Mayo Clinic tells us that we can relieve stress when we laugh or use our figurative “funny bone.” Since the work of lawyers can be demanding and stressful, they must go out of their way to seek humor in their life. The question where is the lawyer’s funny bone?
Meet Everett
Everett believed that he did not have a funny bone in his body. He hadn’t had a good laugh in years, rarely smiled, and didn’t realize that he walked around wearing a frown. Everett lost his sense of humor long ago. He couldn’t re-member ever joking around smiling or laughing.
“My wife says I analyze everything. She says that I take life too seriously. She calls me ‘sourpuss.’ That hurts because deep down, I know she is right.”
What happened to Everett’s sense of humor? In the legal profession, it is easy to lose one’s sense of humor. Yet, to keep a proper perspective, it is important for men and women to maintain a sense of humor.
Everett continues, “My wife, Helen, tells me that our house is like a tomb. She and my kids walk around on eggshells. Now Helen wants to get away from me and take the kids. She and the kids are tired of tiptoeing around me when I am home because I’m always in a foul mood.” Everett didn’t realize how laughter saves many marriages and also relieves stress and increases health.
Laughter can be the best medicine for an attorney because it not only repairs damage in relationships, it also increases the immunity. Prolonged stress can result in the flu, back pain, sore throat, chronic autoimmune disorders, and even worse.
Lawyers Can Be Serious
Lawyers can be a serious and intense group, in and out of the office. This seriousness makes it difficult to enjoy work or at home. The intensity and the analytical side is usually inculcated into the lawyer persona beginning in law school. Thinking like a lawyer might include an inclination to:
• Be confident or arrogant
• Analyze everything
• Avoid emotional involvement
• Strong ability to win arguments
• Logic, deductive reasoning
• Use of analogies to prove a point
• Always questioning
• Ready to say no
• Speak in generalities
This lawyerly way of thinking can choke out laughter and humor if an attorney is not careful.
Why Lawyers Want to Find Humor in the Lives
Mayo Clinic’s scientific research reveals that a hearty laugh fuels the immune system with disease-fighting powers that will help you stay healthy and energetic.
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Unfortunately, too many are glued to their news, politics, and other distressing events. This can become a source of stress, just obsessing about what is going on in the world. While it is important to stay informed when you find yourself stressed most of the time, you are putting your health at risk.
Find humor in your day. Whether watching a funny sitcom on TV or movies on Netflix make time to giggle. Laughter is one of the greatest forms of stress relief.
Here Are Some Short-Term Benefits From Laughter
Laughing causes physical changes in your body. Laughter can:
• Stimulate many organs.
• Enhances your intake of oxygen-rich air
• Stimulates your heart, lungs, and muscles
• Increases the endorphins that are released by your brain
• Activates and relieves your stress response
• Fires up and then cools down your stress response
• Increases your heart rate and blood pressure
• Stimulate circulation and aid muscle relaxation
• Helps reduce some of the physical symptoms of stress (such as headaches, neck pain, back pain, shoulder pain)
Five Ways to Improve Your Sense of Humor
1. Humor can be learned. In fact, developing or refining your sense of humor may be easier than you think. We all have our unique sense of humor and what makes us laugh.
2. Find things that make you smile or laugh and keep them around you, on your desk, and at home.
3. Look for ways to laugh at yourself and watch your stress begin to fade away.
4. Even if it feels forced at first, practice smiling and start laughing. It does your body good.
5. Make it a habit of spending time with friends who make you laugh. And then return the favor by sharing funny stories.
Back to Everett
Everett believed that life was a joyless affair to be tolerated. He entertained himself by thinking and using his intellect. Because lawyer’s high IQ lawyers are smarter than most, they depend on their intellectual and analytical skills to survive, and this leaves little room for humor, laughter, and fun. Many attorneys see little need to build their EQ (or their emotional intelligence)
Everett was the same. He never had a desire or an interest in emotional intelligence. He thought just being a smart attorney was all he needed.
Thankfully Everett realized to have a happy home life and to raise his children properly, he needed to learn to laugh.
Everett tells us in his own words, “Now that I look back, I’m sure I was not fun to be around. Everything is so serious and analytical. These traits played well into my law practice, and I became an excellent lawyer. But I almost lost my marriage and my children.
Now It Is Your Turn to Find Your Funny Bone
Go ahead and give it a try. Do you feel more relaxed or buoyant? That’s the natural wonder of laughing at work.
Relieve Your Stress With Laughter
Attorneys: Get in the Driver’s Seat: Take charge of each morning. These actions will not only increase your profit financially but will help to lift you up to enjoy happiness, can profoundly enhance your marriage, your relationships with your children and in your community. ◆
