It was a Sunday night and I was laying on the couch with a fever, slightly dizzy, a horrible chest wrenching cough, no appetite and no energy to give a dam. To make matters worse, I was alone and missing my wife who had recently passed away a few weeks before. That night seemed hopeless as I laid in silence staring at the ceiling. I felt sad and saw no way out.
As I laid there, I thought about my business and it’s upcoming commitments with clients and wasn’t the least inspired. “How can I give my clients good service if I feel like crap?” I asked myself. “Do I cancel on them?” “Do I refer someone else?” “Is there a way out of this funk?” “Can I do this business?”. Each question made me feel worse, as my emotions continued its downward spiral.
I started rehearsing what I would say to them to cancel our calendared events. I tried to think what I’ve promised and how to back out without looking like a flake. I figured, “They can get along without me”. Confident, that I would start cancellations the next morning, I kept thinking about the promise I gave, “Laughter will heal your work environment” and yet, I was taking that away from them. “Why do I always say that?” “Why do I always tell my customers that laughter heals?” “Does it?” In that moment I knew “I” needed something to make me feel better than miserable, so I weakly reached for the remote to watch some standup comedy on Netflix. I said to myself as I scrolled and found a comic I had only heard of named, Russell Peters. “Ok, let’s give this guy a try”, I thought to myself.
As soon as he started, I began chuckling, then laughing which started IMPROVING MY BLOOD CIRCULATION. In the first 3 minutes of his standup I was laughing so hard, I had to pause it from coughing like a maniac. That was the beginning BOOST of my ENDORPHINS. Just before I resumed watching the show, I noticed my head was sweating, my temperature felt higher, the foggy feeling was decreasing and for some reason I felt more energy. My IMMUNE FUNCTION IMPROVED. “This is interesting”, I thought as I pressed play and continued watching.
When the show was over, I was sitting straight up, alert and hungry. My experience of being sick had completely transformed. I couldn’t believe it! Before that moment, I relied on the scientific research of laughter’s affect on human beings, but I hadn’t experienced it for myself. Now, I’m a believer! My MOOD WAS ENHANCED! I never cancelled with my clients.
Laughter has been known to release endorphins in the body and create many positive mood enhancing effects. It often times minimizes and eliminates the depths of depression and in my case, made me feel like I was healing. I do stand up comedy, motivationally speak and have seen the effects laughter has on the individual. In fact, it has the ability to teach each of us valuable skills about approaching life, relationships and work. Now more than ever, we need more laughter to heal from those daily challenges. We can all take one step towards the physiological rewards laughter has to offer by making it a daily ritual or embracing it as a viable therapy. I did and it kept me and my business on track that day and continues to do so to this day.
-Mel Austin, comedian
Laughing To Success Entertainment
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