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By Karen Lee This story was shared by a SparkPeople member who wrote a newsletter about the healing power of humor for eight years. To help friends who are going through a rough time, she suggests making a Funny First-Aid Kit to brighten dark days! A girlfriend with breast cancer taught me you can be seriously ill, but you don't have to be terminally serious. In fact there is a saying in hospice, "If your time hasn't come, not even a doctor can kill you." I read Norman Cousins' landmark book, Anatomy of an Illness, which documented how belly laughs helped him be pain free and overcome a life-threatening condition. He found that 10 minutes of good belly laughter could keep him pain free for hours. I began to create collections of "Giggle Gadgets" to help jump-start the laughter of my friends who were ill, feeling down or hospitalized. Sometimes when we cannot think of a good reason to laugh, we can use some help. Even if it does hurt to laugh, it is possible to smile a few times a day. How to Make a Funny First-Aid Kit Get a shoebox or other storage container, decorate it, and start to add these items: cartoons from the newspaper, jokes you print out, and novelty items. Sometimes magic shops or toy stores or even drug stores have fun items. Try Etch-a-Sketch key chains, fun pens, flashlights (they come in handy for reading without disturbing someone else in the room), Mad Libs (a group activity), Silly Putty, Groucho Glasses, Clown Noses, Animal Noses, kazoos, stickers, magnets and mugs with fun sayings, humorous greeting cards, bubbles, little bouncy balls, travel games and Laffy Taffy with a joke on every wrapper, which is ideal to serve guests. These can help pass the time while waiting in the doctor's office, give an anxious person something to fidget with or brighten up the hospital room. Sharing your Funny First-Aid Kit with the doctors might change your medical team's pictures of reality, and they'll begin to view you as a person rather than a disease unit. I once went to the emergency room wearing a party hat. You can be sure I was treated differently. The whole idea is to change the mood and energy from somber to lightness. Another bonus of these home-made humor kits is that they do not pose health hazards, such as bacteria that can grow in a well-meaning gift of a flower vase that we typically take to visit people in the hospital. My philosophy of life is that laughter IS the best medicine: it doesn't cost anything, you can take it anytime you want to and you can't overdose. Karen Lee published the Laughter Prescription Newsletter from 1989 to 1997. She is dedicated to the healing power of humor. In her spare time Karen ponders the question, “if life is a banquet, what am I doing at the Shoney’s salad bar?” Do you have an inspiration story you think we should include on the dailySpark? Do you have any funny stories about weight loss? Send them to editor@dailyspark.com. Include the subject line: From the Mouths of Members |
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