LIFE GOT YOU STRESSED? LAUGH IT OFF, EXPERT SAYS

Kelley, D. (1996, August 16). "Life got you stressed out? Laugh it off, expert says." USA Today, p. 4D.

OVERVIEW

Some of us may be inclined to laugh off Loretta LaRouche and her fake Groucho Marx nose, mustache, and eyebrows or her Viking helmet. She has done a couple of PPS specials ("Humor Your Stress" and "The Joy of Stress"). She also has her own company, Humor Potential, in Plymouth, MA, along with a TADAH club (The Association of Delightfully Alive Humans). LaRouche is an adjunct professor of the Behavior Institute of Medicine affiliated with the Harvard Medical School.

Tired of hearing people moan and complain (she’s determined that 75% of today’s conversations are negative), LaRoche suggests a martyr’s kit: two pieces of Velcro on attached to the forehead and other to the back of the hand. In this way the "woe-is-me pose" after slapping the back of hand to the forehead can be sustained for all to see without tiring the arm.

More seriously, the message to an over stressed society is that "stress is bad for the body, and humor can help get it under control."

I think we are definitely over stressed. It’s reaching epidemic proportions....Probably if you were to describe the core of what I do, it is to point out our irrational thinking mechanisms. It’s how we interpret situations. It’s the misinterpretation that becomes funny. Example?

I’m standing in line in the supermarket with a lot of people, and I say, "Can you believe this? They’re always here when I’m here." It’s these words that create a feeling that somehow there’s a plot that somebody knows you’ve come to the store....

I have to learn to see life as it is, and I’m sure I’m not at the center of the universe. It’s not all happening to me and it’s not everybody’s fault. Once you do that, you start to reduce the pomposity, the solemnity. You lighten up. You see we’re all in this.

My mission in life is to stop global whining....I think people should try something to see themselves in a comedic way as much as possible. Having a sense of humor helps you connect with people.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION AND DISCUSSION

1. Do you think people today are over stressed? How do you think humor relieves stress?
2. What in this article most impresses you? Is there anything here with which you would disagree?
3. What are your suggestions to avoid or reduce stress? How could developing a sense of humor help to live with less stress?
4. What kind of humor creates more stress in an individual and situation?
5. Are children and young people under special stress these days? Where does this come from? How can humor be used more effectively in youth programs?

IMPLICATIONS

1. When famous writer and editor Norman Cousins contracted cancer, he seemed to find a cure in reducing stress through humor and wrote a book about laughter, the most effective proscription.
2. Teenage stress has been neglected in the literature and in the practice of youth work.
3. A safe and carefree environment, change of pace, informal time with friends, humor, and wilderness experiences all help reduce youthful stress. Study resources on humor to see how healthy humor can be used more effectively in your work or the classroom.

Dean Borgman cCYS