Humor: The Lighter Path to Resilience and Health - Softcover

McGhee, PhD Paul

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1449060692 ISBN 13: 9781449060695

Publisher: AuthorHouse, 2010

Synopsis

We've all heard the phrase, "Laughter is the best medicine". Readers Digest has been telling us this for years, but until recently there was no real evidence to back up the claim. This book discusses the exciting findings scientists have obtained over the past 25 years for how your sense of humor supports good physical and mental health. A separate chapter discusses humor and the brain. The first studies of humor and health demonstrated humor's ability to strengthen the immune system, reduce pain and reduce levels of stress hormones circulating in the body. These general health-promoting benefits led researchers to study the impact of humor and laughter on specific diseases. This exciting new work has now shown health benefits of humor in connection with coronary heart disease, asthma, COPD, arthritis, certain allergies and diabetes. The two cerebral hemispheres of the brain are shown to play different roles in our understanding and enjoyment of humor. Also, specific dopamine-based pleasure centers in the brain have now been identified which account for the good feeling that results from humor and a good belly laugh. The key to understanding humor's contribution to health and wellness is its ability to both build more positive emotion into your life and reduce feelings of anger, anxiety and depression. Humor helps provide the emotional resilience needed to meet the challenges presented by steadily increasing stress in our personal and work lives. It is a powerful tool for coping with any form of life stress, and a means of sustaining a positive, optimistic attitude toward life. Similarly, humor plays a key role in generating a happy marriage and greater happiness and life satisfaction in general. And it's never too late to improve your sense of humor. You can learn to use humor to cope and get these benefits into your own life.

About this title

About the Author:

Paul McGhee has a PhD in Psychology and is internationally known for his own research on humor, having published many scientific articles and 11 books on humor. He spent 20 years conducting basic research on humor and laughter and is generally viewed as a pioneer in the field. He now works full time as a professional speaker and is President of The Laughter Remedy, in Wilmington, Delaware. He is at the cutting edge of the current movement to put humor to work in healthcare settings and corporations. He shows physicians, nurses and other healthcare professionals how to use humor to 1) cope with the growing pace of change and uncertainty in the healthcare system and 2) build the resilience needed to remain productive and provide quality care and service in the midst of growing job stress. In corporate settings, he shows how humor provides the emotional resilience needed to meet the challenges provided increasing work demands. Dr. McGhee is internationally recognized as an authority on the physical and mental health benefits associated with humor. He has provided humor programs in 12 countries. His work has been featured in the Scientific American: Mind, the New York Times, USA Today, The Learning Channel, PBS, Dutch, Swiss and German television, and German, French, Swiss, Norwegian, Japanese and Italian magazines and newspapers. His hands-on humor skills training program is the only program of its kind. It shows how to develop the basic skills required to use humor to become more effective in your work and cope with job stress. The program has been shown to be effective in four countries. For additional information Dr. McGhee's keynotes, as well as both a discussion of research on the health and coping benefits of humor and guidelines for improving your own humor skills, see his web site at www.LaughterRemedy.com.

About this edition

• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 1449060692
• ISBN 13: 9781449060695
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 396