The Best Medicine

    What is the greatest reward of being alive? Is it chocolate, sex, ice cream, tropical vacations, hugs from children, a perfect night’s sleep, or the satisfaction of a job well done? A thousand people, a thousand different answers. But one supreme pleasure that spans all people is laughter.

    Little can compare to the feeling of a deep, complete, heartfelt laughing spell. No matter your age, wealth, race, or living situation, life is good when laughter is frequent.

    Life is also healthier. Research finds that humor can help you cope better with pain, enhance your immune system, reduce stress, even help you live longer. Laughter, doctors and psychologists agree, is an essential component of a healthy, happy life.

    As Mark Twain once said, “Studying humor is like dissecting a frog — you may know a lot but you end up with a dead frog.” Nonetheless, we’re giving it a try. Here are 19 tips for getting — or growing — your sense of humor, based partly on the idea that you can’t be funny if you don’t understand what funny is.

    1. First, regain your smile. A smile and a laugh aren’t the same thing, but they do live in the same neighborhood. Be sure to smile at simple pleasures — the sight of kids playing, a loved one or friend approaching, the successful completion of a task, the witnessing of something amazing or humorous. Smiles indicate that stress and the weight of the world haven’t overcome you. If your day isn’t marked by at least a few dozen, then you need to explore whether you are depressed or overly stressed.

    2. Treat yourself to a comedy festival. Rent movies like Meet the Parents; Young Frankenstein; Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure; Monty Python and the Holy Grail; This Is Spinal Tap; Animal House; Blazing Saddles; Trading Places; Finding Nemo. Reward yourself frequently with the gift of laughter, Hollywood style.

    3. Recall several of the most embarrassing moments in your life. Then find the humor in them. Now practice telling stories describing them in a humorous way. It might take a little exaggeration or dramatization, but that’s what good storytelling is all about. By revealing your vulnerable moments and being self-deprecating, you open yourself up much more to the humorous aspects of life.

    4. Anytime something annoying and frustrating occurs, turn it on its head and find the humor. Sure, you can be angry at getting splashed with mud, stepping in dog poop, or inadvertently throwing a red towel in with the white laundry. In fact, that is probably the most normal response. But it doesn’t accomplish anything other than to put you in a sour mood. Better to find a way to laugh at life’s little annoyances. One way to do that: Think about it as if it happened to someone else, someone you like — or maybe someone you don’t. In fact, keep running through the Rolodex in your head until you find the best person you can think of to put in your current predicament. Laugh at him, then laugh at yourself!

    5. Read the comics every day and cut out the ones that remind you of your life. Post them on a bulletin board or the refrigerator or anywhere else you can see them frequently.

    6. Sort through family photographs and write funny captions or one-liners to go with your favorites. When you need a pick-me-up, pull out the album.

    7. Every night at dinner, make family members share one funny or even embarrassing moment of their day.

    8. When a person offends you or makes you angry, respond with humor rather than hostility. For instance, if someone is always late, say, “Well, I’m glad you’re not running an airline.” Life is too short to turn every personal affront into a battle. However, if you are constantly offended by someone in particular, yes, take it seriously and take appropriate action. But for occasional troubles, or if nothing you do can change the person or situation, take the humor response.

    A Daily Ritual

    9. Sign up to receive the Top 10 list from David Letterman every day via e-mail. You can find it at www.cbs.com/latenight/lateshow.

    10. Spend 15 minutes a day having a giggling session. Here’s how you do it: You and another person (partner, kid, friend, etc.) lie on the floor with your head on her stomach, and her head on another person’s stomach and so on (the more people the better). The first person says, “Ha.” The next person says, “Ha-ha.” The third person says, “Ha-ha-ha.” And so on. We guarantee you’ll be laughing in no time.

    11. Read the activity listings page in the newspaper and choose some laugh-inducing events to attend. It could be the circus, a movie, a stand-up comic, or a funny play. Sometimes it takes a professional to get you to regain your sense of humor.

