Funny enough, I was in a meeting the other day and one member of the group that I was meeting with asked me the following question: "What would you say are the most important things that you do to keep healthy?"
The meeting was going really well, everybody was smiling and laughing, and frankly, I felt really at ease. So I said to them, "You know, one of the big things that my doctor has always told me is that I need to smile and I need to laugh."
So, I would have to say that the biggest thing that I can tell you - my reader, my friend, and for a person who is trying to be healthy - is that every day you NEED to laugh. A biophysicist that I spoke with told me that I should start the day thinking about my life: thinking about the funniest things that happened in my life. Not the most pertinent, not the points of change, not the pathos or the hurt - he told me to think of the funniest memory I have. And each day search for a new one. So every morning, I do that. And during the day, right before I step into a meeting, I think for just a couple of seconds on that happy funny memory that I meditated on that morning...
What memory has gotten me through the most meetings? Well I would have to say that the top two funniest memories I have are actually entertainment moments. Movies or television shows that made me laugh so hard I almost fell out of my seat. And even if they don't sound funny to you, now even writing about it for you - I'm laughing. (And I'm on the bike, riding in a hot infrared sauna where laughter doesn't come easy!)
Rowan and Martin's Laugh-in', where Goldie Hawn and Lily Tomlin got their start, is the top of my list. It was a variety show back in the early, early 70s - maybe even 60s. Now I'm really aging myself! LOL.
The premise of the show was a variety type show where the two hosts, Dan Rowan and Dick Martin, would open the show with a dialogue. Then they would introduce little funny and crazy skits. In fact, the whole 60s was predicated on jokes from Laugh-in.' Things like psychedelic paint on faces, body paint, and sexual innuendo all got their start on Laugh-in.'
One day as they were opening the show, Dan (who played the straight man of this genius comedic duo) was trying to get through his piece of the dialogue, but Dick (who played more or less the unintelligent half of the duo), just started to laugh. He was laughing so hard, and it was so genuine and so real, that he couldn't get through his half of the dialogue. And Dan, watching Dick try to get through his dialogue, started to laugh, which made Dick laugh even more.
I must've been 6 or 7 years old, but I remember sitting on the floor with my family watching TV and laughing so hard I fell over. My whole family was laughing.
This is such a great memory for me, and therefore, when I feel the most tense in a dire moment, I remember that people can read what you're feeling in your eyes and from your body. We give off a scent that dogs can even smell, if you're fearful. Thinking about moments like these from your own life, thinking about something funny, can change a lot in your life; it can change how people view you and therefore deal with you.
It can change your life.
