Follow Shakespeare's Lead - Although Not Always Funny, He Was Fun

You're familiar with the phrase, "there's the rub," meaning "there lies the difficulty"? It's usually used to describe a stumbling block in your path or the central dilemma. But while it's associated with Hamlet, did you know that this phrase was not coined by Shakespeare? I'll finish this thought in a moment...

Things that are funny are almost always fun. But things that are fun are not always funny. There's the rub. Most of us, I've found, confuse fun and funny...to our unfortunate detriment.

It's easy, and dangerous, to forget the distinction between fun and funny; when we focus on funny instead of fun we can quickly get discouraged because trying to be funny puts a lot of pressure on us. Especially when some of us are not naturally funny. Even if we are naturally funny, placing funny before fun is still a mistake because it causes us to prematurely focus on the outcome rather than the process of humor.

You see, funny is a result while fun is a process. Funny is an action, while fun is an attitude. Fun is virtually unrestricted and can be had almost anywhere at anytime, while funny has some very definite limitations. Since you can take an attitude of fun into any situation or circumstance, while being funny is sometimes inappropriate and unwelcome, is there any wonder that I am advocating fun over funny?

Here are three steps you can take right now to forget about being funny and start having fun:

1. Remember Your Fun. What games did you enjoy when you were 5 to 10 years old, when you were having fun naturally. Think of 10 specific examples of games you enjoyed and then ask yourself, "How many of them involved active imagination and physical movement?" I'll bet most of the games on your list involved both.



2. Plan Your Fun. Take the list you made in Step One and update each game to a version you might be able to play currently. Can you think of an adult version of hide and seek, tag, or playing with dolls? How about trying to avoid direct eye contact with your boss when she's looking for someone to work overtime this weekend, playing "phone tag," or trying on clothes at the mall? But those are my ideas -- see what you come up with.



3. Have Your Fun. Give yourself permission to have more fun and back it up with a commitment to have 15 minutes of fun each day. Why do you need a commitment to have fun? Because you are bucking years of incorrect indoctrination that fun should be reserved for recreation. You want the excellence which, research shows, fun creates so well.

The lesson is simple: you want the full benefit of humor's powerful natural medicine, so don't confuse fun with funny. They are definitely not the same thing. While it might be funny to give an elephant an enema, for example, I'm sure it's not fun! And now you know exactly how to lose your focus on being funny and get started having fun.

Shakespeare, by the way, didn't originate the phrase "there's the rub," he only made it famous. In Hamlet, Hamlet considers death as a way to end life's struggles and finally rest easily. But then he also realizes there would be a catch.

"To sleep, perchance to dream. Ay, there's the rub;

For in that sleep what dreams may come,

When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,

Must give us pause."

Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 1


Don't fall for the trap of trying to be funny instead of having fun. You'll put less pressure on yourself and you'll also feel the full measure of humor's incredibly powerful natural medicine.

Cliff Kuhn, M.D.
The Laugh Doctor

The Natural Medicine of Humor
"Discover a unique, FREE, and incredibly powerful prescription created out of desperation by a (formerly) stressed-out Kentucky psychiatrist"

The Blog Directory

Make Fear A Nine Day Wonder - Motivate Yourself With Fun

Have you heard something referred to as a "nine day wonder"? The phrase refers to something that causes a sensation for a brief period of time and then fades into obscurity. The origin of this phrase is usually tied to the nine-day reign of Lady Jane Grey (1537-1554) as Queen of England. This reluctant queen met an untimely fate. More on that later...

I added a new Fun Commandment recently to address a very pesky and persistent nine day wonder we all face - fear as a motivator. Fear is a great motivator...but only for a very brief period! Then it does worse than fade into obscurity; fear adds to our load of stress and pressure. So I'm calling for an end to this nine day wonder's reign with my Fun Commandment: Motivate Yourself with Fun Rather than Fear.

Motivating yourself with fun rather than fear pays big dividends in myriad ways. Making this choice accelerates your ability to communicate, rests your brain, lowers your stress, increases your tolerance for pain, among other things. In this article, however, I am focusing on one incredibly important and impactful side effect of this Commandment - using fun to motivate yourself increases your creativity.

Creativity is an ability highly sought by businesses and employees alike. Creativity is trumpeted in every mission statement and praised by every CEO for good reason - we know that creativity brings breakthroughs! Since the ability to create breakthroughs is both a highly sought after and also a highly marketable skill, creativity gets a lot of deserved attention.

