Health – Laugh Out Loud and Lose Inches

Two out of every three adults are over weight – that is no laughing matter.  However, what is a laughing matter is that laughter can help your lose weight.  Ridiculous you say!  Did you hear the one about…?  Really, laughter has been shown to be a very effective weight loss tool.  You won’t lose tons of weight overnight, but it will help with weight loss and improve other aspects of your overall health.

There is a new branch of psychology called ‘laughter therapy.’  Some hospitals have incorporated this therapy for pain relief and depression.  You might have seen the movie, Patch Adams.  Robin Williams played a real life physician who was also a clown.  Dr. Patch Adams found significant improvement in his patients when laughter therapy was used.  Laughtercising is a new exercise craze that gets you laughing when you don’t feel like it.  Laughter has been shown to stop cravings – and those between meal snacks.

Laughter has been used for over a thousand years to improve your health.  Proverbs 17:22 states that a cheerful heart does good like a medicine, but a broken spirit makes one sick.  Martin Luther used humor to counsel people with depression.  Immanuel Kant, an 18th century German philosopher used laughter to restore balance and equilibrium.  Clowns were brought into hospitals in the 1930’s to cheer up kids with polio.

There are a few famous quotes on laughter.  David Nathan said, “Laughter is part of the human survival kid.”  Joel Goodman said, “Seven days without laughter make one weak.”  E. E. Cummings said, “The most wasted of all days is one without laughter.”  My favorite is from Milton Berle, who said, “Laughter is an instant vacation.”

A lot of people eat because of stress.  Emotionally, you feel relief or happiness from eating.  It’s the first level of happiness – physical senses.  You eat, you feel better; therefore, you stress seems to be lessened.  It takes a little more than a two-second laugh though.  Laugh out loud – a nice hearty laugh for at least 30 seconds or longer.  Do this ten or more times a day and you will feel happier and notice that you no longer rely on that extra piece of chocolate cake.  You also notice that you have more energy.  You develop a better sense of well being.

Most people cannot laugh for 30 seconds ten or more times a day.  We could when we were kids, but something in our psyches has changed over the years and we just don’t let go like we used to.  We take everything more seriously today.  It takes time and you have to work hard at laughing out loud.  Extended laughter actually requires a great deal of physical exercise and muscular control.

Think of a belly laugh as internal jogging.  It works on the same principles.  At least fifteen facial muscles and dozens of other muscles are involved when you laugh.  The louder you laugh the more intensity you exercise your muscles.  You will notice your pulse and respiration increasing which results in more oxygen entering your bloodstream.  Can you imagine that your doctor might prescribe a regimen of  laughing out loud for fifteen minutes a day for weight loss – it might be here before you know it?

There are multiples causes for you being over weight.  It is rare when one factor alone is responsible.  Diets and exercising can be supplemented with a laughing regimen – and it doesn’t really cost you anything but your time – and you feel better for doing it.  Laughter is not aerobics.  Laughter is mood enhancing and strengthens your emotional base.

In the past forty years researchers have found that laughter increases blood flow, increases your immunity, decreases stress levels and calms your nerves, releases endorphins, lowers your blood sugar, increases your energy, increases your feeling of well being, increases your HDL cholesterol, and relaxes you for better sleep.  Laughter improves the emotional and physical quality of your life.  Some will tell you that laughter increases your joie de vivre – the joy of living.  Laughter actually makes you more attractive.  Happy people appeal to others.  A very interesting aspect of laughter is that it can reduce pain.

Look at life with laughter in mind.  Don’t be so serious all the time.  Be serious when you have to, but keep in mind that everything in life is not meant to be viewed as serious.  Keep smiling – it’s a beginning to a laugh.  Choices have consequences.  Choose to smile and laugh as often as you can.  You will feel better, look better and lose a few pounds.

Choices have consequences.  Your Prosperity Professor, Red O’Laughlin

Subconscious Mind – Are You Immune To Improving Your Life?

