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>> Hello, my name is Ann Albert. I'm the executive director of Supporting Active Independent
Lives.
Today's Positive Aging Lecture Series is all about humor and taking care of oneself.
We hope that you'll join us for our future programs coming up this month: Empowering Patience Through Advocacy, Healthy Aging
and Technology, and Improving Diet for Eye Health.
Dr. Bob McGrath. We're pleased to have with us today our presenter,
He's a licensed psychologist and he's coordinator of the University of Wisconsin
Mind/Body Wellness program. This program focuses on healthy and happy living, including eating right, sleeping right,
humor, managing stress, and being physically active and flourishing.
Dr. McGrath. Please join me in welcoming
[APPLAUSE] >> Robert McGrath: Thank you. It's great to be here.
I hadn't been familiar with the title of the series,
oh, this makes sense because my orientation as a clinical psychologist is positive But when I saw that I thought,
Health and positive psychology psychology.
is where I work from these days, and it's a nice little change because I work at the
university. I teach a number of classes every year on health and
it's to the students that are 19 to 22 years old. So it's nice to have a whole positive psychology and
was saying, does this fit, different age range and someone
well I really think health practice and the humor is going to be a little different.
One of the things I'll actually talk about is the little kiddos.
Why don't we keep our sense of humor like those little kids?
We should laugh and smile as
much as they do every day. And someone was talking about the importance of laughter being
contagious. So I've got a few people said in
a long with us and so on. Just to start with, we'll get to there so we're going to laugh a lot so hopefully you'll laugh
a little bit about the whole that humor stuff maybe in a little bit, but let's just talk
area of positive psychology. It started maybe 10 or 11 years ago, a major figure in the field
of psychology, Martin Seligman, whose research, he had been president of APA, and his research was on learned
helplessness which is another form, learned helplessness is basically like a form of
And what all his studies would depression.
be, he'd get students, he'd get animals and this and that and no matter what they did to answer,
it was wrong. So think if you're doing a
what do you do? At some point you go heck with little survey or a test and every answer you give is wrong,
and so on. this, I'm done. And you just quit and give up
And the point of that is that learned helplessness, if in your life you think whatever I do it
ain't working, then at some point you just sort of give up
energy, why bother. But this turned around and he talks about what sort of set him depression, of just sort of low
He was out working in his garden in a different direction.
complaining or something to her and she said daddy you asked me anot to be so fussy, would your wasquit being so grumpy.t of
[LAUGHTER]
And it woke him up and it turned around and he started really
downside of psychology, what's the positive side, and started this field of positive focusing on instead of the
the board on more, not like focusing again on what's wrong psychology which focuses across
but how might we live in good, healthy, positive ways.
And I said you don't often think
of that. Where are you on the continuum
now and basically that ask how and they have all these surveys
like in the range of happiness, happy are where am I?n or eight And focus on living a good life rather than correcting what's
wrong.
Of course, everyone wants to be happy, but sometimes it gets lost in business or misguided
attempts of creating happiness. And one of the, for example,
linking happiness to money and there's some great research on,
any lottery players?
But people that win lotteries, millions and millions of
happy? dollars, does that make them
Yes it does. [LAUGHTER]
Six months. And there's a lot of stress even For how long?
in that first part of it and then it's down back to normal.
So money really isn't the thing.
decide how long can they live Andbasically without money.of books of people that have taken this that much further and they
There's a fellow who-- he did it for scholarly reasons.
He lived in New York without
is it like to get into garbage money for a year. And just sort of the in-rest, the scholastic in-rest of what
year. His fiance didn't necessarily appreciate the notion of living pennilessly, but after a couplea
of months, so the year came to
an end and he said I'll have some variations but I'm going to
simple way without a material focus. continue living in the simple,
And they sort of talk about the pleasant life, having as many pleasures as possible, drinking, a happy life?
Now and then you hear about the politicians, they had 10 shopping, having fancy cars.
different cars, are you going to be 10 times happier if you have
10 fancy cars or is one fancy car enough or do you just need
something that works or even a bike?
The next sort of the good life. Knowing what your signature strengths are and using those strengths creatively.
