The benefits of a good laugh will last long after the physical act has passed. Most likely your favorite memories are the ones that include a good dose of laughter. More and more, the prescription to a healthy attitude can be found in laughter. Laughter is a universal language and can be enjoyed and understood by everyone. Laughter can help both mentally and physically. An ever growing number of people experience high levels of injurious stress fueled by hectic schedules and deadlines. This book is designed to reintroduce the reader to the many benefits of laughter. If you fail to enjoy the benefits of laughter you are cheating yourself out of a wonderful resource for a healthy life. Rediscover how laughter is the best medicine, both mentally and physically.

The motto of this book is smarter through laughter. If you can laugh about it, you can probably change it. The authors use a heavy dose of humor (the laughing side), and a healthy measure of science (the learning side) to help you improve yourself, your relationships, and your surroundings. The book introduces the “I CAN model,” which stands for Interactions, Context, Awareness, and Next steps. Interactions are powerful determinants of health and happiness. There are two skills that can make our interactions healthier: the ability to connect and the capacity to communicate. Context is also a powerful but often neglected driver of change. The contexts of our lives consist of people, places, and things. To leverage context to our advantage we need to master the art of reading cues and changing cues in the environment. Awareness is the next driver of change. Regardless of where you are in the process of change, there is always a next step to strengthen your change, maintain your gains, and keep thriving. To do that, you need to make a plan, and you need to make it stick. The book will teach you how to use these drivers of change to flourish and thrive.

The story of a recovery from a crippling disease and the physician patient partnership that beat the odds by using the patient's own capabilities.

Dr. Brian King is a psychologist and stand-up comedian whose humor therapy seminars are attended by more than ten thousand people each year. In The Laughing Cure, King combines wit with medical research to reveal the benefits of laughter and humor on physical and emotional health. King’s language is humorous and uplifting, and his advice is backed in science. The Laughing Cure features clinical studies and interviews with some of the nation’s top doctors that prove that laughter lowers blood pressure, reduces stress hormones, increases muscle flexion, boosts immune systems, and triggers endorphins. It’s been shown to relieve depression, to produce a general sense of wellbeing, even to make us more productive, loving, and kind. The Laughing Cure presents step-by-step guidance and proven techniques to embrace laughter as both medicine for current conditions and preventative medicine. This highly unique and enjoyable read explains why much-talked about, but little understood methods of therapy like those embraced by acclaimed humor doctor Patch Adams—played by Robyn Williams in a 1998 film—and laughter yoga actually work. Growing up, King wanted to be a stand-up comic; his PhD. was his backup plan. Little did he know, the impact his unique situation would put him in, the way it would allow him to help others. Very few doctors have the ability to heal the way that King does; his method is cheap, easy, chemical-free—even fun. With The Laughing Cure, readers will learn how—and why—laughter saves lives.

Could you use a good laugh? This definitive guide by the founder of the worldwide laughter yoga movement will show you how to giggle your way to good health! Bring laughter into your life at any time of day--no special equipment needed, no new wardrobe, no expensive classes, not even a sense of humor! Laughter yoga is all about voluntary laughter--how you can learn to laugh even in the absence of humorous stimuli, and reap the extraordinary, scientifically proven benefits, which include stress reduction, pain relief, weight loss, heightened immunity, and, especially, enhanced mood: If you act happy, you'll become happy--your body can't tell the difference! Children laugh more than 300 times a day, adults fewer than fifteen. But it's easy to start laughing again. The exercises in this book combine voluntary laughter with yogic breathing to give you a full body-mind workout. And it turns out that laughter is the fastest way to reduce stress and the best kind of cardio: Ten minutes of hearty laughter is equal to thirty minutes on the rowing machine. With Laughter Yoga, join the growing worldwide movement and discover how laughter really is the best medicine. A PENGUIN LIFE TITLE

Surprised by Laughter looks at the career and writings of C. S. Lewis and discovers a man whose life and beliefs were sustained by joy and humor. All of his life, C. S. Lewis possessed a spirit of individuality. An atheist from childhood, he became a Christian as an adult and eventually knew international acclaim as a respected theologian. He was known worldwide for his works of fiction, especially the Chronicles of Narnia; and for his books on life and faith, including Mere Christianity, A Grief Observed, and Surprised by Joy. But perhaps the most visible difference in his life was his abiding sense of humor. It was through this humor that he often reached his readers and listeners, allowing him to effectively touch so many lives. Terry Lindvall takes an in-depth look at Lewis's joyful approach toward living, dividing his study of C. S. Lewis's wit into the four origins of laughter in Uncle Screwtape's eleventh letter to a junior devil in Lewis's The Screwtape Letters: joy, fun, the joke proper, and flippancy. Lindvall writes, "One bright and compelling feature we can see, sparking in his sunlight and dancing in his moonlight, is laughter. Yet it is not too large to see at once because it inhabited all Lewis was and did." Surprised by Laughter reveals a Lewis who enjoyed the gift of laughter, and who willingly shared that gift with others in order to spread his faith.

