George Gilbert’s Motivational Humor

Mirth is God’s medicine.  Everybody ought to bathe in it.  ~ Henry Ward Beecher

Thank you for all the email, cards and good wishes in response to mom’s condition. On February 8 my mother Humorist Tulara Lee had a Lobe Ectomy to remove her upper left lung due to cancer. Like Dana Reeve mom never smoked. She is expected to make a full recovery.

Along with your thoughts and prayers laughter helped us get through her surgery and recovery. Using laughter therapy immediately before surgery put mom at ease in such a stressful situation. We were telling jokes and laughing right up until the time the surgical staff wheeled her into the operating room.

I broke out into an adlib stand-up monologue about doctors nurses and hospitals. Making up jokes on anything I could to put us both at ease. I said, “the reason they give you those gowns that open in the back is because even Doctors need a laugh.” Much of the humor we can’t remember now because I was making it up as we went along, but I know that if I tried to do it on stage I wouldn’t get a laugh, but at the time it was funny and somewhat appropriate.

Even the doctor bought into the humor. He also joked with us about the surgery. The doctor asked mom a question. And Mom responded by saying to the doctor, “you’re the expert.” And the doctor said, “No I’ve never done this before, but I have a how to book. May be you could hold it for me while I’m operating on you.”  Making us laugh.

After the surgery she was in intensive care for awhile but that didn’t stop us from finding humor and laughter in the recovery. I joked that, “some humor is dead pan while hers is bed pan.”  When it came time to remove a tube mom asked the doctor, “will it hurt?” the doctor responded by saying, “I have been doing this for over thirty years and it hasn’t hurt me yet.”

After leaving the hospital it was important to keep our spirits up by watching humorous videos and DVD’s while she was recuperating. She watched reruns of television show like “Everybody Loves Raymond” the old “Flip Wilson” comedy show, “Andy Griffith Show.” Shows that make her laugh.

I found myself handling the big things, but stressing over small unimportant things and had to remember to practice what I preach. One night I wasn’t in the best of moods, while channel surfing I came across a two-hour version of “Americas Funniest Home Video’s” I very seldom watch that show, but on this occasion it was just what the doctor ordered. The videos made me laugh out loud for most of the two hours and it was very cathartic.

Today mom is still recovering and is getting stronger every day. She is getting ready to join me on the speaking circuit again and looks forward to speaking with me in April. Laughter helped get us through her surgery

It is important to find humor while going through something as physically and emotionally challenging as surgery. Norman Cousins said: “Laughter is a powerful way to tap positive emotions”

In college students look forward to going on spring break. They have been hitting the books all winter, writing term papers, and cramming for mid-term exams. They need a time to let go and de-stress. Unfortunately we can’t all drop our responsibilities and go to Palm Springs or Fort Lauderdale, but we can find ways to recharge our energies.

Unlike the college kids we can’t totally shed our inhibitions. What we can do is loosen up so that our performance at work doesn’t deteriorate. Actually, the work will improve if you are in a relaxed frame of mind and having a little fun on the job. There’s nothing wrong with hard work but constant hard work without a little levity can lead to burnout.

If you’re in a meeting try to inject a little appropriate humor to lighten the atmosphere, reduce some of that stress, and put others in a more receptive mood. Not only will humor improve the quality of your work but it can lead to better interactions and communication with your fellow workers. Just like individuals coming together on the playing field can make a successful baseball team, sharing humor in the work place can enhance teamwork in business.

Everyone needs to take a spring break, but we don’t have to go to a different location to do it. When you’re finding humor, laughing with others and enjoying yourself, that is the essence of what spring break is all about.

There are times when humor and laughter are not appropriate, but there are times that even though it may not seem appropriate, humor and laughter are a necessity. For instance, some might say that humor and laughter are inappropriate at a funeral or when a loved one passes away. But laughter may actually help us cope with the loss.

Several years ago I attended the funeral of a close family friend. She and her husband were in show-business and they often worked, toured, and vacationed together with my parents. So when she passed away it was a sad time for all. We not only lost a friend but part of our extended family. At the funeral several family members and friends stood up to give eulogies. They talked about how sad this was and how terrible cancer is. Then Morey Amsterdam, from the old Dick Van Dyke Show, spoke. He started telling humorous stories about her and jokes. Soon those tears of sorrow became tears of laughter.

