Inspired Leap - You are far more brilliant than you think you are!

• Quote of the Month
• Upcoming Speaking Engagements
• Laugh Your Way to Success
• The Power of Laughter
• Laugh Your Way to Health
• Remember: Bring More Laughter into Your Life
• Inspired Leap Reminders
• Final Thoughts on The Power of Laughter

Last Thursday, I had the pleasure of participating in the third of a series of contemplative day retreats sponsored by The Seton Cove in Austin. It was an absolutely gorgeous day out at the Red Corral Ranch, where these day retreats are held. Many of us were distracted, laughing, and being more playful than normal. Thankfully, our leader understood the spring fever that had affected many of us and adjusted the program to fit our mood. Has spring fever hit you yet?

In this high-energy month often referred to as "the merry month of May," I thought it would be appropriate to focus on the importance of bringing more laughter and fun into work. How are you incorporating the natural desire for more merriment that comes at this time of year into your days? How can you take the powerful benefits of laughter and humor and bring them into work all year long? Read on to be inspired to laugh more at work and be more playful in order to improve your productivity, creativity, and health.

Unlock the Power of Your Intuition: June 2nd and 9th, 2006, 5:00 pm – 6:30pm, Lake Austin Spa Resort (for overnight guests only).
An Intuitive Intensive at Lake Austin Spa Resort: September, 2006, 9:00 am – 3:00pm, with spa treatment immediately following.

Believe it or not, a great sense of humor and the ability to generate laughter and smiles in a group may be critical to your success, as you move your way up the corporate ladder. Research suggests that those business executives who use humor effectively are more likely to be successful leaders. Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyatzis, and Annie McKee shared two studies done by Fabio Sala in 2000 in their book, Primal Leadership:

Take, for example, one study of executives interviewing for leadership positions, which looked at how often each candidate got a laugh during the interview and then tracked the candidates' careers for two years to see which ones became stars. The finding was that outstanding leaders got the interviewer to laugh with them twice as often as the just-average executives.

The researchers also interviewed high-level leaders, almost half of whom were CEOs or general managers from the United States and abroad, about high and low points in their careers. During the interview the outstanding leaders used three times more humerous comments—about one every four minutes—than the average leaders. [p. 34, emphasis added]

In his book, A Whole New Mind, author Daniel Pink also quotes and refers to Fabio Sala's work: "More than four decades of study by various researchers confirms some common-sense wisdom: Humor, used skillfully, greases the management wheels." [p. 190]. Pink goes on to state that, "it's time to rescue humor from its status as mere entertainment and recognize it for what it is—a sophisticated and peculiarly human form of intelligence that can't be replicated by computers." [p.191]

Unfortunately, many businesses and bosses avoid humor because there is always the chance that you’ll offend someone. However, most people are smart enough to avoid obviously offensive jokes, and the benefits of laughter make the effort to find cartoons, stories, and jokes appropriate for the office worth the effort.

Why is laughter so powerful and the ability to use humor a reflection on our intelligence? It has to do with how laughter affects our brains and bodies. According to Marshall Brain, author of the book, How Stuff Works, and the website of the same name, "laughter is actually a complex response that involves many of the same skills used in solving problems." When you think about it, seeing the humor in a joke or a situation requires an ability to recognize that the situation or punch line described is not what you expected.

As Brain reports in his online report, How Laughter Works, (www.howstuffworks.com/laughter), humor researcher Peter Derks and others have studied the brainwave activity in people while they react to jokes or other humorous information. What they found is that the whole brain is used to react to a joke. The left hemisphere evaluated the words used to tell the humorous story and the right hemisphere "carried out the intellectual analysis required to 'get' the joke." [p.3]

Dan Pink sees humor as one more tool in his toolbox to get people activating and exercising the right hemisphere of the brain. As I’ve stated in previous newsletters, the premise of Pink’s book, A Whole New Mind is that we are entering a new era, the Conceptual Age, which will require more use of our right brain. Consequently, he wrote about the importance of humor and defines "play" as one of the six core areas we need to develop in order to succeed in the Conceptual Age:

Humor embodies many of the right hemisphere’s most powerful attributes—the ability to place situations in context, to glimpse the big picture, and to combine differing perspectives into new alignments. And that makes this aspect of Play increasingly valuable to the world of work. [p. 190]

Intuition is also associated with the right hemisphere of the brain, so laughing can help you become more intuitive simply by exercising the right brain. In my workshops on intuition, I have participants do an alternate nostril breathing exercise because it activates both sides of the brain. Many times participants don’t do this exercise effectively; however, they usually laugh at themselves or others while making an attempt.

As you can see from the description of how the brain is involved in humor and laughter, it doesn’t matter whether or not the breathing exercise is done correctly. If they’re laughing instead, participants still exercise both sides of their brain and—most importantly—have their right hemisphere awake and ready to do its intuitive "thinking."

Even if you just can’t see yourself creating humorous situations at work to improve creativity and productivity, I urge you to search for ways to personally laugh more often at work. No matter how enjoyable our careers, most of us still have days of high stress or anxiety. It turns out that laughter is a very powerful way to counteract the negative impact of stress on our bodies and minds.

CBS News medical correspondent for The Early Show, Dr. Emily Senay, reported on May 23, 2005 on the health benefits of laughter, especially as a key component of stress management for heart patients. "A recent study from the University of Maryland School of Medicine showed that laughing causes physical effects in the blood vessels similar to the effects of exercise." Senay went on to explain how the study worked.

Researchers had 20 healthy volunteers watch a 15-minute clip from the 1996 comedy movie "King Pin" then, 48 hours later, view a clip from the 1998 war movie "Saving Private Ryan." After each movie was shown, researchers used ultrasound to measure physical changes in blood vessels.