Find Out What’s So Funny When Nothing’s Funny Sometimes life just stinks—people disappoint, bad things happen, and hardship comes. Laughing Matters is a collection of stories that shows the difference between those who resign and those who rejoice when reality bites. Readers will be encouraged to choose joy, to find hope, and to discover the abundant life Christ offers all who follow Him. Author and humorist Phil Callaway—once described as “Dave Barry with a message”—employs his revealing and hilarious style to remind readers that, “it’s always darkest just before the fridge door opens.” Do you resign or rejoice when reality bites? Sometimes life just stinks. People disappoint. Bad things happen. Hardship comes in double helpings. The last thing you want to do is laugh. So let hilarious humorist Phil Callaway show you—as only he can—that some of the darkest times are those just before the fridge door opens. *** ** *** ** “Everything Phil Callaway writes is full of life because he’s discovered a fabulous secret: The joy of Christ doesn’t go away, even when life is a mess.” Luis Palau, President of the Luis Palau Evangelistic Association “Phil really knows how to get in touch with his spiritual funny bone.” Janette Oke, Bestselling author “One page into this book and I’m quaking with laughter. Callaway has the uncanny ability to uncover the funny in any situation and report it with inspirational wit.” Paul L. Maier, Coauthor of The DaVinci Code: Fact or Fiction? “This book is an excellent source of encouragement for anyone in the midst of a crisis who may be asking God that hardest question of all: ‘Why?’” Martha Bolton, Author of Cooking with Hot Flashes and Didn’t My Skin Used to Fit? Story Behind the Book Phil Callaway wrote this book after a five-year journey he and his wife embarked upon when she began having seizures. He discovered that when life throws you curve balls, juices lemons in your eyes, scrunches you in a knuckle sandwich…the last thing you want to do is laugh. And at the moment we realize that life can just plain stink, “this book helps us know where to go from that point,” he says. Celebrities like Dave Dravecky, Barbara Johnson, Gloria Gaither, and Joni Eareckson Tada have endorsed Callaway’s positive approach to trials. “Everything Phil Callaway writes is full of life because he’s discovered a fabulous secret: The joy of Christ doesn’t go away, even when life is a mess,” says evangelist Luis Palau.

One of the most influential living psychologists looks at the history of his life and discipline, and paints a much brighter future for everyone. When Martin E. P. Seligman first encountered psychology in the 1960s, the field was devoted to eliminating misery: it was the science of how past trauma creates present symptoms. Today, thanks in large part to Seligman's Positive Psychology movement, it is ever more focused not on what cripples life, but on what makes life worth living--with profound consequences for our mental health. In this wise and eloquent memoir, spanning the most transformative years in the history of modern psychology, Seligman recounts how he learned to study optimism--including a life-changing conversation with his five-year-old daughter. He tells the human stories behind some of his major findings, like CAVE, an analytical tool that predicts election outcomes (with shocking accuracy) based on the language used in campaign speeches, the international spread of Positive Education, the launch of the US Army's huge resilience program, and the canonical studies that birthed the theory of learned helplessness--which he now reveals was incorrect. And he writes at length for the first time about his own battles with depression at a young age. In The Hope Circuit, Seligman makes a compelling and deeply personal case for the importance of virtues like hope, gratitude, and wisdom for our mental health. You will walk away from this book not just educated but deeply enriched.

The inspiring, joyful story of a young paralyzed man's dream of becoming a PE teacher. Caution: This book will probably change your perspective on adversity.

With his tender, funny memoir of four decades in the business, one of the first writers for Saturday Night Live traces the history of American comedy. Alan Zweibel started his comedy career selling jokes for seven dollars apiece to the last of the Borscht Belt standups. Then one night, despite bombing on stage, he caught the attention of Lorne Michaels and became one of the first writers at Saturday Night Live, where he penned classic material for Gilda Radner, John Belushi, and all of the original Not Ready For Prime Time Players. From SNL, he went on to have a hand in a series of landmark shows—from It’s Garry Shandling’s Show to Curb Your Enthusiasm. Throughout the pages of Laugh Lines Zweibel weaves together his own stories and interviews with his friends and contemporaries, including Richard Lewis, Eric Idle, Bob Saget, Mike Birbiglia, Sarah Silverman, Judd Apatow, Dave Barry, Carl Reiner, and more. The book also features a charming foreword from his friend of forty-five years Billy Crystal, with whom he co-wrote and co-produced the upcoming film Here Today that stars Crystal and Tiffany Haddish. Laugh Lines is a warmhearted cultural memoir of American comedy. “In Laugh Lines, Zweibel looks back, affectionately and informatively, at a career that began when he was a young deli worker grinding out jokes for old-school borscht belt comedians in his spare time, and that, after his “S.N.L.” years, included rewarding collaborations with, among others, Garry Shandling, Billy Crystal, Martin Short, Larry David and Dave Barry. . . . Fascinating.” —New York Times “Any comedy fan will thrill to see the contemporary art's invention through the eyes of consummate funny man Alan Zweibel. He takes you behind the velvet rope and makes you weep for all those artists who made us laugh. Screamingly funny—also very moving. A classic.” —Mary Karr “Alan Zweibel is legendary among us comedians. He is the man who delivers comedy with an emotional clout that makes him respected and revered.” —Steve Martin