How Laughter Can Make You Feel Invincible

How long do you think you could keep your hand in a bucket of freezing water? Consider this a new ice bucket challenge.

10 seconds? A minute?

The length of time you can endure the freezing cold tells a little about your pain tolerance. The longer you are able to withstand a frozen hand, the higher your tolerance.

What if I told you that you could improve this tolerance and all you had to do was laugh?

In his book, Ha! The Science of When We Laugh And Why, author Scott Weems tells the story of scientist who performed a cold pressor test. They asked participants to hold one hand in water chilled to 35 degrees Fahrenheit. They recorded their scores and then asked the participants to do the test again, only this time they performed the test while watching a recording of humorous stand-up comedy.

While watching the comedy, the patients were able to increase the amount of time they kept their hand in the ice water from 36-100 seconds. Weems calls this the Bill Cosby Effect (which unfortunately has a different connotation these days).

But laughing isn’t exactly the same as taking aspirin. Rather, it is more like a jog on a treadmill. Our minds need emotional engagement just like our bodies need exercise.

“The reason comedies and tragedies lead to greater pain tolerance is that our minds are exercised by each,” Weems says. “When we laugh, just as when we cry, our bodies experience emotional arousal. This effect is both engaging and distracting, strengthening our bodies—and our minds—for what is to come, much like a boxer lifts weights before a bout.”

Weems goes into great detail to show the benefits of laughing, but he also acknowledges that is it not a wonder drug. Humor may increase our pain tolerance but man cannot live on humor alone.

“Laughter is the best medicine, so long as it’s mixed with exercise, a healthy diet, and an occasional dose of penicillin,” says Weems.

Humor is a lot like changing a baby’s diaper—it doesn’t necessarily solve all our problems, but it sure does make things more pleasant for a while.”

So next time you are want to alleviate some hurt (physically or emotionally), you might just want to turn on Chris Rock’s Bring the Pain.

One Simple Way To Increase Our Brainpower

Does your brain feel fried? Can’t seem to pay attention or come up with any ideas?

Here’s one simple thing you can to do increase your brainpower…

Stand up.

Yes, it is that easy. Get out of your chair and on to your feet.

A new study from Texas A&M University found that students with standing desks were more attentive and showed 12 percent greater on-task engagement than students who had seated desks. This 12 percent equates to an extra seven minutes per hour of engaged instruction time.

These results lead researches to believe we think better on our feet.

Mark Benden, Ph.D., CPE, associate professor at the Texas A&M Health Science Center School of Public Health, said that previous research has shown that physical activity, even at low levels, may have beneficial effects on cognitive ability.

“Standing workstations reduce disruptive behavior problems and increase students’ attention or academic behavioral engagement by providing students with a different method for completing academic tasks (like standing) that breaks up the monotony of seated work,” Benden said.

Is your work starting to feel monotonous? Maybe it is time to push the chair aside and let your feet do the thinking.

October Recap

In case you missed a post or two this month, here’s a quick recap of what I wrote about during the month of October:

Questions I Asked –

 

Is Maury C. Moose and The Basketball ChamPUNship Now Available? – Yes!

Why do we say ‘boo’ on Halloween? – I am not sure if there were Halloween decorations in the year 1515, but if there were, they very well could have featured the word boo.

Things We Learned –

I Have Many Reasons To Say Thank You! – Here’s one in particular.

The One Thing Happy People Do Differently – Guess what? You can do it too.

How To Get Some Luck On Friday The 13th – Spoiler alert: these things work on days other than Friday the 13th.

You Need To Understand You Don’t Understand – Confusing, right? Read the post and it will make more sense.

It Is Not About Brushing Your Teeth Today – Check out a lesson I learned right before I went to the dentist.

Fun With Numbers –

3 Indispensable Virtues That Make Teams Successful – Many times, I will read something online and immediately think, “that was great, I wish I wrote it.” I may not have written it, but I can still share it. Here’s the latest…

5 Good Things – Having a rough week? Feel like there is nothing but negative stories online, on TV and in the newspaper? Looking for a little pick me up? Here are 5 good things going on in our world…and as you’ll notice, this month we have a theme: Sports.

 

3 Indispensable Virtues That Make Teams Successful

Many times, I will read something online and immediately think, “that was great, I wish I wrote it.” I may not have written it, but I can still share it. Here’s the latest…

3 Indispensable Virtues That Make Teams Successful by Dan Schawbel

I think this is the first interview in “I Wish I Wrote It” history. This article features an interview with author Patrick Lencioni. There are two reasons why I was drawn to it. 1) It has a great title. 2) the second question Schawbel asks: “What types of people does every team need and how do you find these people?”

This is a great question and Lencioni has an equally great answer. Check it out here.

5 Good Things

Having a rough week? Feel like there is nothing but negative stories online, on TV and in the newspaper? Looking for a little pick me up?