And the handout I gave you is a little list of the signature
And then the last area, the meaningful life, so using those strstrengths and services isout something you believe is larger
than you are. So there's just sort of steps,
or taking it one step further and making it meaningful. And, of course, that flip side, hathat unhappiness thing, whatfe
keeps people from getting into
that more positive side? Again, materialism, the satisfaction, this sort of
negativity or sometimes, and
this can be a real challenge with students, perfectionism. They got to get that, if they
get an A minus instead of an A, oh, no. So you got to get that
Are there benefits? Of course, it seems like being perfectionism going.
happy is a good positive thing but is there any real benefit?
Do you think people live longer if they're happy? It actually has more impact,
actually has more impact. It increases people's lives up I hope none of you smoke, but it
to nine years and throughout that extra nine years, a lot
more energy.
So laughter, has there been enough laughing? What's the whole laughter thing?
This is not new.
This is not something that the positive psychology people
ago and the other areas aren't discovered like 10 or 11 years
what's behind it? And this is actually maybe 20-30 that much looking at the whole, of course everyone laughs, but
years ago Norman Cousins sort of got this thing going.
He was a writer and so on in, I think, the political area,
spondylitis, which is an but he was diagnosed with a chronic, irreversible illness,
incurable disease of the spine. And so on the treatment 26 aspirin a day, codeine, sleeping
pills, and basically just laying
there in the hospital bed. And he said if I've only got
live this way? months to live, do you want to
And he said no. So he went back and started, how many of you were Candid Camera
fans in the old days? There you go. So he started his own program of
And he ended up every day spending an hour or two, or how much time I'm not remembering, laughter.
watching Candid Camera and other but spending time laughing,
writing about the importance things. He not only survived but he changed his career and started
of humor as a major health. How many of us think of humor as oh, this is a great medicine?
It's like, hmm. But it is.
But why? And actually one of the things
that physically it's very similar to a good workout.
It may even be better. If you're out running or doing a
vigorous walk or something, do
So when you're laughing, your yowhole body is pretty welld? Do your abinvolved.uscles get 400 muscles are involved.
I was going to tell you earlier since I'm used to working with
test and one of those items on students, there's going to be some homework and we'll have a
And Norman Cousins actually thcalled it internal jogging.es And now I guess it would be internal aerobics.
But really it gets your whole body moving.
So what happens? It increases endorphin levels
which are the body's natural
pain killer. It's a natural euphoriant.
without side effects. It's like all these other, a lot It just picks our mood up
feel good for a little bit but of different things that people put in their body to make it
they have, let's say, side effects.
body, relieves physical tension and stress leaving muscles But laughter relaxes the whole
in particular this is for all of relaxed for up to 45 minutes. And one of those other things,
us, does anyone here like to be bored? It relieves boredom, a good
laugh.
like sometimes even if you're Awatching Candid Camera and people. It's very contagious and it's
current comedy it might be, but if you've got a group that's you're alone you have some good laughs maybe, or whatever
laughing, it's contagious. It just feels good.
It connects people. How can you argue against that. And it improves your immunity.
you're going to have fewer You have a bunch of good laughs,
colds. It increases your immune cells
antibodies, improving your in infection fighting
resistance to disease. Specifically immunoglobulin A.
immunoglobulin A levels? How's everyone's
You're okay? Get those immunoglobulin A
[LAUGHTER] levels going.
Improves your mood. Moves away from negative motion. on your immunoglobulin A, go have a good laugh.
Just like you to reflect, when you've had a good laugh, do you
come away from that going that
could have been funnier, or this or that?
negative and down side of things It just changes that little
and fosters sort of a happiness. If you have a good laugh, do you
Data says yes. think you sleep better?
It lowers blood pressure. It enlarges your thymus. Get your thymus, anyone's got
thymus issues out there?
One of the things I encourage, is it a joke or not, but there's
thymus that you start your day a thing called thumping your
just with a good bump, bump, bump, bump. And I've told people this and
they'll start laughing, and I thought which is better for them
to be thumping their thymus or laughing about someone else who
promotes thumping their thymus? Probably the laughing part is better than actually thumping your thymus.