If that’s not a powerful enough example of the benefit of laughing, consider that laughter strengthens the immune system by counteracting the negative effects of stress and gives you a workout that can be just as effective as serious exercise, as noted by Marshall Brain in his How Laughter Works article:

Laughter provides a safety valve that shuts off the flow of stress hormones and the fight-or-flight compounds that swing into action in our bodies when we experience stress, anger, or hostility. These stress hormones suppress the immune system.

What may surprise you even more is the fact that researchers estimate that laughing 100 times is equal to 10 minutes on the rowing machine or 15 minutes on an exercise bike. Laughing can be a total body workout! Blood pressure is lowered, and there is an increase in vascular blood flow and in oxygenation of the blood, which further assists healing. Laughter also gives your diaphragm and abdominal, respiratory, facial, leg and back muscles a workout. That's why you often feel exhausted after a long bout of laughter — you’ve just had an aerobic workout! [p. 6]

While I don’t plan on counting the number of times I laugh, I do plan on reminding myself of the healthy benefits of laughing when I start to berate myself for wasting time goofing off or for laughing out loud at some silly comment someone made. Could you begin to do the same?

By now I hope you are convinced of the importance of laughing throughout your work day, as well as during the rest of your waking hours Now I’d like you to consider how you can bring more laughter into your day. Here are some ideas to get your imagination going:

• Subscribe to a magazine or paper that always has funny cartoons. Make an effort to look for great cartoons to bring into the office to share with coworkers or with family and friends.

• Search out great comedies to rent or to see during the summer. Avoid the heavy, depressing movies (remember the effect on blood flow of watching a sad or intense movie). Share your favorite scenes or best lines with others.

• Make a commitment to start a meeting with a funny cartoon or story. You don't have to tell a joke. You can always just share a copy of it with others and let them read it on their own.

• Find a laughing club to attend before you go to work. See (www.laughteryoga.org).

• Hire a professional speaker to get people laughing at work and to share ideas for adding humor throughout the day at work. (Check out www.worldlaughtertour.com, or www.humoru.com).

These are just a few examples. Have fun finding more ways to laugh, giggle, and guffaw at the everyday silliness of work and life. Laugh loud, laugh often, and laugh your way to a healthy, successful life.

Inspired Leap Reminders are areas of focus and part of the Inspired Leap Approach to maximizing productivity, creativity, and morale. In each newsletter, we take a look at how the topic of the month might be viewed in the context of these important areas of focus. Or, in some cases, we use the section as a gentle reminder to pay attention to these concepts in our daily lives.

Responsibility: Some times the most responsible thing you can do is poke a little fun at yourself. If you are a leader within your organization or in the community, consider the gift of health and mental clarity you give yourself and others when you choose to lighten tense moments or stressful situations with a good laugh or a joke, even if it’s at your expense.

Creativity: To expand your creativity, laugh, laugh, laugh. Then consider creative ways to bring in more laughter into your life and office. Post cartoons or funny posters around your office and update them frequently. Have cartoons emailed to you daily, buy magazines filled with funny cartoons or stories. Collect the best ones and share them with coworkers or use them to start off a meeting. If coming up with creative ways to make others laugh is to stressful for you, then only focus on fun ways to make you laugh.

Detachment: Comedian Bob Newhart explained the power of laughter to help us detach from painful situations and move forward. He said, "Laughter gives us distance. It allows us to step back from an event, deal with it and then move on." (quotationspage.com) Last month I talked about how focusing on and worrying about what's happening now can cause you to lose your focus on the ultimate goal. How might laughing stop you from worrying and enable you to regain your focus?

Forgiveness: Sometimes attempts at humor backfire. Have you ever inadvertently made an inappropriate joke or unintentionally offended some one with a story or joke that you thought was funny? If you haven’t forgiven yourself, it’s time to let that old mistake go. Use your own mistakes to help you lighten up and forgive someone else if they tell a joke that pokes fun at you or that you find offensive. More than likely, the person never meant to hurt or offend you. And, even if they did, you’ll have the last and healthiest laugh if you just let it go and forgive them.

Kindness and Compassion: There are obviously times when it’s not appropriate to tell a joke or laugh. The situation seems too serious or your coworker or friend too upset. In those times, remember that a simple smile has many of the same contagious, powerful benefits on the body and mind as laughter. Give the gift of a genuine smile and notice how much better you feel and confidently assume that you've shared some of that benefit with those who witnessed that beautiful smile.

Resistance to Change: If you find yourself resisting the whole notion of bringing more laughter into work, ask yourself why. Think back and determine if you ever had any bad or negative experiences with humor or laughter while at work. Jokes that were offensive, complaints by others for laughing, a comment by a boss who said you didn’t take work seriously enough and so on. Any painful past experience that may seem trivial now can still be a powerful deterrent to making positive changes. If that’s the case, you’ll want to create new beliefs around the appropriateness and benefit of humor in the office. Look for examples of peers who have successfully used humor to motivate, inspire, or relieve the stress of coworkers.

What can you do to make this a very merry month of May? What makes you laugh? Consider getting a cartoon sent to you every day, so you can chuckle while reading at least one email!

Laughing costs you nothing, yet it is one of the most powerful gifts humans have access to. May you remember that gift this month and laugh your way to the bank and into a remarkable summer.

If your company needs help with inspiring employees to reach new heights in productivity, creativity, morale, and integrity, please contact us at inspiredleap.com or 512-236-0090. If you need some more inspiration or more regular nudging to practice these steps, check out our website to see what’s new to inspire you (a visit to The Quiet Room may be just what you need!).