Yet there are still many myths to dispel about creativity. One of the biggest myths is that creativity is fueled by time pressure. Time pressure is an example of fear-based motivation because it involves trying to escape a negative consequence rather than moving toward a positive outcome. Deadlines are a reality, but using fear to fuel our creative juices has the opposite effect.

The alternative is to use fun as our motivator. Theresa Amabile, head of the Entrepreneurial Management Unit at Harvard Business School, has been studying creativity for 30 years. For the past 8 years she has collected nearly 12,000 daily journal entries from 238 people working on creative projects in seven large corporations. She and her team scoured journals for moments when people struggled with a problem or came up with a new idea. The following rules for using fun to motivate creativity are inspired directly from Amabile's research.

1. Deadlines are fear-based; if you want to be creative you must give yourself an "incubation period." Deadlines create distractions that rob your attention. Even with a deadline looming, to get creative you should focus on your work in an environment protected from distractions.



2. Competition is fear-based; collaboration is fun-based. If you want to amplify your creativity, foster the confidence to share your ideas with others. Be open to debate with collaborators and create a noncompetitive environment. You'll hit new heights of creativity!



3. You are more likely to have a creative breakthrough if you were happy the day before. When you're happy, which usually happens as a byproduct of fun-based motivation, the research clearly indicates a great chance of your happiness "incubating" overnight to show up as a creative idea the following day.

How about that? I couldn't have asked for more compelling evidence that fun is a better personal and professional motivator than fear. Amabile's 8-year study clearly shows that today's happiness predicts tomorrow's creativity! So start getting happy today by motivating yourself with fun and then re-create your world tomorrow!

By the way, Lady Jane Grey was reluctant to take the throne of England because she was only 15 years old and she held unpopular Protestant beliefs. Her reluctance was well-founded; the young Queen relinquished the crown after just 9 days, plead guilty to treason, and was eventually beheaded.

Let's give fear, as our motivator, the same fate. Fear becomes a nine day wonder when we replace it with fun today!


Cliff Kuhn, M.D.
The Laugh Doctor

The Natural Medicine of Humor
"Discover a unique, FREE, and incredibly powerful prescription created out of desperation by a (formerly) stressed-out Kentucky psychiatrist"

The Blog Directory

Quit Smoking With The Natural Medicine Of Humor

Have you ever heard the phrase "skeleton at the feast"? It refers to a somber element in an otherwise festive atmosphere and was popularized by the Greek historian Plutarch (46-120). Plutarch wrote of an unusual practice among the ancient Egyptians - during festive celebrations and feasts, the Egyptians would place a mummy at the table with the other guests. The skeleton at the feast was supposed to remind the guests of their own mortality.

I’ve noticed that many of my patients who smoke, deep down, consider themselves skeletons at the feast; by all indications, 7 out of every 10 smokers want to quit smoking - but can't. Actually trying to quit smoking may not be the real problem. As the old saying goes, it's easy to quit smoking - I've done it a hundred times! Does anyone doubt that nicotine is one of the most dangerously addictive drugs in the world ? We all know people addicted to smoking, people who are trapped on a deadly merry-go-round of promises that they'll quit "tomorrow."

There are hundreds of remedies for smoking addiction on the market, which should tell you right away that none offers universal success. The odds are stacked heavily against quitting successfully, and we know it. If you’re a smoker, it’s almost enough to make you give up before you start. But what if there existed a formula, based upon the strongest natural medicine known, that would help you quit smoking , stay quit, and not cost you a dime? Sounds too good to be true, right? Except this formula exists - I've taught it to my patients and I've used it myself.

This solution is so powerful and so cost effective because it's based upon a natural medicine you've carried around in your personal chemistry since birth. You once used this natural medicine, the medicine of humor, to summon incredible energy, astounding creativity, and supreme resilience - and you will soon use it this way again! I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that maximizing the amazing, free natural medicine of humor will not only free you from your smoking habit, but empower you to solve an array of other medical and personal problems as well.

