SMILE and STRESS

  SMILE,  STRESS,  HUMOUR  &  LAUGHTER      

        Dr. T. Rama Prasad                  

                   “Laugh and the world laughs with you;  weep and you weep alone.”

                                                               -- Ellla Wheeler Wilcox

Wife            :   Darling, how much do you love me ?
Husband    :   Dear, 72% exactly.
Wife           :    I want to kill her,  who is that bitch getting the rest of 28% ?
Husband    :   Cool down, dear, the rest is GST (28%) on 'luxury items' !!!


SCIENCE  of  SMILE

             Somewhere in our mechanical and mundane lives, smile and laughter slipped off creating our grumpy selves.  Cliched as it may sound, laughter could indeed be the best medicine. It is essential to add a dash of humour to our social recipe.  In a world so awash with so much of negativity,  smile has a tremendous positive  influence on everything -- be it business, society, culture, success or health.  Smile, laughter, happiness, kindness, positivity, confidence and healthiness go together. There is a scientific basis for this.

          Smile and laughter alter the levels of neurotransmitters in the brain – increasing the level of ‘serotonin’, the ‘happy-feel-good’ hormone;  increasing the level of ‘endorphins’, the pain-modifying group of hormones which also induce a sense of pleasure;  reducing the levels of ‘catecholamines’ / ‘cortisol’ and ‘epinephrine’ which are stress-related hormones associated with elevated blood pressure, sleep disturbances, palpitation, run-down feeling, psychiatric problems, etc. They transmit neuronal signals to our facial muscles to  trigger a smile.  'Dopamine' is another "feel good" neurotransmitter which is strongly associated with pleasure and reward.  Interestingly, there are what are called  'mirror neutrons' that can reflect or mirror the smile of others.  Inevitably, we smile back when some one (even a stranger native on American roads - who usually says 'Hi' and smiles) passes on a smile to us.  Smile begets smile.  The exception is when we smile or laugh while our boss is giving us a blast !  

          Nothing is more needed than the serenity that a tranquil mind provides in today’s frenetic consumerist age of intense stress, consumer-oriented economic expectations, urban lifestyles, high academic expectations, insufficient family support structure, long working hours and fierce competition.  Stress kills – kills the ‘real’ quality of life.  Modern society lives in stress and in the hypocrisy of ‘unreal’ good quality of life. People love to pretend that their life is exciting.

              

Any child would chuckle, smile and laugh.  As one grows up, nowadays, the sweet smile is fading away and the roaring laughter is locked up inside.  Busy with inexorable smart phones, not interacting with people is a new age thing to do.  In this modern era, stress and anxiety have replaced the sweet smile (genuine smile, not the artificial smile which is abundantly available in every five-star hotel) and the roaring laughter.   Patience level is almost touching zero,  timelines are getting shorter and stress levels have shot up steeply.  Consequently, illness has increased.  Then, when you go to a hospital the ‘catecholamine’ level goes further higher up what with all the laundry lists of investigations, procedures, drugs, etc.  You are in a whirlpool,  you can never come out of it.  Remember that the world is driven by money.  The modern day stress starts from Pre-KG and ends only at the graveyard.  A day may come when we have to send our kids to coaching classes to learn how to smile and laugh !

STRESSED  CHILD

          Even the judiciary has taken cognisance of the stressed life of the 21st century child.  The Madras High Court, on May 29, 2018, directed The Central Government and Union Territories to make sure that no school in the country, irrespective of the educational board was affiliated to, prescribed homework for students in Classes I & II in accordance with National Council of Educational Research and Training recommendations.  It also said no school should force upon children any subject other than language and mathematics in Classes I & II, and that the only additional subject for Classes III & IV should be Environmental Science.  The Justice also said:  "Neither children are weight lifters nor school bags load containers."   He also diced he Centre to formulate a policy forthwith on the lines of the 'Children School Bags (Limitation on Weight) Bill of 2006.   

STRESS  in  INFANCY

Here is a stud published in the journal Frontiers in Molecular Neuroscience -- 2018.  Psychological stress in infancy can cause significant and far-reaching harmful effects on heart, lungs, kidneys, bladder, brain, etc. by affecting the quantum of GABA receptors, a class of proteins.

If you have a smile and enthusiasm to work, and posses pleasant energy to help others, you can be sure that you are in good health.  Extensive health check-ups are not necessary, except a few basic ones.  Positively feeling that you are in good health is the most effective preventive medicine. Psyche plays a great role in health and disease. Often, an abnormal test result or a negative remark by a doctor robs the smile and laughter and ruins the health of a person, not the fault in his system. Many a times depressed "patients" are made out of hilarious  "normal" population by needless "Check-up" screenings.  For more on this, go to my article: HEALTH CHECK-UP: how healthy is it ? - The Hindu, Open Page, Jan. 15, 2012 - . ……http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/open-page/article2801701.ece

WORLD  SMILE  DAY

Days-old baby smiles at us. We don't know what its brain means or feels. The smile continues each day throughout the life.  Do you remember of any day when you didn't smile at all even while in distress ? It is spontaneous and so essential.

WORLD  SMILE  DAY passed off silently a few days ago (06.10.2017) for most of the people around the world may not be knowing of its existence, just as most of the 'WORLD  DAYS' as almost everyday some 'world day' or other is celebrated.   First Friday of October each year is celebrated as "WORLD  SMILE  DAY" since 1999 which was initiated by Harvey Ball, a commercial artisfrom Worcester, Massachusetts who created the popular  "SMILEY  FACE" in 1963.

                                                                  

With smiling students of IRT Perundurai Medical College on Sept 28, 2017.