But first thing in the morning, why not?
yourself a... I don't know that you're Bump, bump, bump, bump. Everyone here quick give
your teeth, thump your thymus. going to feel any effects today but tomorrow before you brush
[LAUGHTER] So what else does this humor do?
and it burns calories. It clears negativity
So anyone thinking they should be dieting a bit it's like oh, I
going to have a good laugh about can have that cookie because I'm
it and so on. [LAUGHTER] Again, it connects people,
reduces anxiety.
where do you get a good laugh? But one of the little challenges, anyone want to talk it, it's like the challenge of
Sometimes that can be challenging. Particularly if the
recommendation is 15-20 minutes a day.
And even if you find a good TV show, you might have 15 minutes
left but there's going to be
about 15-20 minutes of commercials so I guess if you laugh at all the people that are
going to take this medication when they list 18 reasons why you shouldn't take it because it's going to make you suicidal
or make you feel like this or that or hurt your heart.
humor? So there's a challenge. Where do you get that good
Anyone have any good answers where they can just go? One of the things, and it's an
interesting area, it's called laughter yoga where essentially there's meetings, they meet for 40-50 minutes and they just
laugh.
And it's like huh? And so they'll just do things like say everyone just turn and
look at each other and laugh. Wait a minute, is that going to be funny, are you going to
No. And one of their little things offend someone?
So one quick aloha-ha-ha-ha. is the aloha. Aloha-ha-ha-ha.
Just start laughing. Come on, come on, come on.
And you get doing that, again, Ha-ha, ha-ha-ha, aloha-ha-ha-ha.
45 minutes but they'll just go from one little, and you can
sometimes it looks like it's Google this and see, so
fun. There's a group in town that
You can look in the paper. does laughter yoga.
It's like once a week. Just for a little laughter yoga and maybe invite them to come
out.
I don't know what this means but And just go through different positions and mostly spend time laughing.
I said laugh a little bit or thumping your thymus before you brush your teeth but they call
this laughing mental floss. So you're supposed to floss your
teeth every day so don't do just dental floss, do your mental
floss of laughing.
Do at least a couple minutes. So one of the little issues that psychologists always have to
look at things and analyze, are there gender issues between what
There seems to be. men find funny and what women find funny?
And whenever you get into this it's like well there's going to be an example where a woman
finds this funny just like a man
difference and sometimes the does. But it's kind of fun just thinking about what the
men like less intelligent humor. things that men like aren't the best. This is one of those things, but
[LAUGHTER] Silly slapstick, cruder humor that has profanities.
Jokes at other people's expense,
aggressive humor, and shorter, quicker delivery. None of these elaborate dirty
jokes but quick dirty jokes or
something. So it's just one of those little
And what do women like? Dryer humor. challenges.
Often at their own expense humor.
Humor about relationships and the battle of the sexes and jokes that are not raunchy or dirty.
One of the little challenges
like anyone got any great humor, and even in presenting or talking about humor how many
jokes cannot offend somebody or at least maybe it's just that male thing. So I'll do surveys and ask a
number of people you got any
jokes I can convey? The only one, and this someone might say there's a gender issue
here. It's the man and the woman that were in the grocery store and she says you go get the orange
juice and I'll go get stuff in
the other lane. So like 5-10 minutes later she goes where is he.
And so she goes and looks and he's just staring.
And she says what are you doing, and he says the orange juice
says concentrate. [LAUGHTER]
Sorry. So I don't know if this is a
breed of grocery store humor, I don't know where that's on the
woman is sending the guy off for list, but someone else sent a thing that said, again, the
shopping or whatever and she says get a gallon of milk and in
And so he comes back with six gallons of milk. they have eggs, six.
and if they have eggs, get six. And his interpretation is get And she ssix gallons. he says you said get a gallon of milk
This qualifies in that is this So maybe one last.
male humor, but as I checked various family humor, one family
these two people that were had this, their family joke was
drinking outside and they were apparently sent outside the bar,
and one says it's B-R-O-O-O-O-M. and they're arguing out there
says it's right there on the And the other is saying no, it's B-A-R-O-O-O-M. And some guy is walking by and
sign B-A-R-R-O-O-M, bar room. And the guys walks on and he says that guy doesn't know what
we're talking about, we're
arguing about how to spell the sound of an elephant
[LAUGHTER] passing gas.