No other doctor in the world has the credentials I have to teach you about this particular application of the free natural medicine of humor. Having discovered its power twenty-five years ago while working with a terminally ill cancer patient, I have spent more than two decades researching, fine-tuning, and prescribing humor in an amazingly diverse array of personal and medical applications. You will soon discover that you can use the free natural medicine of humor to skyrocket your success in your relationships, your career, your stress management, your weight loss, your mental health, your fitness program, your parenting, your sexual health and more, because humor is powerful, abundant, free, and always accessible to you.

Over two decades ago, I began creating the Fun Commandments from my work with terminally and chronically ill patients. These patients taught and inspired me to use the incredibly powerful natural medicine of humor both in their treatment and also in my own life. As my patients' lives blossomed under this treatment plan, I realized that I actually needed humor's medicine as much, or more, than they did.

I had a great family, a wonderful home, lots of expensive "toys," and a bright career as a psychiatrist. But by the late 1970's I realized that I wasn't doing well at all. I had learned to be funny, but I didn't know how to have fun. I was experiencing pleasure, but I wasn't celebrating life. I was doing good things, but I wasn't free to enjoy my accomplishments.

Does this sound even remotely familiar to you? In contrast, I realized that many of my patients were doing fine compared to me. They were able to have fun even in the midst of the pain, uncertainty, and fear that accompanied their diagnoses. So, as they urged me to use the natural medicine of humor to change my own life, my patients also convinced me to write down my findings so they could be shared widely. The results of those initial writings were christened the Fun Commandments and served as the foundation for my Fun Factor prescription, a groundbreaking treatment approach which teaches you, step by step, how to employ the amazing power of humor to supercharge every area of your life.

After decades of research, I can teach you how to turn on humor's amazing power as easily as flicking on a light switch. From working as a performing comedian on the national Comedy Caravan tour to developing intimate, working relationships with great humor/practitioners like famous comedian Jerry Lewis, I have learned how you can infuse your personal and professional life with such an amazing level of resilience and energy that you will feel reborn - no matter how successful you are already!


Quit Smoking Using Dr. Kuhn's Fun Commandments

Step One: Go the Extra Smile

This Fun Commandment utilizes an amazing resource that is always available to you, is completely under your control, and is hardly ever inappropriate or unwelcome. Going the extra smile is my number one Commandment for having more fun, but it also provides your best escape from physical and psychological pain. Going the extra smile gives you a steady infusion of energy and vitality - which will be a vital aid in your efforts to quit smoking!

Let's face it, by giving up smoking, you're kicking both a physical addiction and a psychological one. You need a physical and a psychological advantage to make this work and, fortunately, you have a built-in method for infusing yourself with all the energy and resilience you need. To continually energize yourself with strength and encouragement all you have to do is remember to smile - and then do it!

Does this sound too simple? Let others scoff at the notion of a simple smile while you unleash your secret wealth of power upon your resolution to quit smoking. We have measured it - your mood is elevated, your pain lessens, your creativity is sparked, and your communication is enhanced even from a "fake" smile!

Force a smile on your face, and you literally, change your psychology and your physiology. Will you still encounter difficulties on your journey to quit smoking even if you're smiling? Of course - and don't believe anyone who tells you they can be completely avoided! But your difficulties will be minimized by a genuine, sustainable, and renewable source completely under your control because you will draw power from your smile.

To read the rest of this article, please visit my website!

Cliff Kuhn, M.D.
The Laugh Doctor

The Natural Medicine of Humor
"Discover a unique, FREE, and incredibly powerful prescription created out of desperation by a (formerly) stressed-out Kentucky psychiatrist"

The Blog Directory

The Natural Medicine Of Humor Will Help You Stop Running The Gauntlet

We know that by being too hard on ourselves, we run ourselves through the gauntlet every day. But did you know that the phrase "running the gauntlet" is actually a corruption of the Swedish word "gatlopp," which means "lane"? The Swedish army used the gatlopp to punish soldiers; the guilty soldier was forced to run naked between two rows of soldiers who beat him with whips and clubs. More about this in a moment...

Let's discuss my Fun Commandment that is the perfect antidote for putting yourself through your gauntlet of mental punishment: Laugh with Yourself. The trick to this Commandment is to make sure you're laughing with yourself and not at yourself. Laughing with yourself rather than at yourself is, after all, the difference between endorsing yourself versus attacking yourself.