                                                             

WORLD  LAUGHTER  DAY

Laugh, laugh and laugh on the World Laughter Day !  Let us celebrate the first Sunday of May.  Join the ‘Laughter Clubs’ for ‘community laughing’ (otherwise called ‘the most artificial laughing’ which must be as stressful as crying !) which are present even in Indian cities.  If you can’t  laugh,  at least smile.  Smile certainly adds value to your face, however ugly it may be ! 

 HUMOUR

To tickle the funny bone,  I’ll share a gag with you:

A mechanic asked a heart surgeon, while repairing his car:  “Hey Doc, may I ask you a question ?”

The heart surgeon surgeon said : “Sure, go ahead.”

The mechanic asked:  “So Doc, look at this engine. I am also opening it up, take valves out, fix them, put in new parts, and when I finish, this will work like a new one.  So how come I get just a pittance and you get the real big money, when you and I are doing basically the same work ?”

The surgeon paused, smiled and leaned over, and whispered to the mechanic:  “Try doing it while the engine is running !”

          On September 20, 2011,  the Planning Commission, in an affidavit to the Supreme Court, declared that any one earning more than Rs.25/- per day in rural areas and  Rs.36/-  in urban areas is above the poverty line and would be able to spend for food, education, health, housing, clothing, etc. (The Hindu, Sept. 23, 2011)  and hence is ineligible for the sops given to those below the poverty line (BPL)!  What a whiff of fresh air !

                              The statistics cited above indicate that our bureaucrats are not all wooden with red tape in the file-strewn corridors of power.  They also provide sparks of humour and sparkle of wit.  Let us thank the government for the above laughable matters which remind us that they too have a funny bone.  After all, the government is interested in the health of the citizen !  They know that laughter is the best health promoter. 

            And, schools are not lagging behind.  Students are the best humour generators !  There are a couple of questions given for 'home work' for students of 6th standard on June 16, 2017. (Real. Not imaginary questions.  Of course, the answers given by a student below are not real.  I created them).  

1.  Question:  "How do plants excrete ?  Think."
      Answer :   (a)  "They excrete in the open air just as 63.8 crore Indians do."

                        (b)  If the plants are mobile and modern, they would excrete like modern elephants. 

      2.  Question:  "Find out why plants produce seeds instead of saplings during summer ?"
            Answer  :  "Because,  the bore-wells get dried up in summer."

(If interested in the subject of "Open air defecation",  read the scribbling

     under the heading 'OPEN AIR  DEFECATION )

SELECTIVE  LAUGHTER

          Some laugh only at other's shortcomings and mistakes.  And, some derive pleasure out of the failures of others.  The minds of such people are covered with the dust of jealousy, hatred, revenge and greed.  They lose the ability to see with an open mind and correct their shortcomings and weaknesses.

You all look beautiful because you are wearing a charming smile.

SILENCE  IS  ALSO  A  GOOD  MEDICINE

          Laughter is said to be the best medicine.  But, silence is also a good medicine -- not the silence of the mouth,  but the  silence of the mind.  Silence is keeping all thoughts away from the mind,  just keeping the mind blank, not allowing any thought coming into the mind.  This is also a good medicine.  Perhaps, this is the basis of ‘yoga & meditation’ to which certain things are added on.  Many of us keep on thinking of mundane things while doing ‘yoga & meditation’ and even while praying to God.  That is why we don’t get the expected results.  Keeping the mind silent is not easy, but it is good for health.  Silence is golden.

                                  “Silence is a source of great strength.”

                                                                        --  Lao Tzu

         Modern world has become increasingly materialistic leading to, mental stress which has become the biggest enemy of good health.  Eschew needless thoughts; become more silent mentally; take things easy and as they come; smile & laugh more heartily; and enjoy better health and live longer.  

A good 30 laughs - Dilbert's one liners: Old Classics!

🔺 I say no to alcohol, it just doesn't listen.
🔺 A friend in need is a pest indeed.
🔺 Marriage is one of the chief causes of divorce.
🔺 Work is fine if it doesn't take too much of your time.
🔺 When everything comes in your way you're in the wrong lane.
🔺 The light at the end of the tunnel may be an incoming train..
🔺 Born free, taxed to death.
🔺 Everyone has a photographic memory, some just don't have film.
🔺 Life is unsure; always eat your dessert first.
🔺 Smile, it makes people wonder what you are thinking.
🔺 If you keep your feet firmly on the ground, you'll have trouble putting on your pants.
🔺 It's not hard to meet expenses, they are everywhere.
🔺 I love being a writer... what I can't stand is the paper work..
🔺 A printer consists of 3 main parts: the case, the jammed paper tray and the blinking red light.
🔺 The guy who invented the first wheel was an idiot. The guy who invented the other three, he was the genius.
🔺 The trouble with being punctual is that no one is there to appreciate it.
🔺 In a country of free speech, why are there phone bills?
🔺 If you cannot change your mind, are you sure you have one?
🔺 Beat the 5 O'clock rush, leave work at noon!
🔺 If you can't convince them, confuse them.
🔺 It's not the fall that kills you. It's the sudden stop at the end.
🔺 I couldn't repair your brakes, so I made your horn louder.
🔺 Hot glass looks same as cold glass. - Cunino's Law of Burnt Fingers
🔺 The cigarette does the smoking you are just the sucker.
🔺 Someday is not a day of the week
🔺 Whenever I find the key to success, someone changes the lock.
🔺 The road to success.... Is always under construction.
🔺 Alcohol doesn't solve any problems, but if you think again, neither does Milk.
🔺 In order to get a Loan, you first need to prove that you don't need it!

                                                        

                                                                  SMILING  STAFF

Smile, my dear ones, it will reduce your work-stress.

THIS  IS  AN  ABRIDGED  TEXT  OF  MY    'Scribbling'.     FULL TEXT WILL BE POSTED LATER.               --  T. Rama Prasad