Was it inappropriate to share humor and laughter at the funeral? NO! I think Morey made us realize that day that it is more important to remember the good times, the laughter, and the humor of the deceased than to focus on death and disease.

“The most thoroughly wasted of all days is that on which one has not laughed.” - Chamfort

Experts tell us that as children we used to laugh on the average of 150 times a day, up to 400 times a day, but by the age of thirty-five we laugh on the average of 15 to 17 times a day. What has happened? We take laughter for granted. Doctor Albert Schweitzer didn’t take laughter for granted. When Albert Schweitzer had his hospital in the middle of the African jungle, he made a point of having dinner with his staff every night so that he could tell them a joke or a humorous story. Something to make them laugh because he knew if he could make his staff laugh they could handle the stress of working under such terrible conditions, day after day, with so many sick people. Albert Schwitzer said, “Laughter is the nutrient of the spirit.”

I don’t have to go to the African jungle to find stress, But I do understand the importance of laughter. I suggest you make a point of finding more humor in your life so that you don’t waste another day.

Change, uncertainty, the unknown. These words can cause one to stress out. Whether in your professional life or your personal life the fear of the unknown can create stress. This is when we need to keep our sense of humor most. It is easy to laugh when everything is cheery, but it is self-preserving to be able to laugh when the feelings of fear start to take effect. Abraham Lincoln understood the importance of laughter and coping when he said, “With the fearful strain that is one night and day; if I did not laugh I should die.”

Laughter can help us cope with the tension of not knowing what is next. Maintaining a sense of humor can help put the situation in perspective. Next time you are starting to stress out about the unknown ask yourself or those around you that are starting to stress out “What is the worst that can happen?” and give as many outrageous or ridiculous answers as you can come up with. Pretty soon you will be laughing at the outlandish responses. Quite often it is our anticipation of the unknown that causes anxiety rather than the actual occurrence. Dr. David B Posen, author of “Staying Afloat When the Water Gets Rough: How to Live in a Rapidly Changing World” said, “Humor isn’t about changing what happens. It’s about changing our reaction to what happens. And those who use humor as a coping strategy are generally more resilient and adaptable when faced with change.”

www.originallyspeaking.com

I recently rejoined an athletic club. I moved and let my membership expire. When I rejoined as part of my membership I was given 5 free sessions with a personal trainer. I didn’t realize how out of shape I was until I started working with my new trainer. Rather than start slow and work up to a rigorous routine she had me doing exercises that I had never attempted before. After my first work-out I expected to not be able to move the next day. I went home and started watching humorous videos. Videos that I knew would make me laugh a lot.

The next day I was sore, but not as sore as I had expected. I believe the humorous videos had a part in relaxing my muscles. Studies show that when we laugh the muscles that are involved in the laughter start to relax and the muscles that are directly involved with laughter start to relax after we stop laughing. Laughter is said to produce endorphins, a painkilling drug like substance, produced naturally when we laugh. I have heard that marathon runners also produce endorphins when they run marathons helping them to continue through the pain.

Laughter also helps get more oxygen into the blood system, get bad air out of our lungs and some experts suggest that 100 belly laughs is equal to 10 minutes of aerobic exercise. I suggest that you make laughter part of your fitness program.

Many people die at twenty five and aren’t buried until they are seventy five. ~ Benjamin Franklin

One of the comedy teams of the late 1930’s and early 1940’s was a team called Olsen and Johnson. They were in a very popular show of the time called “Hellzapoppin.”  Olsen and Johnson ended each show with Ole Olsen saying, “May you live as long as you want.” And Chic Johnson would reply, “And may you laugh as long as you live.” I believe the way to live as long as you want is to live life to the fullest, enjoy life, and as Johnson said, “…laugh as long as you live.” The more we find the humor in our life the better the quality of our life. There are studies indicating that laughter may help us live longer. And as my mother Tulara Lee comedienne and motivational humorist says, “If you don’t laugh life will only seem longer!” 