Of course, endorsing yourself is what you're after with this Fun Commandment. When we laugh with ourselves we are saying, loudly and clearly, that we are okay; we are supposed to make mistakes and be incongruent because we are perfectly imperfect. We take the pressure off our harsh self-expectations and judgments. No one is as hard on you as yourself if you're not careful to laugh with yourself!

Another reason this Commandment is so vital is connected to what I've found through three decades of medical practice - you cannot think yourself into a new way of living, you must live yourself into a new way of thinking. It's all well and good to talk about going easier on ourselves, but until we actually start to let up, those thoughts will simply remain unrealized "good intentions." When we laugh with ourselves we put our goal of easing up on ourselves into action and that has the wonderful benefit of actually changing who we are and how we think of ourselves!

Here are three keys to ensure you are laughing with, rather than at, yourself:

1. Your humor should give you confidence, not take confidence away from you. If you find yourself buoyed and bolstered by your humor, you are definitely laughing with yourself!




2. Your humor should give you energy and not discourage you. Laughing with yourself is a gift you give yourself and should serve to renew and recharge you.



3. Your humor should be self-effacing rather than self-deprecating. Self-deprecating means "exposing a weakness," which is the opposite of what laughing with yourself is intended to do. Self-effacing means "dropping the pretense" and, if you are dropping your pretense with your humor, you are achieving the maximum gain from laughing with yourself!

By the way, British soldiers who observed the gatlopp during the Thirty Years War brought the expression home with them. But they changed the word to the similar sounding English word "gauntlet." Please don't run yourself through your personal gauntlet of mental abuse; laugh with yourself this week as you make your inevitable mistakes!

And...I'll see you at my website!

Cliff Kuhn, M.D.
The Laugh Doctor

The Natural Medicine of Humor
"Discover a unique, FREE, and incredibly powerful prescription created out of desperation by a (formerly) stressed-out Kentucky psychiatrist"

The Blog Directory

Cliff Kuhn M.D.'s Fun Commandments Are Your Key To The Natural Medicine Of Humor

My current Fun Factor prescription is the culmination of decades of subsequent research, practice, study, and application of my Fun Commandments with my patients. I actually went on a national tour as a stand-up comedian to do research! (I hope you didn't have to sit through any of my performances) I continue to work (and play) with world famous humor practitioners like Mr. Jerry Lewis, whom I have counted as a colleague, friend, and admirer for over a decade! If you combine all the amazing lengths I have gone to study humor's healing effects with my national stature as a Professor and former Associate Chairman of the University of Louisville School of Medicine's Department of Psychiatry, you quickly realize that I am the only doctor in the world with the qualifications and expertise to teach you about my Fun Commandments and Fun Factor prescription.

My Fun Commandments Are Designed to Change Your Life

My Fun Factor prescription is your source for finding freedom from your pain and illness, navigating swiftly through grief and change, having relationships better than you ever dreamed, ridding yourself of your bad habits once and for all, finding and loving a job of your dreams, and so much more. But it all started with my Fun Commandments and, to this day, my Fun Factor prescription is still centered around these dynamic principles.

This article introduces you to my Fun Commandments and "primes your pump" for the day you are ready to step into a life you never dreamed possible for yourself - the day you start using my Fun Factor prescription!

We all know about humor's value, especially in recreational settings, and most people agree that laughter is beneficial. If you are part of this majority, you are to be applauded because you are already more than halfway towards turbo-charging your life with the natural medicine of humor. As you read my Fun Commandments and begin to practice them in your life, you will start to see that most of us have barely scratched the surface of humor's potential to supercharge our personal and professional lives. If you maintain an open mind and are willing to learn, no matter how successful you are now, my Fun Factor prescription and, of course, the Fun Commandments which form its foundation will lower your stress levels by as much as 40%, make profoundly positive changes in your relationships, and increase your job satisfaction by up to 55%.

My Fun Commandments are more relevant today than ever before because I continue to explore and enlarge their scope and impact. In fact, two of the Fun Commandments you're about to read were added within the past year. You can rest assured that, until you invest in my Fun Factor prescription, my Fun Commandments will provide you with a foundation for amazing energy, growth, and positive change - as they have done for hundreds of my patients, family members, and friends.

Dr. Kuhn's Fun Commandments

1. Always Go the Extra Smile
   
   Of all my Fun Commandments, this one provides you with the most energy. It is the one strategy most effective for increasing the fun in your life. Smiling is a way to open your heart and at the same time touch the hearts of others. We have measured decreased stress, improved immunity, increased tolerance for pain and frustration, and higher levels of creativity - even from a "fake" smile!



