Catching up with Karyn

One of the most amazing things about laughter is how profoundly and immediately it alters our mood. Laughter is not only the best medicine, it's incredibly fast-acting medicine.

That's why I recommend that people create a Fun List of activities, media, and people that are guaranteed to put a smile on your face. When you're feeling down for whatever reason, drag out the Fun List and choose one of the options on it. Laughter doesn't solve our problems, but it does make it easier for us to handle those problems.

After speaking at LaughFest (an awesome event you'll want to add to your calendar every year!) my new friend Dawn asked me to share what's on my own personal Fun List. Here you go - these are the 15 fun things that never fail to put a smile on my face:

1. Big Bang Theory (sitcom)
2. David Sedaris Live at Carnegie Hall (CD/MP3)
3. Reading Sunday comics
4. Watching funny movies (Top picks: "In & Out" with Kevin Kline, "When Harry Met Sally" and "Steel Magnolias")
5. Youtube: Laughing...

Okay, if you're from a community that has no financial worries, or you're in charge of economic development in a town that's already booming, you can skip this post. Everybody else, keep reading! I want to tell you something amazing about the power of humor and how laughter can mean some serious money for your town.

I've just come back from speaking at LaughFest, a great event that began as an offshoot of Gilda's Club (humor for cancer patients) that today promotes the message of humor as a vital part of emotional health for all. This event is designed with something for everyone. Top-tier comedians like Lily Tomlin and Jay Leno were there to entertain the crowds, and there were many, many free or low-cost events so everyone could participate and have a good time.

An amazing legion of volunteers makes this event happen, ensuring that performers make it to and from many venues throughout the city. Performances weren't limited to pricey convention centers. The laughter took place in...

Nurses are known for their compassion, clinical expertise, and ability to work a 12-hour shift without ever once needing to eat or use the bathroom. Okay, that last bit was a joke, but now I'm being deadly serious. Leadership is one of the most essential nursing skills you can develop. That's why I'm grateful to Ellice Cooper for creating and sharing this super informative infographic, The Ultimate Guide to Becoming a Nurse Leader.

The Ultimate Guide to Becoming a Nurse Leader features 10 chapters, jam-packed with useful, insightful information and valuable resources you can use to assist you on your journey toward a leadership role. It's free, so I encourage you to check it out and share it with your friends and colleagues who may also be interested in nurse leadership.

Steven looked down at his plate. There was some kale there, and a few colorful things his wife assured him were delicious peppers, and a piece of chicken only slightly larger than his business card.

"This," he asked, "is dinner?"

"Yes," his wife Stacey replied. "It's from the heart healthy cookbook your doctor recommended." For years, Stacey had been cooking up Steven's favorites: fried fish, fried potatoes, lots of cheeseburgers, fried cheese sticks. But she wanted to keep her hubby around a lot longer, and his heart attack had really scared her. So she was willing to change.

Steven, on the other hand, wasn't as eager. He looked at his plate and shook his head. "I'm not sure it's worth it."

Sound familiar? Making lifestyle changes can be a big part of your heart health routine. Altering what we eat, how much we eat, our levels of physical activity, giving up tobacco - these are all challenging things. Best of all, we're asked to make these changes at the same time we're supposed to...

Heart health is a top priority for me. It's also a big worry for the millions of women out there just like me who know that heart disease is our #1 killer. More than cancer, more than diabetes, more than having your brain explode inside your skull when someone says, "Don't worry about it, Little Lady - it's a Man thing!", heart disease is killing us.

This is not a good thing. But there is good news. We're not powerless against heart disease. There are things we can do - choices we can make and actions we can perform - to reduce our risk of heart disease. And if we're at a point where we have heart disease - or we're precariously on the brink - making the right choices and changes can help us slow the disease's progression.

Dr. Suzanne Steinbaum presents a comprehensive overview of the positive changes we could be making to improve our health in her new Heart Book: Every Woman's Guide to a Heart-Healthy Life. I was particularly happy to see her emphasis on the value of humor for...

Having your plans change can certainly be a stressor. Luckily, humor provides us with an all-natural, drug-free way to boost our emotional resilience - minimizing the impact of stress on our physical and emotional health. With that in mind, I offer the best joke I've heard all day to you:

Q: How does an octopus go to war?

A: Well-armed!

Want to boost the benefit you just got from that simple laugh? Share it with a friend. Try the 24-Hour  Humor Challenge: see how many people you can make laugh - or at least groan! - with that joke (or anything else that makes you laugh!) over the next day. You'll be surprised how much fun it can be.

Full disclosure: I have always found the traffic in New Jersey to be challenging. For as long as I can remember, the minute I got behind the wheel in the Garden State, something would happen to slow the journey way down. There have been the typical fender benders and weather-related snafus, of course, but there's also always been an added layer of strangeness to my particular journeys: one time, a tractor trailer full of tomatoes tipped over - we're talking marina sauce for miles! - and on another occasion, the delay was caused by approximately 75 million Justin Beiber fans en route to wherever it is 75 million Justin Beiber fans go.

But lately, there have been some traffic problems in New Jersey that have nothing to do with wayward produce or rock stars. As you may have heard, recent traffic problems in New Jersey may have had a political cause. On Friday, Governor Chris Christie held a long press conference in which he apologized for the traffic slowdowns, adding that the...

At age 25, Zora was diagnosed with Breast Cancer. The news wasn't exactly shocking - a strong family history had been a part of the reason Zora'd been so diligent about being screened, key to her early diagnosis. What did shock Zora was how completely Breast Cancer took over her life.

"All of a sudden, everything in my life -every decision, every aspect of my day - was centered around dealing with this cancer.  That's all anyone wanted to talk about," Zora said. "My co-workers, my husband, my family, my friends: it was totally overwhelming."

When a well-meaning colleague asked Zora what she could do to help, Zora said it was the last straw. "I just snapped, and said, 'Why don't we go do something fun and not even talk about my cancer at all!'" Much to her surprise, her colleague instantly agreed, and they went to the movies. "We saw 'We're The Millers' and I laughed until I cried."

Coming out of the movies, Zora said, "I felt so good. It was probably the best I'd felt since...

Later this week, I'm appearing in Chicago, where things have been, as you may have heard, a little chilly lately. Just the thought of confronting sub-zero temperatures and the need to take precautions against frostbite is enough to stress this California girl out - but what can you do? Work still needs to get done, even when the weather's not cooperating.

Humor is power. It helps us build emotional resiliency, preparing us to better face things like -45 degree weather. I believe this. The research supports this. I tell people of all types - business leaders, nurses, health care systems administrators, students, teachers - how to use humor to prepare them to tackle even the most challenging thing.

But there's just one problem. I couldn't think of a single funny thing about extreme cold weather. Perhaps I had a frozen funny bone. It happens.

That's when I turned to my trusty friend, the Internet. At times like this, when you really need a laugh, Google Image Search is truly your...

48 hours out is when the freakouts start. There are two types of holiday freakouts.

The first one is exhibited by the Type A personality who started shopping way back in June, put up their decorations two minutes after Thanksgiving was officially done, and STILL haven't gotten everything they need to get to make this holiday perfect...do you know how hard it is to find purple sequined Santa hats in this world, people?

The second type of holiday freakout is exhibited by people who haven't started yet. Even though retailers have been pushing the message that Christmas is coming pretty well continually for 6 months now, these folks completely failed to get it. Christmas sneaks up on them, surprising them all at once with its imminent arrival.

Whichever type of holiday freakout you're currently experiencing, you can get over it faster with laughter. Smiles and laughs can diminish muscle tension. They’re also contagious. Practice wearing a smile to share with others and notice how...