just think of an insurance regulator and a banana peel, and you are halfway home.

                 Norman Cousins felt that watching funny movies helped him to recover from a degenerative arthritic disease; he called laughter ”Internal Jogging.” The Association for Applied and Therapeutic Humor has shown that laughter decreases stress hormones and enhances the activity of natural killer cells, essential in defending against disease.

                 Unfortunately, HCPs often work in a humorless environment. We exist in an atmosphere of worry, distress, pain, and fear. Often, patients dread us or, in fearing us, are verbally abusive. The stress of the profession can make a good side-splitter seem remote indeed.

                 Which means that humor is not going to just happen to you; you will have to look for it. You will have to keep your eyes open for the possibility of humor. A child’s studious play in the waiting room. A colleague’s theatrics at a minor upset. Or even that tailgating prig in the red sports car, a statement of over-compensation if there ever was one.  All of these are humorous, if you train your eye to see them that way.

                 You might recognize a parallel between this section and the one on Spirituality. This is because both focus on the external. Both look for meaning where meaning might not seem to exist. In searching for your truth (or your yuks) in the world around you, you will break the habit of focusing upon yourself, and see the world in its true expanse.

                 We’re asking you to put down your reading glasses and look at the world through binoculars. The vista can be truly amazing.

THE EXERCISE:

                 Keep your eyes open to your surroundings. Watch closely for the humor the world abounds with. A sign at a tire store announcing their “big blow-out sale.” The cell-phoning businessman who almost walks into a post. A kitten’s honest tumblings.

                 Travel through tomorrow’s world looking for funny things. Keep your laugh ready to let it go, but no faking. You want to raise a chuckle (or better yet, a belly-whomper).

                 When you get home, jot down the things that genuinely gave you a laugh and raised you above your troubles. No counting TV shows or movies or the funnies – we are looking at the real world, not the staged one. Jot them down below.

1.

2.

3.

                 The goal here is, of course, not the funny things that happened, but the transformation in outlook you went through to spot these events. Look up at the list and reflect on how you felt immediately following the humorous moment. Did you feel a little lighter? Were your troubles suddenly in perspective? Did you like yourself at that moment?

                 This feeling is always within you. Nothing to buy. All you need is to keep your focus on the external. If you choose, you can live the rest of your life this way.

                 At the very least, maybe you can make it onto someone else’s humor list.

Patricia Raymond MD FACP FACG is a Virginia gastroenterologist who takes the personnel hemorrhage in medicine seriously, and herself lightly. Formerly fried by compassion fatigue, and a frankly cranky caregiver, Dr.Raymond writes and speaks on helping physicians and nurses to play nicely in the sandbox of medicine.

Her books, “Don’t Jettison Medicine” and the cult comedy anthology “Colonoscopy: It’ll Crack u Up” are available at www.RxForSanity.com, or you can hear her on streaming audio each Friday from 12-1 EST as she hosts NPR’s Housecalls challenging patients to step up and accept responsibility for their own health.

Contact her at PLRaymond@RxForSanity.com.

Get more on booking Dr. Raymond’s presentations for your hospital  at  Rx For Sanity

Pre and Post Colonoscopy Humor can be found at the quirky Colonoscopy: It’ll Crack u Up

Listen and call in to live streaming audio as Dr. Raymond teaches the public to accept responsibility for their own health Fridays 12-1 EST on NPR’s Housecalls with Dr. Pat Raymond

Dr Raymond’s patient-centered gastro practice