THE BRIGHT SIDE “Stress is an emotion we all have to contend with and a teen’s life can get rough at times” continues Mrs. Leboff. “The ability to see the positive even humorous side of things is a great coping mechanism that Hashem gifted us with”

You have a major science report due in two weeks and you didn’t even come up with a topic yet. You also have a math test right around the corner you don’t understand the chapter and haven’t found a tutor for yourself yet. 

You just got into a clash with your best friend and things got... complicated. 

Your head is throbbing. You’re stressed out. I can relate. 

• Believe it or not stress is not an emotion exclusive for teens. All humans are prone to stress as far back as Day One in This World! Acute anxiety when experienced over a long period of time can be very detrimental to our emotional and physical health affecting our blood pressure cardiovascular system nervous system and digestive system. Fortunately we were also given an antidote to help keep anxiety at bay. Laughter is an effective tool we can use to ward off stress.

The Laughing Champ
It was 1964. Journalist and editor Norman Cousins 49 was just back from a stressful trip to Russia. He was suffering from intense pain and went to a specialist to find out the cause. The diagnosis: Ankylosing Spondylitis a rare disease. The doctors told Cousins that only one in 500 people with this disease are cured — and gave him six months to live. Needless to say that didn’t do too much to alleviate Cousins’s stress.

Cousins was determined to get better. One thing he could do to live a healthier lifestyle he decided was cutting some stress out of his life. From then on Cousins decided he would be the happiest person on earth. He bought as many comic books and funny films he could get hold of. He asked friends and relatives to give him a call and share any jokes they’d heard. Cousins soon learned that ten minutes of laughter was enough to help him get a grip on his pain for the next two hours. He began to acquire a new skill he’d never thought himself capable of — he became a laughing champ.

Sounds well funny? It turns out the joke was on the doctors who gave Cousins no more than six months to live. Norman Cousins enjoyed laughing for the next 26 years. He documented his story and it made world headlines. The concept of laughter as a form of medicine was born.

The Health Benefits of Laughter

Today medical experts recognize the relationship between laughter and medicine.

Have a big test coming up? Instead of over-stressing choose to laugh a little and you might do better on the test than you expected