And that family should be pleased because there's actually a book out now.
It's a kids book
on "The Gas We Pass." [LAUGHTER] So apparently the answer
is right in here. The answer is B-A-A-R-O-O-M-M,
It's like I went to this talk today and now I know how to spell the sound of an elephant So now you all know.
But this family, and one of the things families can generate, so passing gas.
every house mostly has a broom closet, right?
So if at the dinner one of the
kids expressed themselves in a certain flatulent way, they had to go into the broom closet for
three or four minutes.
[LAUGHTER] Okay but maybe better to go to laughing yoga rather than
hearing about broom closets.
Well, if you're not ready for a big laugh, what about just smiling?
And one of the, it's
eight-month, year, two years, interhow many times a day?I was Hundreds, 400 times a day. Kids smile and laugh, the six-,
yesterday how many of you laughed or smiled 400 times a day? So just a quick reflection,
touch with that. It's like we got to get back in
smiling is like can you list as many benefits just there are And so smiling, again you don't even have to laugh, but just
benefits of smiling. There's one, baseball players
smiling on their baseball cards.
average of seven more years than What? And they go back and track, those who were smiling lived an
non-smilers. So come on, smile.
smiling in their high school Research on people who were
yearbooks. The non-smilers-- smilers, were much more likely
to have a marriage that lasted. The non-smilers were
significantly more divorced. So hmm.
And it's like what, is there
I don't want to get everyone something to smiling? For one, it boosts the immune system, lowers blood pressure.
here obsessive but don't smile and go you know I'm releasing some endorphins.
Don't mind if I'm smiling, I'm
getting a natural painkiller into my system or my serotonin
But remember smiling is contagious and the more you smile the more others do too. So if nothing else, that's one
of the homework assignments, go out and smile a little bit. All right, have we had enough of
But the little sheet I gave you, this serious stuff?
and actually if someone had an extra sheet, I didn't leave one for myself, that would be great.
So this whole positive
psychology thing, thank you, what are some of the things they
And one was just on personal started focusing on?
strengths. And so I passed this out for you
to quickly reflect where do you think you fall. If there are 24 strengths, make to jyour own personal list. you
What do you think are your
signature strengths? And they're going to be very
room. But whether you're focused on being open-minded, loving of different for everyone in the
valorous or integrity. learning, courage, being
There's a whole range and on the flip side of this is the website
take, they call it the values and action. And it takes about 20 minutes. where you can actually go and
then you get your ranking of A lot of different questions and
your 24 signature strengths in which order.
strengths, they don't say if And one of the things about
you've got a list what are you going to pay attention to?
bottom five? The top five or maybe those
encouragement is no, concentrate Oh, I should strengthen these bottom five ones. And they're real strong
on the top five. And what do you do by concentrating?
Just thinking about them from day-to-day and going off and
gratitude, but if, fairness, enacting those. So if, we'll talk about
just paying attention to your day and treating people, particularly fairly.
And one of the things they
encourage don't just do the regular old things, but let's be creative now and do something
with that strength slightly differently than you have in the
Creativity is right up there. Bravery, I don't know, how past.
do you use bravery creatively? And vitality.
Again, there's a number of them that jump out and so take a look
which ones click with you. Do a little test of your sense
and go ahead and take the values
and action test on the website. One of the other things they really encourage in this
positive psych movement is
word that is unfortunately from chow many years ago, the random And someone was pointing out, I guess it's a little play on the
So they don't have to be random but just thinking, and here's more homework, I'm not sure when a flip.
you'll turn these in next week, no, but to go off and do three you're going to meet again that
And, again, random acts are just to five random acts of kindness per day.
whatever, and I'll ask my class and they have to go off and do them, just coming up with very
interesting things. They can be as minor as opening the door for someone or smiling at someone.
But they can be volunteering, helping someone that seems to have a heavy package. One of the things that comes up
a lot is leaving a large tip. As a cheap fellow, it's like
it's past 15% but just leaving like a, for a minor thing just
leave a nice tip. But one of the things people
or whatever and paying talk about is going through a drive-thru restaurant
like driving through a toll zone the car behind for their lunch. And apparently it's not totally uncommon for people to do that
and paying the toll for the person behind you. Again, is it significant?