In the book, Alice in Wonderland, Alice is told that if you don’t where you are going, any road will do.  That seems to be the norm for most of us.  We don’t have goals, therefore, any road will do.  Why don’t we have goals?  Some of us don’t know to set goals, or what kind of goals to set.  Some of us know, but don’t take the time to do it.  Some more of us set poor goals, and then don’t do the things necessary to make our goals come true.  This level of immunity is ignorance.  We don’t set the goals necessary to improve our lives.  Fortunately, this can be fixed.

I can’t do that!  I don’t have the time!  I don’t feel good today!  I’m not good…  I don’t like to do…  People don’t like me!  Etcetera, etcetera, etcetera!  We have been programmed for failure since birth by our parents, siblings, friends, schools, work, peers, newspapers, television, radio, books, magazines, etc.  There is so much negativity in our lives that we can’t see improvement.  We can’t see the good life.  All we can see if the negative things around us.  We dwell on them and it keeps us down.  This level of immunity is negativity.  We remain mired in the negative influences in our lives.  Fortunately, this can be fixed.

For those of us who have tried to set goals, we find that we fail often.  Our subconscious mind is packed full of our past failures.  We give up early because our subconscious mind doesn’t want us to fail again.  It doesn’t want us to be embarrassed.  Therefore, our subconscious mind imposes a barrier between our reality and our expectations.  It doesn’t let us succeed because we have never succeeded in the past.  You can’t improve because you haven’t done it before.  A self-fulfilling prophesy for failure.  This level of immunity is our history of failure.  Failure becomes an expectation, so we expect failure.  Fortunately, this can be fixed.

The personal stresses of family, work, finances, school, retirement, etc. weigh heavily on us every day.  We come home from work tired and exhausted and just don’t want to do anything but sit down, have a beer (or two) and watch television.  Stress physically and mentally affects us.  Cortisol levels increase and other chemical changes start to cascade in our bodies.  Mental and physical fatigues become the norm.  Either we don’t know how to handle stress, or it’s too little too late.  This level of immunity is stress.  We begin growing out of our clothes and that adds more frustration to our lives.  Fortunately, this can be fixed.

We find ourselves late for many things.  We can’t find the time to get things done.  We consciously or unconsciously get further and further behind.  Procrastination replaces productivity on a regular basis.  Time management techniques don’t work all the time.  We continually slip back into a routine that we don’t like, but we accept.  We meet deadlines, but not with the consistency that we’ve done before.  This level of immunity is procrastination.  We don’t feel like beating our heads against the wall anymore and take the easy way out.  Fortunately, this can be fixed.

Every one of us lives in a comfort zone.  Those who are productive and reach goals regularly have comfort zones.  Those who continually succeed in life reset their comfort zones on a regular basis.  What’s a comfort zone?  It’s the part of our lives make us feel comfortable, security, happy – regardless of everything else happening in the world around us.  Pleasure becomes an obsession to offset the pain, frustration, aggravation and hassle of dealing with life.  This level of immunity is comfort and complacency.  We avoid pain so that we can enjoy a small portion of our lives.  Fortunately, this can be fixed.

The vast majority of us sub-optimize our lives.  We concentrate on one thing at the expense of another.  We don’t have balance in our lives.  We spend more time at work to get ahead and to get more money.  We spend more time exercising to be healthy and stay healthy.  We read or listen to negative or self-limiting topics – we remain in a perpetual status quo in our personal development.  We go to church only as a last resort – our moral compass has become rusted.  Moderation and balance is needed to improve the totality of our lives.  This level of immunity is poor judgment.  We establish habits that we think our good for us, but actually work against us.  Fortunately, this can be fixed.

We sabotage our lives in many ways and decide that we have to live with the seeds we planted – and most of them become weeds that end up strangling us.  We have the capacity for change, but for a wide range of reasons, we accept the status quo.  Awareness is the best place to start.  Where are you today?  Education is needed to take the first step.  Nevertheless, the two most important things to do once you gain a little education are to decide you must change and then take action.

Physical immunity is good to keep the bad things from attacking your body – colds, flu, etc.  Mental immunity works similarly – but it allows the bad things into your brain, and keeps the good things out – a reverse logic of sorts.

Choices have consequences.  Your Prosperity Professor, Red O’Laughlin