Accentuate the Positive: Changing Negative Self-Talk

So it’s interesting if you think about it, humor is so valuable for us as human beings in all walks of life, yet it’s so under respected, stoop fooling around, be serious, you can't be successful if you're laughing too much. And I look at this and I understand that humor is so powerful. Why is that? Well a couple of things come to mind as I do this study into humor for my own self and share with others. I've come to understand as human beings, all of us in the world share two things, we’re born alone, we die alone. So the question is what makes our life worthwhile while we’re on this planet. And the two things that almost is universally desired are love and connection. And humor serves off of those purposes, that’s what's so interesting for me. Think about love, think about what the way you feel when you are laughing with someone. I have a bumper sticker that says, shared laughter is love made audible. It’s from your heart. You don’t believe that? think of when you hear your kids laughing in the other room, first thing in your mind says, oh they must be doing something wrong, but then when you realize they're not, the second thing is, oh I'm so glad they are happy, you feel love in your heart.

And think about connection, connection, think of the position you take when you laugh, generally you go and yeah, I get it, I'm with you, I understand. It’s a thing I learned from NASA is that the universe is random. No matter how hard we try for security, we’re not going to get it. We don’t have control over those things. So since we know we’re alone in this random, chaotic universe, how do we feel secure and loved and connected? It’s when somebody else shares our experience and laughter is that shared experience. Think of how much more powerful it is to laugh in a group and with others than by yourself. It’s about procreation of joy and that’s the positive. You know the negative, humor helps us deal with fear so you can laugh at the things that scare you in order to diminish their fear. So you laugh about situations. You know, you laugh at what seems to be scary times. You know when you begin to laugh at it, you begin to see that it’s not that bad. Think of the show Mash, the movie Life is Beautiful Gallows Humor, Operating Room, the humor that is in political cartoons.


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