It's a nice little thing to do. And it's just to get oriented toward doing nice things. Helping a biker with a flat
tire. So anyone have any great ideas
real quick of random acts of kindness?
Think about that a little bit.
And really, three to five a day. It's not like a big, big thing. So another area that really is
like absolutely nothing new except someone is actually
background: gratitude. saying we should look at this instead of just having it in the
So a number of years ago I went to a workshop, and Bob Emmons is a psychologist, and he actually
was in the same program I was in
down in University of Illinois except he was there probably 20 years after me but he just gave
this presentation.
really to think about, of course And it's like holy cow, this is the best thing I've ever heard. It's just very engaging and
are going on throughout your gratitude's been around forever but really thinking about and being thankful for things that
day. So gratitude, the inner sense of
received, an affirmation of the goodness in one's life, and the recognition that the source of appreciation for some benefit
outside yourself. One of the real challenges in our lifestyle or in generations is like we deserve this, right?y
It's a beautiful day, you deserve that. You can complain about the bad
But being grateful, it's great ones.
for your mind and your body. And just take a moment to reflect, hmm when was the last
day I have been so thankful for?
And there's something about, and one of the things that he's done
keeping a gratitude journal. plenty of research on this,
And he had the one group had to Andkeep a gratitude journal.the fThe other group kept their students.
All the little annoyances of the hassles journal.
day and so on. And then there was a placebo
And so how does that work out? group.
And it's like, hmm, those people when the gratitude journal, their mood lifts, and
surprisingly enough their grades
even lift. It just picks up their sense of self and appreciation, and it's
like a lot of exercises or
things you have to go do, it's like how easy is this just to be
So it's an easy one to promote thankful.
and so on. What are the challenges to
Sense of entitlement like I deserve all of this, right? I deserve this beautiful day. Distractions, being too busy,
and sense of deserving
everything because I already worked so hard for this.
list for the benefits of humor. Here's, again it's the same and it's not that someone with But I gave you that big long
on this and just noticing the differences between the gratitude groups and other opinion, they've done research
Increasing optimism. groups.
exercise? SomBut apparently it has thatg. Why would keeping a gratitude journal lead you to get into
benefit. They feel better, physically,
and they feel better about their
Have more high energy, positive moods, greater sense of well-being, and a greater sense of being connected with others.
And just like with that exercise
and some of these other things, they sleep better. Hmm.
Just being thankful leads you to
better sleep. I don't know if anyone's got sleep issues out there, just be
thankful and you'll sleep better. Lessens negative emotions and in
starts dropping and happiness increases by 25%. So a nice, easy, you want to be happier, just start keeping that
gratitude journal.
Helps cope with illness. A group with neuromuscular
intervention and their symptoms greatly reduced and they showed improvement. disease did a 21-day gratitude
to go do can be hard but this is So some of the things you have
on your homework list. Try that gratitude journal and
moods just go up. And hopefully you're already all you'll be in that group with the
in a good mood but even there, you're in a good mood, you'll be
in that much better mood. And one of the things, and this can be a little bit of challenge
but I encourage you to do this, so just keeping a journal thinking, okay, who do I really feel like I want to thank for
something and writing a thank you, a gratitude letter.
We all write or are great with writing thank you notes, thanks
for the present, thanks for this
thorough thank you to somebody or that, but actually what they encourage is write out, keep it less than a page but really a
and then go laminate it and go say to that person you want to
to them. get together and go and read it
Tell them what? Sending them things is nice enough or just saying thanks. But there is research really
promotes this that it makes everyone very thankful and happy
about that. I won't make it official that they've done it. So I encourage you to think
you note to someone that's been wriimportant in your life.hank
Okay, so it's funny that even in
the positive side of things they have a little contest between which is a more important.
The authentic happiness folks,
what was behind what made you they encourahappy.t keeping a journal at night on what's made you happy during the day and
journal? So is it better to keep a happiness journal or a gratitude
So I encourage you don't worry about which one is slightly better.
Do either one.
Do them both. And, again, in terms of how much research, do you need to do it
seven days a week?
