A laugh is similar to a fingerprint or retinal scan — it is unique to every person.
Dr. Robert R. Provine, professor of behavioral studies at the University of Maryland, begins his book “Laughter: A Scientific Investigation” by saying that the next time you enter into a jungle and listen to screeches and squawks of the animals that live in it — think that if you were to start laughing other creatures would be astonished because laughter is a combination of sound and movement of muscles that are only produced by humans.
The professor studied laughter over a number of years, convinced that laughter is a good way to understand human behavior since it is an element of human language. Of the hundreds and thousands of living languages used around the world, laughter is the only language that unites all human beings.
Though laughter is an inherent and totally unplanned action to express feelings that well up from deep within a person, genes also play a role in the ability of people to laugh, for there are people who laugh a lot and others who rarely do.
Laughter has a number of health benefits despite being a rather violent activity produced by the body: It increases the heart rate and produces the same changes that a body goes through when shouting or singing. Some of the benefits of laughter are that it reduces pain and reduces the level of the hormone cortisone known to cause tension.
Previous studies on laughter revealed that those who are able to laugh in situations when they are supposed to feel anger or embarrassment will not suffer from heart problems and will retain a balanced blood pressure. It is good then that laughter is contagious: We should set laughter free.
* * *
We all know the saying: “Don’t put off till tomorrow what you can do today.” However, we often find ourselves postponing today’s work. Is it laziness that drives us to commit this fault or is it the loss of drive and motivation that makes us imagine that the world won’t stop turning if we postpone our work?
Dr. Linda Sapadin, author of the book “It’s About Time: The Six Styles of Procrastination and How to Overcome Them,” says that people who make a hobby out of postponing today’s work to tomorrow are not lazy. Quite the opposite: They have a lot of energy and many hopes and goals and plans and therefore procrastinate at the start of every task and at the end of each project, perhaps because they always seek perfection in the work they do.
From a different perspective, this habit of deferring today’s work could derive from not accepting change and a person’s desire — consciously or not — to stay with the task he began and spent a long time on, afraid to leave the comfort zone he has created by becoming used to that task.
The habit of deferring work results in feelings of depression, because by postponing one task it is doubtful that one would be able to finish the rest of the tasks on the To-Do list. There are feelings of regret because we have not fulfilled the task in the time set aside for it, which can result in the loss of self-confidence. Worse, the habit can lead to tension and rob a person of the joy of life.
It is possible to overcome this bad habit by laying out a plan of action. Do something everyday that you were in the habit of postponing. If a certain task requires time to be completed, then it can be divided over a number of days, specifying when each section of that task should start and when it should be completed.
It is suggested that many who have gotten used to delaying their work write down a To-Do list daily. Sadly, a list such as this, says Dr. Sapadin, could become depressing, and it is best to substitute this long list with a daily schedule containing three to five tasks that can be completed, specifying the time when each task should be started. In case you do not feel enthusiastic about beginning a task, you should take a rest and come back to work with renewed enthusiasm. The important thing is enthusiasm, and as Bernard Shaw says: “A man who hasn’t lost his enthusiasm, hasn’t lost a thing.”
Arab News Features 14 March 2003