Life is Short, Wear Your Party Pants by Loretta Laroche
Author:Loretta Laroche
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook, book
Publisher: Hay House
Published: 2010-08-15T00:00:00+00:00
âA sense of humor is probably
the only divine quality of man.â
â Arthur Schopenhauer
P
Humor As a Coping Mechanism
Whenever I give a lecture or a workshop, I never fail to encourage participants to read Manâs Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl. He was a psychiatrist who survived the Nazi concentration camps during World War II and who developed a form of psychotherapy called Logotherapy as a result. His book profoundly shows how individuals can survive the most horrific of situations through grace, dignity and humor.
In the Preface of the book, Gordon Allport writes: âHunger, humiliation, fear, and deep anger at injustice are rendered tolerable by closely guarded images of beloved persons, by religion, by a grim sense of humor, and even by glimpses of the healing beauties of natureâa tree or a sunset.âIâve heard many accounts of how this type of humor, called âgallows humor,âhas helped many people in difficult jobs, particularly health-care professionals. Anyone overhearing some of the conversations between nurses or doctors might be deeply offended, but for them it becomes a way to get relief from the horrors they witness.
As a child, I was dragged to many an Italian funeral, which often resembled a Federico Fellini movie. There was great drama as the black-clad women wailed and moaned. Then thereâd be bursts of laughter as people began to recount stories about the dearly departed. And, of course, it would all end with a giant feast. I learned that thereâs a very short distance between tears and laughterâthey both offer relief.
How to Humor Your Life
When I first began teaching, I thought that the best way to get people to laugh was for me to be as funny as possible so theyâd giggle nonstop. As I evolved and researched the subject, I realized that although there were benefits to this model, it didnât allow people to be able to laugh at themselves. And that was my goalâbecause when people can get to that point, they always travel with their own comedy act thatâs ready to lighten up their life.
After years of trying different techniques, I came across Albert Ellis and his work. As I read his book Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy: A Therapistâs Guide, the words âwe disturb ourselvesâjumped out at me, and I had an epiphany: We all do this in some manner. We take something relatively easy to cope with and make it into a crisis. Havenât we all been with someone who goes on and on about the fact that âItâs raining! What are we going to do? weâre going to get wet, and our hair will be a mess,âand on and on.
This is completely irrational, but these people canât seem to appreciate that. Theyâre more invested in making themselves nuts. Theyâve certainly seen rain and have gotten wet before, and nothing catastrophic happened then ⦠so why canât they just grab an umbrella and get over it? But the rain isnât really the issue, is it? Iâm convinced that we donât want to stop whining, because in some way it gives us attention.
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