2. Tell the Truth
   
   Of all my Fun Commandments, this one helps you keep an inventory of yourself. Our humor natures are open windows to the truth; therefore, if you want your sense of humor to be strong and available, you must make the effort to be true to yourself. This Commandment promotes trust in yourself and keeps you on a steady, forward pace since you will be much more cognizant of what is working in your life and what isn't.



3. Laugh With Yourself First
   
   Of all my Fun Commandments, this one helps you take yourself less seriously. When you make a mistake, laughing with yourself keeps you from beating up on yourself. It is a boost to your self-esteem because it is a vote of confidence in yourself. This Commandment sends a clear message to you that you are okay. You know that your foibles do not form links in an unbreakable chain, because you are learning from them and becoming more effective.



4. Welcome Your Mistakes
   
   Of all my Fun Commandments, this one allows you to stop being so hard on yourself. Jerry Lewis once told me that he is always nervous before he goes on stage, but "the trick is to harness the fear and make it your ally." In other words, don't be afraid of your mistakes - welcome them! In fact, your mistakes can be so helpful to you that I suggest making them on purpose. You're going to make mistakes anyway. Making them on purpose helps you turn your fear into fun.




5. Listen Very Carefully
   
   Of all my Fun Commandments, this one keeps you from being too self-centered. Successful comedians will tell you that the capacity to listen is their number one creative tool. Yet listening is an often overlooked and under taught skill and most of us are very poor at it, preferring to form our next phrases rather than hear what is being said to us. To really listen we must turn the volume down on our own internal chatter and this allows us to communicate from our hearts rather than our heads.




6. Let Go Frequently
   
   Of all my Fun Commandments, this one provides you with serenity. If you've ever learned to juggle you quickly discovered that we all have a tendency to hold on to objects for too long. The same phenomenon occurs in life and, since we are all jugglers - juggling our family, our work, our community responsibilities, and our own care, letting go is a vital skill that will prevent stress and give peace of mind.



7. Challenge Your Assumptions
   
   Of all my Fun Commandments, this one keeps you open minded and learning. It is also an effective way to bring humor into your life. We make assumptions because it saves us time and energy in our busy lives, but assumptions can keep us from growing and changing if we are not capable or willing to see new perspectives. Get in the habit of seeing things around you in a different way and your sense of humor will become supercharged.



8. Stay Focused, Yet Flexible
   
   Of all my Fun Commandments, this one eases you through changes and transitions. This strategy is about keeping your priorities clear, but keeping your options open. You can't help but become an inspired opportunist when you develop a trait for seeing the victories inherent in what you used to call defeats. As you'll come to find out, this trait is shared by all successful people.



9. Act and Interact with People
   
   Of all my Fun Commandments, this one gives you a constant and reliable source of amusement. Reaching out and touching someone is often a learned skill, but it pays big dividends. Realize that taking chances means you will make mistakes, but they will happen less often if you are willing to learn from them. You'll also find that a failed action is much more valuable to your health and success than a failure to act.



10. Practice Wanting What You Have, Rather Than Getting What You Want
    
    Of all my Fun Commandments, this one helps you attract, and hold on to, abundance. One of the great paradoxes of life is that, as long as you try to fill your inner void with things outside yourself, your void only gets bigger. Learning to love what we have and who we are - right now - opens us up to receive so much more, because we want things for the right reason. We're no longer trying to "fix" ourselves.




11. Choose to Motivate Yourself With Fun Rather Than Fear
    
    Of all my Fun Commandments, this one teaches you how to set goals and achieve them. You really only have the choices of fun or fear when it comes to motivation and they both work well. The problem, however, with choosing fear is that it is impossible to sustain the motivation without harming ourselves through burn-out and stress. Choosing fun to motivate ourselves is the simple difference of striving toward positive goals, rather than escaping negative ones.



12. Celebrate Everything
    
    Of all my Fun Commandments, this one provides you with abundant joy every day. If you make a practice of celebrating events you normally treated as mundane, you will be filled with an energy and spirit that you haven't felt since childhood. Left to choose between feeling like a jaded pessimist or a naive optimist (of course, I'm using two extremes as examples), why wouldn't you choose the latter? Either way, your life will still unfold around you - but you will see it as a gift.

