Live for Change
Written by Nelson Briceno
February 2018
Laugh or go Bananas, Dr. Giggles Tells All!
As a motivator, I want to share with of all you some areas of a book that I published to inspire you, empower you and make you take action and start living a wonderful life…the life you deserve.
As a motivational speaker/performer, I encounter many interesting situations. One such situation was when I gave a workshop to social workers. It was overwhelming how much stress they had. During the session it took me almost twenty minutes to break the tension. One worker in particular got my attention; he sat down and didn’t participate. When we made funny faces, he didn’t but, instead began laughing at all the other faces around him. I felt so happy; I had done my job for the day. I found out later that he never laughed or participated in office events. He spoke to me after and told me that he felt good; he had allowed himself to feel happy again.
In my many performances as Dr Giggles, I have had the opportunity to speak with job seekers, non-profit workers and elderly people in nursing homes. I have learned so much from each of these sectors. There is one memory that really pulls my heart strings. It happened when I was working at a nursing home. After much laughter I would normally begin talking about goals. Being in a nursing home I decided to begin the session instead with “what do you wish?” I thought, maybe a wish is what we want to think of instead of a goal. A seventy-five year old lady stood up and said, “What I wish for is sunshine”. I was speechless, I never expected to hear something so simple yet so full of meaning. I came down from the stage and walked over to her. I saw a window and, fortunately it was a sunny day. I walked with her to the window and said to her, “here is your wish”. I saw the lady’s face smiling at the sun. I realized that often what we need is just a little light to help us continue and justify the meaning of our existence.
I Believe in Laughter, Laughter is not just as an expression of our body reacting to a humorous situation, for me it’s just as important as a daily meal. Just as we need our three meals a day to nourish our body, we need laughter to nourish our spirit.
I remember the time I did a social services workshop for “Laugh or go Bananas”. When I told the participants it was time to laugh for one minute, they did not understand how they were going to accomplish this without the stimulus of a joke or another humorous situation. The key is to fake it until you make it. I simply start laughing using the sounds: Ha, He, Hi, Ho and He. Begin low and keep it up until it becomes louder and soon you will not be faking it. It is good practice for what I call “a power laugh” each day: tell a joke or watch a comedy with a friend. What is also important is to create your own world of internal smiles and giggles. Understand this is not easy to accomplish, especially if we are around serious minded people at work all day who don’t take the time to have a laugh.
“Touched by life”, in my Laugh workshop there is a moment in the show where I ask a person to read a testimonial given to me by an amazing soul who touched me with her story. This is what she told me. I was extremely close to my aunt who died a few years ago of cancer. I attended every chemo session with her at the hospital and we got a lot of time together. During her treatment, her birthday came and I was at complete loss as to what to get for her. So I arranged to meet with the mother of a client of mine who was a cancer survivor. I told her how much I cared for my aunt and wanted to do something special for her and do you know what she told me? She said that “the best thing you can do for your aunt is to bring laughter into her life. People with cancer forget how to laugh. There is nothing funny for them anymore so bringing humor to her would be a great gift” so for my aunt’s birthday I gave her a joke every single day of her life until she died. It was the best gift I ever gave anyone. I believe in laughter. “Jodi Weber, CLU, EPC”
After we listen to the testimonial, I ask all the participants to take a moment and express compassion to themselves and others around them. It doesn’t take much to touch somebody’s life even though it doesn’t seem like much to you, for that person it will mean a lot as you see from this testimonial.
Enjoy the Moment, Major worries are often far away and will not affect us. How many times do we worry over meaningless things we think are important? I find when I am concerned over things; the best practice is to not worry about them. I find that worry blocks us from reacting positively. Take time to enjoy the small things that life has to offer us. I know that you have probably read and heard this many times. I encourage you to start practicing positive thoughts. Have you ever taken the time to notice what exists around you? Maybe there is a wonderful tree around where you live or you have heard a bird song that says “laugh or go bananas” to you. I hope that made you smile?
I hope that you enjoy this small session on my book and begin to enjoy your life to the ultimate! Do you want to have more fun? Simply visit Laugh Or Go Bananas: Dr. Giggles Tells All.