How do you spell relief? If you can remember the five letters in this article, you will have less stress and laugh more often.

The Five Laws of Laughter

By Allen Klein, MA, CSP (aka Mr. Jollytologist)



Can you remember five letters?

If you can, then you are well on your way to finding more humor, laughter and mirth in your daily Maalox moments.

Those letters... are you ready? - are . . .

L - A - U - G - H -


Each of the letters stands for one thing you can do immediately to keep your humor up when you are down. The acronym is:

L = Let Go
A = Attitude
U = You (o.k.,I cheated a little bit here.)
G = Go Do It
H = Humor eyes & ears

Let Go:
If you are upset, angry or frustrated with anything, you cannot laugh about it. So the first way to get more laughter in your life is to start to let go. And the quickest way that I know of letting go of anything is through play.
Play changes your energy.

For example:
Think about some small stress you are having. Then, say out loud the thing that causes that stress.

Now repeat what you just said but this time, after it, say: "Ho, ho. Ha, ha. Or, hee, hee."

O.K., what happened?

You are probably laughing, or at least smiling, about that stressor.

Another thing you can do to let go of your stress is to get a balloon. Then think about some small stress you are having and blow that stress into a balloon. Get it as big as you can, then let go of the balloon and the stress you just blew into it.

Attitude:
The world is the way it is. What makes it otherwise, is your attitude. Change your attitude and you change your world.

My mom, who just turned 94-years-old, has a great attitude. When an entire stack of dished fell and broke, she declared, "Well now I have less to wash!"

You:
You need to do it. Everyone's sense of humor is different so you need to find out what makes you laugh and seek that out - rent your favorite comedy, call a humor buddy, giggle with your grandkids.

Go Do It:
In my Healing Power of Humor book, I have fourteen techniques of how the reader can increase their sense of humor. One of my favorites is to have a prop or toy around - perhaps a red-sponge-rubber clown nose.
Next time you get upset, put one of these on and look in the mirror. I bet you will be hard-pressed to stay angry.

Humor Eyes and Ears:
There is humor all around. Open your humor eyes and ears and find some. For example, A sign I once saw on the wall of a Laundromat read, "When the machine stops remove all your clothing."

Which I did!

(Allen Klein is the author of The Healing Power of Humor, The Courage to Laugh, TeacherLaughs,
WorkLaughs, and Parentlaughs.