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Going crazy?
SAT’s causing you sleepless nights? Got a teacher who’s making your blood boil? Are annoying people pushing your buttons? A good hard belly laugh is jest what the school nurse ordered. It’s virtually impossible to laugh and feel bad at the same time. Humor is by far the healthiest form of temporary stress release available. It’s free, and you don’t need any special equipment or expensive clothing!
Three students from Greece Athena High School in Rochester, N.Y., had lunch with me recently. In between bursts of giggles, Julie (18), Jackie (16) and Jessica (14) told me what makes them laugh and what stresses them out.
“My family,” Jackie says while chuckling, “especially my dad, just cracks me up.”
Julie says when she has a horrific day in school, her friends are so hilarious that they relax her. “Sometimes when I am preparing for a dance recital, I get sick to my stomach and my mother calms me right down. She talks to me and says, ‘If you can handle this, you can handle anything.’ She reminds me of my accomplishments.” Then she quickly added, “Dad and Jackie crack me up and make me laugh with just plain goofiness. That calms me right down.”
“What causes you stress?” I ask them. Their answers: interruptions, loss of control, worries, relationships, dealing with the unexpected, serious people and time constraints and that’s just the short list.
Choosing a college, arranging financial aid, after-school jobs and responsibilities add to what I call HSSS: High School Stress Syndrome. All that stress can lead to insomnia, nervous stomach, loss of concentration, headaches, nervous breakdowns, fear, zits and even hair loss.
What can you do to avoid HSSS? Take some time to laugh your pants off. At Crack-A-Smile Seminars in Rochester, N.Y., we did a study with 16 high school juniors. We asked eight students to watch 30 minutes of stand-up comedy. The other eight watched a 30-minute video about life insurance. The group that watched stand-up comedy was better able to find creative solutions to problems than the group who watched the insurance video. In fact, the comedy-watching group was able to see things more clearly and to communicate more effectively, too. That’s because stress is not caused by a particular situation but rather by how we perceive that situation to be. And getting a new perspective is what comedy is all about.
Having a good sense of humor allows you to step back and see things more clearly. It puts you in a better position to come up with solutions and to take action. So get out your humor tools the next time the dog eats your homework, and learn how to laugh it off.
Humor tools help us shape and form our day, which will make a big difference in how that day shapes up, forms and finishes. Here are eight humor tools to help you ’til graduation day.
1. Before a big test, share your favorite jokes with a group of friends.
2. At the beginning of a class, give someone a standing ovation for showing up.
3. The weekend before test week, invite your closest friends over for a comedy night. Rent five of your favor-ite funny videos and have a laugh fest.
4. Write a country western song about your family. Include a pickup truck, railroad tracks, a dog and a broken heart or two.
5. Have a chuckle quota. Don’t leave school until you have found 10 things to laugh at.
6. Wear a weird hat to school or a clown nose just to see what people say.
7. In the school lunchroom, answer all questions by singing your answer.
8. Write a top 10 list like David Letterman does. Some of these things may seem too outrageous to do. Do them anyway.
Being different or a bit radical when it comes to humor can be a good thing. Your common sense combined with your sense of humor will have you thinking up entertaining, witty, amusing things to do before you know it. Don’t let the cynics get you down. Funny people unite and change the world one smile at a time. Be serious about your laughter!
Yvonne Conte is a motivational humorist and author of Serious Laughter: Live a Happier, Healthier, More Productive Life! Article provided by 
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