Monsters in Your Closet?

A journalist, a doctor and a cyclops – it sounds like the beginning of a great joke, doesn’t it? Today, we are looking at why laughter, not tears and fears, is the best way to deal with monsters in life, both real and imagined.

Let’s laugh a little today. So, how about we start off with a joke! We’ll come back to the journalist, the doctor and the cyclops in just a minute.

After a long illness, a woman died and arrived at the Gates of Heaven. While she was waiting for Saint Peter, she peeked through the Gates. She sees a beautiful banquet table. Sitting all around were her parents and all the other people she loved who had died before her.

They see her and start calling out – “Hello” “How are you! We’ve been waiting for you!” “Good to see you.”

When Saint Peter comes by, the woman says to him, “This is such a wonderful place! How do I get in?”

“You have to spell a word,” Saint Peter told her.
“Which word?” the woman asked.
“Love.”  The woman correctly spelled “Love” and Saint Peter welcomed her into Heaven.

She and Peter become good friends. And about two years later, Saint Peter comes to the woman and asks her to watch the Gates of Heaven for him that afternoon. He had to run an errand for God. While the woman was guarding the Gates of Heaven, her husband arrived.

“I’m so surprised to see you,” the woman said. “How have you been?”

“Oh, I’ve been doing pretty well since you died,” her husband told her. “I married the beautiful young nurse who took care of you while you were sick. And then I won the lottery. I sold the little house you and I lived in and bought a big mansion. My wife and I traveled all around the world. We were on vacation and I went water skiing today. I fell, the ski hit my head, and here I am.

“This is such a wonderful place! How do I get in?”
“You have to spell a word,” the woman told him.
“Which word?” her husband asked.

“Czechoslovakia.”

Okay, back to the doctor, the journalist and the cyclops. Doctors tell us that humor helps fight disease. The doctor is Patch Adams, the Journalist is Norman Cousins, and the cyclops is Mike Wazowski. Now, Patch Adams and Norman Cousins are real, but Mike is the creation of the animators at Disney. He “starred” in the movie Monsters, Inc.

In the movie, there is a city of monsters with no humans, called Monstropolis. The monster city is powered by FEAR. Go figure, right. Monsters. There is the huge blue fuzzy monster named Sulley, and his work colleague, the short little green cyclops Mike.

The monsters have discovered that the scariest and most powerful creatures in the human world are children. The monsters learned that if they jump out of a child’s closet at night and scare children, then that “fear” energy from screaming and tears can be used to keep Monstropolis powered up.

And of course, the bigger and hairy-er the monster, the more frightening it is. So Sulley, the big blue fuzzy monster is the best at scaring children. He has horns and big sharp teeth and just looks terrifying, even though he is a softie at heart. Mike Wazowski works with Sulley to harvest all the fear energy that kids create when Sulley jumps out of the closet at night.

Until one night, a child, the most scary creature in the monster world, accidentally goes through the closet door and back into the monster world with Sulley.

While Sulley and Mike have to get this adorable little girl, nicknamed Boo, back into the human world, they find out that LAUGHTER is far more powerful and energetic than FEAR. It creates massive amounts of energy. So in the end, after they get little Boo back to her real home in the human world, Sully and Mike switch places.

Mike, a little green round goober of a goofy guy with one eye, Mike makes kids laugh. And laughter powers up Monstropolis far better than fear ever did.

It is amazing to me that we can find spiritual lessons in the weirdest of places, like the imagination of writers at Disney studios. Because it is a spiritual truth that LAUGHTER is the best way to deal with our fears, those monsters we experience in life.

But we don’t have to take Disney’s word for it. Patch Adams was a real physician who learned that laughter helped heal his patients. Robin Williams starred in a movie based on Patch Adams life.

BUT…right now, how about another joke or two?

Why did the chicken go to the séance? To get to the OTHER side.

What do you call a magic dog? A labracadabradog.

Okay, back to Dr. Patch Adams. He is a traditionally trained Western physician who found that Western medicine was lacking. He found that LAUGHTER made a difference in his patients, even those with the most serious of diagnoses. He founded the Gesundheit! Institute in 1971. Each year he also organizes volunteers from around the world to travel to various countries where they dress as clowns to bring humor to orphans and patients.

When he was a youth, he became suicidal after dealing with bullies. He was hospitalized three times in one year for his major depression. He decided, don’t kill yourself, make a revolution instead!

He decided to go to medical school. Watching old slapstick movies became his way to let go of stress and anxiety. He found that his mood was changed after laughing, even when he was dealing with serious issues. He knew that if it helped him deal with suicidal thoughts and serious depression, then it might help someone else, too. He began using humor with all his patients to help them learn to lighten their heart and lighten their spirits!

