Catching up with Karyn

We all know the old saying: “Laughter is the best medicine.”  

And it’s true! When you laugh, you’re: 

• Relieving anxiety
• Decreasing stress
• Giving people a socially acceptable way to express their anger 

But many of you probably already know this. So, why is it important? Well, according to a study, laughter, and the stress reduction that comes out of it, can improve one’s memory and learning ability as we age! Crazy, right?! Allow me to save you some time and summarize this awesome finding:  

Chronic stress, manifested in the hormone cortisol, takes a toll on your brain over time, eating away at your learning and memory functions. When you laugh, you reduce cortisol levels, increasing your memory and recall functions, as well as your capacity to learn. 

All this to say, who couldn’t use more memory space in the hard drive that is your...

It was a dark and stormy night…(really) and I was waiting to board a flight along with around 200 fellow passengers. We were already delayed an hour and a half and the mood was as dark inside the terminal as it was outside.

We were finally cleared to board, and folks—while anxious about the delay—were relieved to finally be moving out of the gate area and onto the plane. The flight attendant sprinted through her safety routine while I and others nervously calculated if there was any way we were going to make our connections. We rolled onto the tarmac and the pilot announced we were #17 in the lineup—seems there were a LOT of folks trying to get-the-heck-out-of-Dodge that night.

Slowly we taxied closer to the runway. #15…#12…#8—the pilot periodically would announce our progress. But the next time we heard his voice, it was anything but progress.

“Ladies and gentlemen, this is your Captain speaking. While we were waiting for...

"Life does not cease to be funny when people die any more than it ceases to be serious when people laugh." George Bernard Shaw

September 11th. 9/11. You know what day it is today. You know it, even though it's been many years. You know it, even though the New York Times and the New York Post aren't treating the anniversary as a front-page story this year. You know what day it is today.

Is it a day to laugh?

One of the questions that comes up often in discussions about therapeutic humor - leveraging the healing power of laughter to help us cope better and more effectively with trauma and stress - is if any topics are off-limits, where laughter is taboo. It's a question that comes up, especially at this time of year, when people are confronted, once again, with the memories of a uniquely painful event.

Humor & Healing: What's The Relationship

Before we talk about whether or not it's appropriate to laugh about the events of a particular day, it helps to understand why people want...

The economy is on its wildest ride in decades. The line waiting for a government bail-out is almost as long as the line waiting to check out in stores this holiday shopping season. And, you’re simply at wit's end in trying to deal with it all!

Fear not – there’s humor to be found amidst all of this chaos and confusion. So says Karyn Buxman, Publisher of The Journal of Nursing Jocularity, from San Diego and past president of AATH – the Association for Applied and Therapeutic Humor. The mission of this growing, international community of professionals, founded in 1987, is to study, practice and promote healthy humor and laughter.

“The great thing about humor is it’s FREE and available to everyone,” says Buxman. “It’s sugar-free, fat-free, salt-free, and tax-free!  It’s available 24-7 and you don’t need a prescription!  There’s no assembly required and you don’t need batteries!  It’s...

“I died laughing!” my friend told me, recounting her evening at the comedy club the night before. She described how she laughed until her sides ached and mascara ran down her face.

Wow—a pretty scary picture. And yet people don’t really die laughing—quite the opposite. Laughter is one of the healthiest tools we have.

Remember when you were a child and everything was oh-so-funny? When the silliest of remarks would send you and your friends into gales of laughter? When did that stop? What does it take now to make you pause long enough in your busy life to process humor?

Do you laugh much, or have you noticed a distinct lack of laughter in your life lately? If you are not laughing, you are failing to take advantage of one of the healthiest natural activities available. So in between all the busy-ness with which your days are filled, take some time to laugh – and you may just find yourself healthier in the process. Here are five ways that laughter can...

Did you hear the one about…?  According to a recent study, one of every three U.S. nurses surveyed under age 30 plans to leave their jobs within the next year. One in five nurses plans to leave the profession within five years because of unsatisfactory working conditions. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 450,000 additional registered nurses will be needed to fill the present demand.  Experts worry about the year 2020, when the registered nurse shortage is projected to reach 500,000 positions, coinciding with the increasing need for healthcare in an aging U.S. population.

It's obvious that the state of health care today is no joke. But it may be a laughing matter if one understands the premise that humor oftentimes is generated by painful circumstances. There is nothing funny about unlimited resources, job security, or a physician who responds quickly and cheerfully to a nurse’s request. The things that make nurses laugh tend to be the very things...

There’s no one coping mechanism that will work for every stressful occasion. People need a variety of skills to stay healthy. These could include deep breathing exercises, progressive muscle relaxation, and meditation just to name a few.  But the benefits of humor and laughter are so plentiful, so convenient, and so cost-effective that people would be foolish to leave these awesome coping tools out of their coping toolbox.

Here are a few quick stress busters. Try one the next time your energy level drops and your attitude is sagging:

Call your own answering machine or voice mail to leave a humorous message that you can enjoy later. Bonus—you get to laugh twice: Once when you leave the message and again when you play it back.  (For example: “Just calling to remind you to be careful when you go by the post office to pick up stamps and be sure to wear clean underwear because you never know when you might be in an accident!”)

Keep a file folder at your...

Following the events of September 11, 2001 and the terrorism that ensued, I continued traveling around the country, addressing groups about the healing power of humor and laughter.  I heard a variety of comments:
“I really want to laugh, but I just can’t bring myself to do it.”
“I can’t bear to watch another news report—it’s sucking the life right out of me.”
“I feel like laughing, but I’m afraid other people will think I’m being inappropriate.  Is it really okay to laugh yet?”

Abraham Lincoln may have said it best: “With the fearful strain that is on me night and day, if I did not laugh I should die.”

Now more than ever, we, as individuals and as a country, need the healing power of humor and laughter to deal with the tragedies we experience.  Reports showed that the country is in poorer health overall than it was prior to September 11th.  Accompanying the levels of higher anxiety...