Sunlight and laughter. That's what cures most fears and worries. Scary problems are better solved in the light than in the dark. And there are many ways to reveal them. Pick a scary problem. Then do the following: Talk to someone, draw a picture map of it on a large piece of paper, make a "top 10" list of the problem, tell yourself a few jokes about the problem, sing a song about the problem and, finally, dance a dance that reveals the problem.
If you do all of this, I promise that your problems will seem a lot funnier, and less scary, than they did before. It is impossible to laugh deeply and be scared at the same time. GK Chesterton once said that “taking things lightly” is the most spiritually advanced thing you can do to increase your effectiveness in life.
“After all,” Chesterton said; “it is because God’s angels think so lightly of themselves that they can fly. And if His angels think so lightly of themselves, imagine how much more lightly He thinks of Himself.” My friend Fred Knipe is a three-time Emmy Award-winning television writer who also performs as a comedian under the character of “Dr. M.F. Ludiker”—the world’s expert on all things. Fred is one of the funniest human beings I have ever known. He never fails to lighten me up, no matter how big a problem I have.
Dr. Ludiker took the stage and placed his ridiculous “Ludiker Institute” logo in front of the podium—a logo featuring a cartoon human brain suspended between two electrical towers. He then proceeded to give, in a soft Teutonic accent, his “advice from hell.”
“With the rise in domestic violence,” the doctor said, “I would recommend that manufacturers of home appliances start installing airbags.” On the growing intolerance of crime, he said—“Criminals, among the most uptight in our communities, will soon have a hard time recruiting top talent because they can no longer escape the feeling that there is a building hatred about what they do for a living.”
“It was inevitable,” he observed, “that genetic engineering would come from the generation that played Mr. Potato Head.” My knife-edging also made light work of my writing. (While making useful handwritten notes on the manuscript for this book, he recommended that I refer to the Lakota shaman Lame Deer as “SuperShaman Lame Deer.”)
As I was recovering from a scary illness that featured, at one point, uncontrollable bleeding, she left me a comforting phone message that said, “Don’t worry about the bleeding. It’s normal for someone your age.”
Fred shares my long-held belief that humor is the highest form of creativity. It is the most difficult to produce and the most enjoyable to receive. Humor, like all creativity, is a matter of making unusual combinations. The more surprising the combination, the funnier the humor.
Your own motivation level will always be boosted by humor. Whenever you are stuck, ask yourself to make light of it. Ask yourself to find some funny solutions. Laughter will break all the boundaries of your thinking. When you laugh, you are open to anything.