Your Three-Step Process to Soup-Up Your Personal and Professional Life, No Matter How Well It's Going Now!

1. Subscribe to Dr. Kuhn's Fun Times newsletter. The Fun Times is all about using your natural power of humor to increase the quality of your life - especially your health and success. The Fun Times is 100% free, and is delivered instantly, every week, to your email inbox. If you sign up now, I'll also throw in a copy of my "Stop Your Seriousness" Ecourse and my book, Ten Ways You Can Be Happier...Right Now! which will show you how you can use my Fun Factor prescription in your life to increase your success and health!



2. Check out The Fun Factor. This prescription has changed so many lives for the better - it would be a shame if you passed it up. Check it out here if you're sick of wishing about finally fulfillling your potential!



3. Make a commitment to consciously focus on one of Dr. Kuhn's Fun Commandments each day. If you are like most people, you'll find that each of his Fun Commandments holds a special relevance in almost any situation. You'll realize that the natural medicine of humor really can do everything for you that Dr. Kuhn promises because it changes you from the inside out!
   

Cliff Kuhn, M.D.
The Laugh Doctor

The Natural Medicine of Humor
"Discover a unique, FREE, and incredibly powerful prescription created out of desperation by a (formerly) stressed-out Kentucky psychiatrist"

The Blog Directory

The Natural Medicine Of Humor Is Worth Much More Than "30 Pieces Of Silver"!

Thirty pieces of silver - that's what Judas was paid by the Jewish elders for his betrayal of Jesus, according to the New Testament. While the phrase "piece of silver" was commonly used to describe a variety of coins from Jesus' era, we can assume that Judas committed his betrayal for a pittance. The term "thirty pieces of silver" has become part of our lexicon now, symbolizing the price of betrayal.

How may times have we sold ourselves out for thirty pieces of silver? Betraying our true nature and values is such a common foible that I made Tell the Truth one of my Fun Commandments. Ignoring this Commandment exacts a high toll on our humor nature, but abiding by it pays big dividends.

As a physician I know I don't have sole custody of the truth; according to my wife, I'm lucky to get occasional visiting rights! But I do know this: we all know more truth about ourselves than we're letting on. It's hard to admit to ourselves that we are inconsistent, absurd, and sometimes dead wrong - let alone revealing that to another.

Our humor nature can calm such fears because it like us just the way we are. It loves our inconsistencies, thrives on our incongruities, and celebrates our foolishness. Our humor nature will not join us in our efforts to be false because it loves and respects us too much to sell us
out.

Therefore, if you make the effort to be true to yourself you will strengthen your humor nature. And, in a delightful snowball effect, when your humor nature is strengthened you will find it that much easier to be true to yourself! Yep, when it comes to telling yourself the truth, each act reinforces the next!

It's about time you faced a fact - you are a very special person! What's not to trust? You are worth celebrating. Besides, as I realized some time ago, who's going to put up with you unless you set the example for them?


To begin being true to yourself and stop selling yourself out, complete the following three questions:

1. The purpose of my life is:



2. I have been placed in this situation in order to:



3. My highest priorities today are:
   
   A.
   
   B.
   
   C.
   

Here's one more tip. As you answer those questions, don't linger over the negative, stressful feelings. Practice the "catch-and-release" technique taught in meditation; acknowledge the negative feelings only long enough to release them. That way you will not deny your negatives, but you will also not allow them to taint your true values and priorities.

By the way, just as you have regretted selling yourself out, Judas apparently deeply regretted betraying his friend. According to one tradition, Judas returned the money to the Jewish elders before hanging himself. The money was then used to buy a field where the poor could be buried.

Don't wait until your regret becomes that overwhelming! Start telling the truth today and use your strengthened humor nature to abide by it! I'll be interested in your results!


FYI - In response to some requests I have just written an article about my Fun Commandments. You can read it by visiting the article's page on my website.

Cliff Kuhn, M.D.
The Laugh Doctor

The Natural Medicine of Humor
"Discover a unique, FREE, and incredibly powerful prescription created out of desperation by a (formerly) stressed-out Kentucky psychiatrist"

The Blog Directory

The Natural Medicine Of Humor Will Keep You From Jumping Off That Cliff

"Don't be a lemming" is a phrase we're all familiar with. This comes from the lemming's (those cute, furry, little rodents who live in Arctic regions) propensity to commit mass suicide - following each other blindly off cliffs to their death in the sea below.