    12. Add an item to your daily to-do list: Find something humorous. Don’t mark it off until you do it, suggests Jeanne Robertson, a humor expert and author of several books on the topic.

    13. When you run into friends or coworkers, ask them to tell you one funny thing that has happened to them in the past couple of weeks. Become known as a person who wants to hear humorous true stories as opposed to an inpidual who prefers to hear gossip, suggests Robertson.

    14. Find a humor buddy. This is someone you can call just to tell him something funny; someone who will also call you with funny stories of things he’s seen or experienced, says Robertson.

    15. Exaggerate and overstate problems. Making the situation bigger than life can help us to regain a humorous perspective, says Patty Wooten, R.N., an award-winning humorist and author of Compassionate Laughter: Jest for the Health of It. Cartoon caricatures, slapstick comedy, and clowning articles are all based on exaggeration, she notes.

    16. Develop a silly routine to break a dark mood. It could be something as silly as speaking with a Swedish accent (unless you are Swedish, of course).

    17. Create a humor environment. Have a ha-ha bulletin board where you only post funny sayings or signs, suggests Allen Klein, an award-winning professional speaker and author of The Healing Power of Humor. His favorite funny sign: “Never wrestle with a pig. You both get dirty, and the pig likes it.”

    18. Experiment with jokes. Learn one simple joke each week and spread it around. One of Klein’s favorites relates to his baldness: “What do you call a line of rabbits walking backward? A receding hare line.”

    19. Focus humor on yourself. “Because of my lack of hair,” Klein says, “I tell people that I’m a former expert on how to cure baldness.”

    人生的最大追求是什么？ 是巧克力，性愛，冰激凌，熱帶地區的觀光，孩子們的擁抱，美美的睡上一覺，還是做好工作帶來的滿足感？ 每個人給出的答案都會不同。 但是有一樣極致的樂趣雅俗共賞，那就是歡笑。

    沒有什么能與一陣開懷大笑的感覺相提并論。 不論年齡，種族，身體狀況或是生活境況，只要笑口常開，生活就是美好的。

    生活也會更健康。 研究表明，幽默可以幫助你戰勝病痛，提高免疫功能，減輕壓力，甚至有益于延年益壽。 醫生和心理學家也認為，歡笑是健康幸福生活的一個重要元素。

    正如馬克·吐溫曾經說過，“研究幽默就像解剖一只青蛙—也許你能獲益良多，但最終得到的只是一具青蛙尸體。” 不管怎樣，我們還是要試一試。 下面給出19條小貼士，幫你培養幽默感，或是助你一臂之力，前提思想是如果你不明白好笑之處，你就不會惹人笑。

    1. 首先，重拾微笑。 微笑和歡笑不盡相同，但兩者又緊密相連。 感到一般的樂趣時一定要微笑—看到孩子們玩耍，愛人或朋友朝自己走來，圓滿完成了一項任務，目睹了令人稱奇或是幽默的什么事情。 微笑說明你還沒有為生活的壓力和負擔所壓倒。 如果你一天內幾十次的微笑都沒有，那你就需要問問自己是不是患了憂郁癥或是壓力過大。

    2. 給自己找些樂子。 租一些電影錄像回來看，比如說“拜見岳父大人”，“新科學怪人”，“妙人怪譚”，“巨蟒與圣杯”，“搖滾萬萬歲”，“動物屋”，“神槍小子”，“顛倒乾坤”，“海底總動員”。 經常獎勵自己一點歡笑，好萊塢式的那種。

    3. 回想你平生最尷尬的幾個時刻。 然后從中找到幽默。 再練習編織故事，用幽默的形式表達出來。 也許需要加點夸張或戲劇色彩，但好故事都是這么講出來的。 要是自曝短處，自我嘲笑，你就更加融入幽默的生活方式了。