Even if laughter doesn’t help us live longer incorporating humor and laughter into our daily life will at the very least make life more enjoyable, rewarding and able to cope with the daily onslaught of life’s challenges. A little laughter therapy can go along way. Living longer is almost everyone’s goal but more importantly is the quality of our life that determines how long we want to live. I see people going through life’s motions and not really living to their potent ional. These people aren’t happy and don’t have an optimistic view of the world or themselves. It’s a shame that they let the world beat them down to the point where they never look for the joy in their being. They have lost the will to create a positive and happy existence. My mother is 83 years young. She has been making audiences laugh for more than 60 years. The last several years she has been speaking to organization with me about laugher and longevity. These audiences are surprised when I reveal at the end of her speech that mom is actually 83 years old. She is a very optimistic and humorous person onstage and off. Even though she has been diagnosed with cancer, she is optimist and humorous and jokes that she doesn’t have time for it, because she has too many things to do and too many things that she hasn’t done yet. Many people upon hearing that they have a serious illness tend to accept the fact that they are sick and give up. They lose their optimism; they lose their humor, and give into the disease. I believe this makes healing that much harder because they don’t have the will to fight it or live.

So as Olsen and Johnson said, “may you live as long as you want to. And may you laugh as long as you live!”

Today my mother Tulara Lee saw a Cardiovascular Specialist about her lung cancer and even though the news wasn’t good it wasn’t all bad. Obviously to hear you have about a golf ball size tumor that is most likely malignant isn’t something that you are going to celebrate, but the doctor was confident that if it turns out to be malignant they can go in and surgically remove it with a full recovery.

The optimism of the doctor gave us both hope, but what really helped mom cope with the news was the doctor’s sense of humor. Upon learning that mom had been in comedy all her life and now a motivational humorist he felt comfortable using humor during the examination, helping put us both at ease. The doctor and my mother joked back and forth creating a positive rapport.

The doctor examined her, then went and started to write down his findings. He said, “I’ll be right with you. I need to write this down. I have a great memory; it’s just a short one.” Mom laughed. He also joked with her about her age and what good shape she is in for age.

After we left the doctor’s office she was relieved. She was optimistic and ready to get on with the treatment. I don’t think she would have been so positive had she not liked the doctor. If the doctor didn’t have a humorous bedside manner she wouldn’t have wanted to face a major operation. Henry Ward Beecher said, “Mirth is God’s medicine. Everybody ought to bathe in it.”

I have found that when the doctor has a sense of humor it creates a positive rapport. When my ex-wife was sick and needing a kidney/pancreas transplant the doctors that she responded to more positively were ones that had a sense of humor. Sharing humor creates a bond between two people and this is especially important when a person has a major health problem. Humor puts the patient at ease. Again it goes back to attitude. Bill Cosby once said, “You can turn painful situations around through laughter. If you can find humor in anything….You can survive it.” That is exactly what she intends to do. Survive it. Mom says she has too many things to do to let this get the best of her. I believe with that attitude she will be just fine. After all, she is booked to speak a little over two months after her scheduled operation and mom is from old show business and their motto is “THE SHOW MUST GO ON!!!”

Do you feel hopeless? All stressed out? Are you fatigued? Don’t want to get out of bed to go to work? If so, you might be suffering from burnout.

Dr. Hunter “Patch” Adams describes burnout in the medical industry as “a state in which people are unfulfilled by their work and are insufficiently rejuvenated. They find themselves giving too much for too long; then something snuffs out the joy and thrill of helping others.” 

Dr. Beverly Potter say’s, “Burnout is a malaise of the spirit in which motivation, that mysterious force that gets us moving, is damaged or even destroyed. Job burnout could be called job depression.”
 

 So how do we overcome burnout?

I believe that you have to acknowledge the fact that you have to make some changes. When you feel burned out you are in rut. In order to get out of a rut you have to make a conscious effort. Do something different. Don’t try to make big changes at first that may fail. Quite often when we are down we try to do too much, making us feel even more hopeless. Start with small changes where you can have some success. Celebrate your success. When something doesn’t work don’t get discouraged look at it as a learning process.

Incorporate humor and laughter into your life. When we are suffering from burnout we tend to take everything too seriously. This is when you need to find more and more humor in your life. Not only will the laughter help reduce your stress, but humor can give you a different perspective. Make a game out of your work. Look up jokes that apply to what you are trying to do. Think how your favorite sit-com would handle this project. Remember those old “I love Lucy” shows where Lucy and Ethel would work in a chocolate factory and couldn’t keep up with the assembly line. How would they respond to what you are trying to do?

I find myself getting into a rut when I start trying too hard and taking myself too seriously. Putting a little fun and humor into the task at hand helps to alleviate the tension that stifles my creativity and the ability to accomplish my goal.

www.originallyspeaking.com