They start calculating three, four, five times a week is okay. Although it makes a lot of
sense.
It's a nice habit. When I work with students that
the things I'll encourage it's a have sleep difficulties one of
nice way to start your down time before sleeping, spend five minutes thinking about the
things you appreciate.
can go on, there's so many Just a few things before we start wrapping up here. Exercise, music, meditation, we
different things, eating right, sleeping right, and I'm sure hopefully you've had people talk
about those kind of areas.
yet most of us would say but I And it's like, hmm, hopefully you have. Eating right can be so easy and
But I won't give a lecture on don't quite dthat.t or I do too mSo exercise, and it's ah challenge but there's been more
focus on exercising just in the last, again there's been
exercising around forever but as you probably notice just going
down the street you see a lot more people running these days
So exercise has really picked up. One of the nice things, there's actually some research,
exercising is a great antidepressant. So someone that's just down and sort of sluggish and just not
really majorly depressed but
probably down, they've even done research with things where
depression and so on. And compared to with there's been significant
antidepressants. And where some of the research
in general shows the
antidepressants have this quicker spike but that the people that keep running or
exercising aerobically end up in
And why would exercise, thewhere does it fit in?ore Exercise encourages the growth depression.
It's like, what? of new brain cells.
And one of the things I like in my little class, it boosts your work onBDNF. brain? How are your BDNF levels?
Anyone out there? The BDNF is your brain derived
brain cells. neurotropic factor, which plays a role in the growth of new
It's like at whatever age, you want your brain to keep growing.
to make my brain grow? And one way is exercise is going
But it apparently has a nice positive affect in that direction.
It improves mood. As I said, one of the best
antidepressants. Also reduces anxiety.
Improves sleep. Helps your immune system. Reduces weight. Increases the duration of one's
life. And also increases your resistance to fatigue.
shouldn't this make me more tired? It's like, wait a minute,
If I go out doing whatever for a half hour a day, is that going
to make me more tired?
energy. AnSo it's like, and it's justn, nofunny to read the differentto recommendations about what
exercise, anyone out here have
recommendations? Aerobic seems to be the slight
So whether that's running, leader.
walking, swimming, biking. And the walking it's like you don't have to run but they
really encourage 20 to 30 minutes of movement a day becomes very valuable.
badminton. And this one guy writes
It's like do you have some friends that want to play badminton.
So think of all the possibilities but do the ones,
and again doing like the walking, running, swimming it's
hard to have conversations but
the other things, biking or running or walking, you can do with people and to help break
things up it becomes very nice
to have lots of conversation and try and throw in a few humor. A lot of those conversations
have a humorous background to them. So you're laughing and walking
You're getting two credits for at the same time.
people spending too much time spinning indoors or whatever. AndIt's like get outdoors.eat On the list of, I've got another
list I was going to copy, but the list of things that promote thriving and one of them is being outdoors.
So to do that exercise, and whether it's exercise or just an
around appreciating that easy walk or just going and sitting on a bench and looking
outdoors, appreciating nature and being thankful for that good nature, it just boosts your mood
and just everything about your
and music, and one of the things body starts feeling better. So I really encourage that. Things like music, exercise
I encourage not connecting but if you are walking and you see
that little thing that's in their ear? people running by, how many have
discourage it. And it's not bad, it's better that you're out, but I really
It's like get out and enjoy the nature, not like carrying some music along.
But music, is the music a health
thing? And it can be and part of, one
in a little bit about meditation of the things we'll wrap up with
and so on, but music, and most people, unfortunately, it's background.
You're cooking or eating dinner and you've got music playing in the other room and so on and
how many you have just sat for it's great, but I encourage you,
20 minutes with you and music. A lot of times in a live
attention, and that's one thing that makes it great. performance you're paying
But a lot of times otherwise music is just in the background.
And so I encourage you all to take a moment, 20 moments,
some music and just sit and absorb the music. 2Really attend to it, to thee minwords, just to the sound, on
the rhythm, and so on.
So that's the next thing, It has meditation.itative qI think that Richard Davidsonr gave a talk here in the fairly
recent past, and it's like he's a local psychologist that has done research internationally on
And I noticed there's a meditation room here, and it's the benefits of meditation.
like meditation, meditation, it's like hmm.