But did you know that "lemming suicide" is a myth most likely traced to Walt Disney? I'll explain more in a moment...

Natural medicine is a hot topic. There are more than enough websites, newsletters, and products offering solutions to your ailments to keep you busy for a year investigating them. The advent of the Internet has made it easier than ever to research and try alternative or adjunctive treatments. You no longer need to an entire afternoon waiting in a doctor's office to remedy many of your symptoms because reliable, reputable purveyors of proven natural medicines are all around you.

Luckily for you, you already possess the most powerful natural medicine on earth. You carry this medicine around in your own chemistry and its benefits are unparalleled. While I would never recommend that you discard traditional medicine (I am a medical doctor, for goodness sake!), I do know beyond a shadow of a doubt that maximizing the amazing, free natural medicine of humor can solve a wide array of medical and personal problems.

No other doctor in the world has the credentials I have to teach you about this particular application of the free natural medicine of humor. Having discovered the power of humor twenty-five years ago while working with a terminally-ill cancer patient, I have spent more than two decades researching, fine-tuning, and prescribing humor in an amazingly diverse array of personal and medical applications. You will soon discover that you can use the free natural medicine of humor to skyrocket your relationships, your career, your stress management, your weight loss, your mental health, your fitness program, your parenting, your sexual health and more, because humor is powerful, abundant, free, and always accessible to you.

After decades of research, I can teach you how to turn on humor's amazing power as easily as flicking on a light switch. From working as a performing comedian on the national Comedy Caravan tour to developing intimate, working relationships with great humor/practitioners like famous comedian Jerry Lewis, I have learned how you can infuse your personal and professional life with such an amazing level of resilience and energy that you will feel reborn - no matter how successful you are now!

In this article I will outline the third main reason that the free natural medicine of humor is far superior to any other medicine, natural or otherwise. (The other two main reasons are covered in my last two blog posts)

Humor Is An Attitude, Not An Action


The best part of using the free natural medicine of humor, for many people, is that you can do it whether or not you're a funny person capable of telling jokes and making others laugh. Don't worry if you're "not funny" or are not the "life of the party"; you do not need to be funny to use the natural medicine of humor because humor is an attitude, not an action.

As you internalize my Fun Commandments, you will see that the benefits come almost entirely from your own shifting paradigms and not your outward actions. You will encounter many situations where everyone else is (literally) "deathly serious" and jokes would be inappropriate, but you will still be infused with an amazing, private energy because you will be smiling on the inside! You may never become good at making other people laugh; yet you will be laughing with yourself everyday because your spirit has been transformed by the free natural medicine of humor.

I'm sure you're realizing the implications of humor as an attitude rather than an action. First, you are always in control of your attitudes; simply by intently focusing on my Fun Commandments you will find yourself brimming with opportunities to capitalize on humor's natural power. Second, although jokes and laughter are sometimes not appropriate, having a light attitude always is - regardless of your circumstances. After some practice you will be filled with energy, creativity, zest, and vitality during circumstances that would've ordinarily drained and defeated you!

My unique prescription, The Fun Factor, unlocks the free natural medicine of humor and is one prescription that refills itself daily, especially when you are receiving my newsletter, The Fun Times. The Fun Times has the largest circulation of any newsletter in its industry and serves as a strong weekly reminder to use humor's power throughout your personal and professional life.

By the way, lemming populations do explode in number every four years. So, with 100 million lemmings running around, it is concievable that a few get pushed off a cliff - accidentally. The whole "lemming suicide" myth, however, originates from a 1958 Disney film called "White Wilderness." In "White Wilderness," the production team captured hundreds of lemmings, took them to the filming location, and chased them off a cliff to create a dramatic scene. And the legend was born!

You, of course, do not have to be a lemming; you don't have to follow the crowd and adopt deadly seriousness. You now have a blueprint for taking yourself lightly and unleashing a torent of energy, vitality, zest, and creativity. See you at my website!

Cliff Kuhn, M.D.
The Laugh Doctor

The Natural Medicine of Humor
"Discover a unique, FREE, and incredibly powerful prescription created out of desperation by a (formerly) stressed-out Kentucky psychiatrist"

The Blog Directory