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Vitamins for Your Soul, Part II

Giving vitamins to your soul might not have a direct, noticeable effect on your bottom line. However, these vitamins could prevent a disaster and they certainly will make you a lighter and happier person. Lighter and happier people usually make better traders and investors.

Last week I talked about the first vitamin, focusing on the moment. This week I want to cover a fun vitamin, laughing.

Spend Some Time Laughing

Norman Cousin's believed that he cured himself of cancer using laughter therapy. He found lots and lots of funny things and just spent the day laughing and enjoying himself. The effect of changing his outlook to one of humor seemed to have immense healing effects on his body. However, there is no need to wait until you have some serious disease to practice taking vitamins for the soul. You might even want to look at his book, Anatomy of an Illness.

I enjoy jokes and will laugh when something is funny, but I have not made a conscious effort to bring more laughter into my life. So that's something I want to practice more of for the next month. Here are some suggestions for how to do that.

Find some movies that are really funny and watch them. Better yet, invite some friends over and watch them. There's only one rule for how to watch them, laugh as much as you can. If something is a little bit funny, force yourself to laugh out loud. It's actually not that hard. And it's contagious.

Here are some interesting examples depending upon your sense of humor: Porkys and American Pie usually crack me up and my wife thinks I'm sick to laugh at that sort of humor. However, there are many classics; old Abbott and Costello movies, old Marx Brothers movies, some of the Charlie Chaplin silent movies, or how about modern comedians such as John Candy movies (i.e., Uncle Buck); Bill Murray (Ghostbusters, Caddyshack); Eddie Murphy (The Nutty Professor, Dr. Doolittle); or some of the National Lampoon movies (i.e., Christmas Vacation, Animal House).

Try looking at movies like Porky's and Porky's II, or American Pie and American Pie II. The humor is a bit raunchy, but sometimes that can be the funniest.

Also save your Internet jokes. You probably have friends who get lots of Internet jokes and would be happy to send them to you. I personally have at least four people who send me jokes all the time. And I actually save them. But that means that I can read through my old files any time I like. And some of the stuff is really funny. So get your friends to start sending you jokes (and you send them jokes as well) and save your collection. Memorize them and tell them often. You'll find that when other people laugh at your joke collection, you'll laugh with them. Even though you know the joke and the punch line isn't a surprise, you'll get immense joy and fun out of telling the jokes to others.

Let me give you an example that I still remember. About ten years ago, one of my friends told a joke at dinner, having to do with the three biggest lies that a cowboy tells.

Those lies were.

1. My truck is paid for.
2. I won this belt buckle at the rodeo. And
3. I was just helping the sheep over the fence.

When my wife, who had just arrived from overseas and wasn't used to American humor, heard the joke, she didn't get the last one at all. And the process of explaining it to her put everyone at the table in stitches. I don't even think the joke is that funny, but it's one I'll always remember because of my wife's reaction when it was being explained. So telling jokes to others can really brighten up your soul. Practice it.

A healthy soul is a happy soul and it experiences qualities of joy, laughter, and lightness. This doesn't mean that you must avoid looking at the suffering that occurs all around us, but it does mean that you avoid letting that suffering steal your joy over the many blessings that God presents to us all around. The opposite of joy is not necessarily sorrow - it's unbelief in the true nature of your soul or in the essence of God.

Many of us as adults have to relearn how to laugh, and that starts with a slight desire to do so. One of the amazing things about my wife is her amazing laughter. She can laugh at almost everything. And I almost never hear her talking on the phone without hearing many bursts of laughter. It's one of the many reasons I'm so attracted to her. But the real secret of laughter is to just do it. If something is the least bit funny, try laughing at it - even if it seems like you are forcing it at first. It becomes catching once you start.

Read something funny before you go to sleep each night. Get a collection of cartoon books or joke books and have them by your bedside. When something strikes you as the least bit funny, laugh out loud. You'll find it is contagious and the material becomes funnier and funnier.

Lastly, you'll find that young children are much less inhibited about laughing than most adults are. Thus, spend time with some kids and see what they think is funny. Go watch that movie or cartoon with them. And laugh when they laugh.

So here's your assignment with laughter this month: Find something to laugh about each night before you go to sleep. In addition, watch a funny movie at least once each week this month. Enjoy it and have fun.

Dr. Van K Tharp
TradingEducation.com