    4. 無論何時發生了什么令人惱火，令人泄氣的事情，坦然面對，發現幽默。 要是泥水濺臟了衣服，踩到了狗屎，或是無意中將一條紅色毛巾混在一堆白色衣物中洗，你當然會很生氣。 事實上，這也許是最平常的反應。 但這于事無補，只會壞了心情。 最好還是找個辦法譏諷生活中的小煩惱。 可以這樣做。 想象一下如果這些事發生在別人身上會是什么樣子，你喜歡的某個人—或是你不喜歡的某個人。在腦海里不停的翻閱名片夾，直到找到你認為最適合放在你眼前窘境的人選。 譏笑他，然后譏笑自己！

    5. 每天看一些漫畫書，剪切那些和你的生活相關的章節。 將它們貼在記事板，電冰箱或是隨便什么你能經�？匆姷牡胤缴稀�

    6. 整理家庭相冊，寫上好笑的標題或是你最喜歡的一句話。 累了就合上相冊。

    7. 每天晚餐時，讓家里人說一件他們當天有趣甚或是難堪的事。

    8. 當有人冒犯了你或是惹你生氣了，用幽默還擊，不要報以敵意。 比如，如果有個人老是遲到，對他說，“好哇，我真高興你沒有開一家航空公司。” 人生苦短，別太過于計較個人恩怨。 但是，如果某人總是冒犯你，那就不一樣了，得把它當回事兒，采取適當的措施回敬他。 但對于偶爾的麻煩，或是你怎么做都改變不了那個人或是境況，就用幽默回敬吧。

    每日功課

    9. 在網站注冊，用電郵訂閱大衛·萊特曼每天的頭十條。 你可以登陸www.cbs.com/latenight/lateshow找到。 

    10. 每天花15分鐘參加哈哈課程。 玩法是這樣。 你和另一個人（拍檔，小孩，朋友等）躺在地上，把頭放在她的肚子上，她的頭放在另一個人的肚子上，以此類推（人越多越好）。 第一個人說，“哈。” 下一個人說，“哈哈。” 第三個人說，“哈哈哈。” 以此類推。 保證你會笑個不停。

    11. 瀏覽報紙的互動欄目，挑一些惹人笑的題目參與。 可以是馬戲，電影，單人戲劇或是搞笑表演。 有時候需要一位職業人士幫你重拾幽默感。

    12. 在你每日的工作備忘上增加一條： 找些幽默。 做不到就不要擦掉，吉安尼·羅伯特森建議，他是一位幽默專家，寫過幾本這個課題的書。

    13. 當你遇見朋友或同事，讓他們給你講一件最近幾個星期發生在他們身上的趣事。 羅伯特森說，讓人知道你是一個想聽幽默的真實故事的人，討厭聽流言蜚語的人。

    14. 交一個幽默的死黨。 羅伯特森說，這個人是那種你只是為了告訴他一件趣事而打電話給他的人，那種也會打電話給你講一些他所聞所見的趣事的人。

    15. 夸大吹噓麻煩。 吹噓實際情形可以幫我們找到幽默的視角，帕蒂·沃特說，他是一位獲獎幽默家，“同情的歡笑”一書的作者。 她說，有利身心的玩笑，卡通漫畫，鬧劇喜劇，詼諧文章都在運用夸張。

    16. 安排一個愚蠢的計劃來打破壞心情。 可以是用瑞士口音說話（當然，除非你是瑞士人）。

    17. 建立一個幽默的環境。 做一個哈哈記事板，上面只貼有趣的俗語或諺語，艾倫·克萊恩說，他是一位獲獎職業演說家，幽默的愈合力量一書的作者。 他最喜歡的一句話是： “千萬不要和豬摔跤。 你倆都會弄得臟兮兮，但是豬喜歡那樣。”

    18. 聯系講笑話。 每周學一個簡單的笑話，給周圍的人講。 克萊恩最喜愛的笑話之一和他自己的禿頂有關： “一隊兔子倒著走路，打一謎語？ 禿子梳頭。”

    19. 拿自己開涮。 克萊恩說，“因為我頭發少，我跟別人說我以前是治療禿頂的專家。”