Here are 5 good things going on in our world…and as you’ll notice, this month we have a theme: Sports. These days, between protests, violence and dumb decisions, sports get a bad rap. But there is actually a lot of good going on in the sports world. Let’s take a look at 5 examples…

1. Eagles player Chris Long donating the rest of his season’s salary to charity – Long is putting his entire $1 million base salary behind his belief that education opens doors for all Americans. He is donating his final 10 game checks from this season to organizations supporting educational equity and opportunity in Philadelphia as well as Boston and St. Louis, where he previously played with the Patriots and Rams.
2. Pro Hockey Player Purchases Suite So That Underprivileged Children Can Attend Games -The Montreal Canadiens announced on Wednesday that Jonathan Drouin has partnered with the Canadiens Children’s Foundation to host less fortunate children at a Bell Centre suite for Habs games.Drouin is making a personal annual contribution of $165,000 for the suite, which will bear the name “Jo et ses champions” (Jo and his champions).
3. Oakland A’s answer young wildfire victim’s letter in person – Loren Smith, 9, of Santa Rosa lost his home and his cherished collection of baseball cards and memorabilia. Teams from around the country are coming together to help replace what he lost.
4. Oklahoma football team lets opponent in wheelchair score touchdown – An Oklahoma high school football team rallied around a player on the opponent team, who was in a wheelchair, and let him score a touchdown.
5. New York Islanders ‘recruit’ boy with cancer, making his ‘dream come true’ -A little boy from New York had his wish granted Tuesday after he got to spend the day practicing and hanging out with his favorite hockey team, the New York Islanders.Brandon Bloom, 8, of South Setauket, on Long Island, became an NHL athlete for a day.

Thank You!

Four years ago, Maury C. Moose was brought to life thanks to the generosity of 89 amazing people.

When I was first looking to create a children’s book about a moose with a punny name, I realized one thing very quickly…I needed help. I didn’t know what I was doing or how I would actually make this book a reality. I turned to Kickstarter and simply spoke from the heart.

I explained my idea, my struggle and how I could use some help. I clicked submit on the Kickstarter page and was scared to death. What if people didn’t like my idea? What if they didn’t like me? Would my dreams of writing a book be destroyed before they even started?

What happened next was amazing…

I got my first backer (shout out to Will & Julie Heher). Then I got another one. And another one. Maury C. Moose was becoming a reality right before my eyes.

On October 23, 2013 my Kickstarter campaign ended and I raised $5,725. All thanks to 89 amazing people. 

Four years later, I have turned my small idea into a children’s book series with 4 stories and dozens of ideas for what Maury can do next. I am so excited for the future of Maury and if you are one of the 89 Kickstarter backers (or anyone else who has joined along the way), I have one thing to say…

THANK YOU!

The One Thing Happy People Do Differently

Have you ever noticed that some memories are just more powerful than others? More often than not, these memories are negative.

Why is that? And what can we do about it?

To find the answers to those questions and more check out this article I wrote for Fulfillment Daily. It takes a science-based look the one thing happy people do differently, and how we can apply that mindset to our lives.

The One Thing Happy People Do Differently – Fulfillment Daily

Luck on Friday the 13th

Looking for some extra luck since today is Friday the 13th? Click here to read the post I wrote for Fulfillment Daily about 4 secrets to getting lucky. I think you will especially like secret #2.

40% Off Sale

To celebrate the release of the latest book, I would like to offer a special 40% off sale for books #2 & #3 in the Maury C. Moose Children’s Book Series. For one week only, you can get Maury C. Moose and The Facebrook or Maury C. Moose and The Ninja Worrier for just $6 on Amazon.

Click here to buy Maury C. Moose and The Facebrook

Click here to buy Maury C. Moose and The Ninja Worrier

Or, if you already have both of those, click here to get the brand new book — Maury C. Moose and the Basketball ChamPUNship.

The sale will last until 11:59pm PT on Monday, October 16th.

Understand You Don’t Understand

A third grade math teacher understands that his students do not understand complex long division of the first day of school. This knowledge helps the teacher and student succeed.

A football coach understands that his rookie quarterback does not understand the play book on the first day of training camp. Without this awareness the coach and player would fail.

Taylor Swift understands that not every music listener will understand her hit songs. This understanding allows her to tune out the critics.

It is not difficult to look and see what others do not understand. We see their past experience and we are able to recognize what they know and what they don’t know.

It is easy to see it in others, but how many of us understand what we do not understand?

We think we need to know everything and we hate to admit that we do not know something. We get in trouble when we do not understand that we do not understand.

When I started writing a book a few years ago, I didn’t understand what it took to publish a book. It took me quite a while to admit that. Only when I fully understood that I was lost, was I able to look for help.

We are powerless if we think we already know everything. A coach or a teacher is more powerful with the knowledge that his player or student needs teaching. This allows the coach/teacher to tailor a program to get the pupil on the right track.

The same goes for us when we are both the coach and the player.

It is okay to not understand. We aren’t experts on day one. Understanding that we don’t understand is the first step on the road to improvement.