Humor: Your Emotional Self Defense Mechanism

 

 

laughter 300x200 - Humor: Your Emotional Self Defense Mechanism

 

Did you know that only a few seconds of laughter in the midst of a stressful situation is all you need to catch your second wind? Even a little levity can help change how you view a particular problem. I noticed that the more I utilized my Humor Being as a strategy to help me deal with a challenging situation , the more it became a part of who I was and the more emotionally balanced I became. You could say that dealing with life’s stressors and problems from a humorous perspective is emotional self-defense, which in a way is akin with the principles and conditioning of the martial arts. Let me explain.

My friend Jeff has a black belt degree in karate. Through years of practice and repetitious training he has conditioned his mind and body to respond automatically against physical attack with a series of self-defense moves consisting of kicks, punches, blocks, and throws.

One night at a club someone attacked Jeff by surprise and punched him in the back of the head. Fortunately for Jeff the punch didn’t make full contact. Without even thinking, Jeff automatically went into his defense stance, blocked the next punch that was thrown, threw two punches of his own and hurled his assailant through the air and onto the floor.

Here’s the cool part. When it was over Jeff sat down in a chair, brought his hands to his face and said, “Wow! I just got into a fight!”  He said he didn’t have to think about blocking the next punch or when or how to punch back. It just happened. Now that’s conditioning. His mind and body worked together to respond with automatic reflex to keep him from harm’s way-to protect his physical self.

In karate one is constantly practicing their Katas. A Kata is a series of physical moves such as kicks, punches, jumps and throws. These katas condition the student to respond and react effectively in the event of physical attack.

If you make a conscious effort every day to see the humor in the events that attack your emotional well-being you will be practicing your emotional kata. Slowly but surely, you will subconsciously reprogram that brain of yours to the point that when a major emotional attack occurs you will automatically respond to it with more ease. Try it for yourself and see what happens.

Humor is your natural-self-defense-mechanism. It’s a prescription from your higher self to cure the madness that attacks you from day to day. To deny yourself the right to occasionally to step away from the chaos and find the laughter in the midst of troubling times is like denying yourself treatment that can cure an illness.

 

Please feel free to share your thoughts and insights. I welcome all comments.

Steve Rizzo is the Attitude Adjuster.  You can’t attend one of his keynote speeches, seminars, or read his books and leave with the same attitude.  He’s a personal development expert, motivational business speaker, corporate-comedian and best-selling author. It’s no surprise that Steve is also a Hall Of Fame Speaker Inductee. An honor bestowed upon on fewer than 200 speakers worldwide since 1977.

 

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