His humor revolution made an impression in Hollywood, so they made a movie about him. It starred Robin Williams. I find it very interesting that Williams pretended to be a physician who had struggled with suicidal thoughts but used humor to heal instead, then Williams, the brilliant humorist turned to suicide to deal with his serious diagnosis.

Dark times and thoughts come to all of us! Suicide is not the way. I am not saying that humor is the fix or that laughter cures everything. But I am saying that a light and happy heart can change our outlook in subtle and profound ways.

Adams turned to holistic medicine, looking at the WHOLE person, mind, body and spirit! Humor became a big part of what he lectures about. A few years back, Adams stated that he lectures “300 days out of the year, and have done so for over 30 years in 81 countries, spreading seeds of a love revolution.” A happy heart does a body good!

What can laughter DO for you? There are some serious benefits!

Physical health benefits can include:

• Boost immunity
• Lower stress hormones
• Decrease pain
• Relax your muscles

 

Mental health benefits can include:

• Add joy and zest to life
• Ease anxiety and tension
• Relieve stress
• Improves mood

 

Social benefits can include:

• Strengthen relationships
• Enhance teamwork
• Help defuse conflict
• Promote bonding

 

Okay, it’s time for another bad joke or two!

What happens when you cross a turkey with a ghost?
Poultrygeist

And why can’t we bring turkeys to church?
Because of all the FOWL language.

Journalist Norman Cousins wrote a book that chronicled his healing from a debilitating disease, ankylosing spondylitis. The progression of that illness leaves people as invalids, unable to care for others or themselves.

He was the managing editor of one of the largest newspaper in the country, the New York Evening Post. Until 1972, he was the editor of the Saturday Review. He was a professor of ethics and medical literature at the University of California and researched the nexus between ATTITUDE and HEALTH!

He was his own research project! Cousins did research on the biochemistry of human emotions, which he long believed were the key to human beings’ success in fighting illness. That belief is what got him through the diagnosis in 1964. He was told that he had a 1-in-500 chance of recovery. Cousins developed his own recovery program. He took massive doses of Vitamin C and had self-induced bouts of laughter brought on by watching his favorite television shows and films.

Here is what Cousins said, “I made the joyous discovery that ten minutes of genuine belly laughter had an anesthetic effect and would give me at least two hours of pain-free sleep. When the pain-killing effect of the laughter wore off, we would switch on the motion picture projector again and not infrequently, it would lead to another pain-free interval.”

He wrote a book about laughter therapy in 1979 – Anatomy of an Illness as Perceived by the Patient.

Western trained doctors are finding more and more out about laughter’s ability to help us heal. At Stanford University, researchrs have found that the body gets a “mini-workout” from a good laugh. They discovered that 20 seconds of intense laughter, even if faked, can quickly double the heart rate for three to five minutes. It would take 3 minutes of strenuous rowing to do with laughter can do in 20 seconds. I’d rather laugh than row a boat, don’t know about yall.

Studies also show that muscles in the chest, abdomen, shoulders, neck, face and scalp get a beneficial workout and that other parts of the body are more relaxed during a laughing session. It is like a tranquilizer with no side effects, just like Cousins experienced. The philosopher Voltaire said, “The art of medicine consists of amusing the patient while nature cures the disease.”

So, how do we realistically develop MORE of our funny bone? We know that laughter and a light heart is vital when we face darkness, when we face monsters, both real and imagined.

Laughter strengthens your immune system, boosts moods, lessens pain and stress. It brings your mind and body back into balance. It lightens burdens, inspires hope, connects you to other, keeps your grounded, helps you release anger and focus on the good!! WHEW, that’s a lot of goodness in a belly laugh.

There’s a lot of power to heal and renew, right inside YOU! Children are naturally silly and goofy and light-hearted, like my husband Mark. Now, I’m not saying that he is a child, but I AM saying that he has a light heart. He tries to keep it light and tries to help ME keep it light, too. Which isn’t always easy for him. See, I’m on the serious side, I always have been.

I’ve had to LEARN to let go and lighten up. And it hasn’t always been easy. That’s why I have been given a lot of struggles in this life, so that I could learn to turn to my Inner Guide and let go of ego and pre-suppostions and judgements. I’ve had a lot of letting go. And along the way, my heart has grown lighter. By the time I’m 80, I might just float away, you never know….

So here are the ways I have learned to laugh at the monsters of life. See if you think these 7 ideas could help you lighten up, too!