It also has been around forever.
But one of the things that's become real clear is the benefit
opens a whole, or it doesn't of meditation is striking how it
open up a whole other section of the brain but it really invigorates different sections
of the brain than our usual.
chatter, chatter, chatter, that side of the brain is so well unfortunately, that verbal side of the brain, that chatter,
developed. It's that other side that needs
a little growth.
And I know among students, and probably among you all too, it's
for 15 minutes quietly. Some people do meditation for not 15 minutes, they do it hour, like I don't have time to sit
people do it for months. two hours, three hours, some
It's like hmm. But there's something to it so I
just that 15 minutes. Just quietly. How many different forms of encomeditation are there? with
I actually discourage people
come up with thousands and getting on the Internet but I say get on the Internet and Google meditation, and you'll
thousands and thousands of different variations of meditation.
But there's like a hundred
essentially what they core down to is just slow, deep breathing and focusing your breathing.ots of different forms but
minute while I'm up here So I encourage people just for a
distracting you but just to take four or five slow deeper
And just to focus. breaths.
And one of the things they do is really focus on the sensation like just as you breathe in
focusing sensation within your
notice, unless your nose is sort nose. We're breathing all day and yet most of us don't think about and
slightly different sensation as of stuffyou breath out.ing, you And to do that, I'll encourage breathing in and then the
deeper breaths just to get you you to taking three or four
things that's a real strong meditation thing is smiling relmeditation.on. Back to tIt's like hmm.e of the
So even while you're just sitting there, just put that
smile as you're focusing on your breathing and just have a slight
smile.
And some of them will actually say and then think about your third eye up here and have that
smile.
And that gets a little bit extreme.
slight smile. Then they'll point out that various historic figures, if you Just focus on your personal,
little smile. So it doesn't have to be a big, whole laughing smile. look aJust a little smile.just a
One of the other forms is when
people, once they do it they sort of enjoy it. I don't know if everyone here
would but humming meditation. So that on your exhale you just do a little hum.
[HUMMING] Let's have one big hum here. So it's...
And there's something that's [HUMMING]
just relaxing. You feel more vibration through your body and so on.
So it has a nice feel to it.
And so I encourage you to do some humming meditation after you focus on your breathing with
a smile.
And you can see all this data, but do it for a couple weeks and
Does this work for me? keep your own data.
So, again, I'm giving you lots of homework here. And maybe one more homework,
or one more thing.
Singing, sort of like if you're doing that good humming you want to take it any step further and
do a singing. But actually, again, there's
people that really encourage this.
And it doesn't have to be when
anyone's around because they might not put that in their gratitude book.
It's like I had to hear so and
so singing the other day. [LAUGHTER] But it livens your body again.
So you got a favorite song that you're walking on the street, belt it out a little bit. And it has just positive, again,
sort of relaxing, gets your whole body involved, engages
you, meditative, boom. All right, so again I keep
apologizing for giving you
homework. But here are your homework assignments now.
Five daily random acts of kindness. The gratitude journal, listing
and why. three good things that happened
Savoring, and this sort of, in terms of the gratitude journal, but at least once a day enter
flow which is sort of a moment
you're just savoring and you're in the moment. And, again, it's like when are
those?
They can be as minor as you want but whether that's taking a shower.
And whenever I think about that it's like showers can be so nice
So have a meditative, mindful, but most of you often hurry through that shower.
flowing shower. You hope it's flowing. [LAUGHTER]
And just enjoy that shower. Or, again, having an apple or whatever and enjoying that. How many of us get into the
habit where we eat and we're
talking and we're zipping along, but to pay attention to the food
And so to eat healthy food, that's the other assignment. that you're eating.
movement five times a week. Enhancing your bioenergy by being in nature with the sun. Meditating and having a good
laugh.
Engaging in humor with friends and family. And so take on the motto
live, love, and laugh.
So go do all those things. Did you take those down?
coming up. And we'll have that report card
Hopefully you get your own report card.
I really do encourage and you'll Try all the things.
find your mood and your energy and your everything picking up. So I've tossed many, many things
out here.