• Laugh AT YOURSELF! One of the best ways to take yourself less seriously is to talk about the times when you took yourself too seriously. I saw a t-shirt that said: “you and a banana share 19% of the same DNA. Get Over Yourself.”
• Try to laugh at situations instead of creating a dialog of doom. Look for the humor, the irony or absurd bits. When something negative happens, turn it into a funny story that might make someone ELSE laugh.
• Remember to LIGHTEN UP by finding your inner child. Keep some toys in your house or car. Kids are the experts on play. Be more like them. Whatever helps you lighten up, do more of that. A poster in your office, a computer screensaver that makes you laugh. Watch goofy movies when you are feeling down. Lighten up.
• FOCUS on the good or funny things that happen. When you experience something funny, remember to share it. We are constantly sharing the little annoyances of life, the moments that cause grief. Why not notice the moments that cause JOY and share those instead.
• Don’t dwell on the negative. Part of what we believe in Unity, part of our 5 Principles states: Our thoughts have creative power to influence events and determine our experiences. Claim your good, state your good, focus on the positive.
• Deal with your stress. Don’t sweep problems under the rug. Yall know that meditation is my personal #1 best spiritual power tool for less stress and more happiness. But one of the easiest ways to lessen stress in the moment, is by remembering something that makes you smile! (Which is why it is so important to share our happy stories with each other.)
• DO NOT GO A SINGLE DAY without laughing. Think of it like breakfast, a necessary part of your routine. Make a conscious effort to find something funny. Remember Norman Cousins who scheduled 10 minutes of laughter and it gave him 2 hours of pain-free existence when he was battling a serious disease. FIND YOUR FUNNY!

 

We all will battle difficult situations. And sometimes, they look bigger than they are! But, you’ve got to keep it all in perspective. Keep your heart light. In autumn, we head into days of deeper darkness. The Earth itself lies fallow here in the northern hemisphere, and suns rays are less intense, and the cold wind blows. Personally, I LOVE this time of year. Which says quite a bit about my personality. But for those who find this time of year difficult, try some of those ideas.

Schedule time to laugh each day at the monsters in your closet, or under your bed, or in your head. My granny was a huge Bing Crosby fan. Crosby was a suave fellow from way back in the last century. In 1944, he released this little song that my gran would sing. It goes like this:

You got to ac-cent-tchu-ate the positive
E-lim-i-nate the negative
And latch on to the affirmative
Don’t mess with Mr. In-between

You got to spread joy up to the maximum
Bring gloom down to the minimum
And have faith, or pandemonium
Liable to walk upon the scene.

To illustrate this last remark
Jonah in the whale, Noah in the ark
What did they do, just when everything looked so dark?

Man, they said we better ac-cent-tchu-ate the positive
E-lim-i-nate the negative
And latch on to the affirmative
Don’t mess with Mr. In-between
No, no – do not mess with Mister In-Between

A light and happy heart can change our lives in subtle and profound ways. Okay, how about another joke or two?

Jesus, Moses, and an old bearded guy were playing golf. On the first tee, Moses shanked his ball into a lake. He parted the water and hit his ball onto the green. Jesus teed off, hitting his ball into another water hazard. But he walked on water, commanded the ball to rise, and hit it onto the green, too.

Then the old man with the beard stepped up for his tee shot. He hit the ball with tremendous force, but hooked it badly. The ball bounced off the clubhouse roof, hit the cart, and rolled down a hill into a pond, coming to rest on a lily pad. A frog hopped over and picked up the ball, then an eagle swooped down, snatched the frog, and flew over the green. The frog dropped the ball, and it rolled into the cup for a hole in one.

Moses turned to Jesus and said, “I hate playing golf with your dad.”

*****

An atheist was spending a quiet day fishing when suddenly his boat was attacked by the Loch Ness monster. In one easy flip, the beast tossed him and his boat high into the air. Then it opened its mouth to swallow both.

As the man sailed head over heels, he cried out, “Oh, my God! Help me!”

At once, the ferocious attack scene froze in place, and as the atheist hung in mid-air, a booming voice came down from the clouds, “I thought you didn’t believe in Me!”

“Come on God, give me a break!!” the man pleaded. “two minutes ago I didn’t believe in the Loch Ness monster either!”

 

Christ told his disciples, ”Let NOT your heart be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions. I go there to prepare a place for you, so that where I am, there also may you be.”

So as we face dark days or day situations, let our hearts remain light. Be not troubled. We have a spiritual community, with plenty of bad jokes, and plenty of good people.

And so it is!