It seems many reports in the news these days are negative. With the country being declared in a recession, the highest unemployment rate in years and agencies swamped with requests for assistance, it may be difficult to find anything to make you smile.
Becky Cortino, Hickory resident and member of the Association for Applied and Therapeutic Humor (AATH), is taking her message of looking at the bright side — even if it takes a little craziness to create a bright side — to the corporate world and general public.
Cortino, coordinator for Charlie's Chaplains, a clown ministry of Frye Regional Medical Center, already has seen the effect humor can have on patients — even the chronically ill. After joining AATH just a short time ago, she has looked into the importance of humor to everyone as all people encounter stress in his or her daily lives.
"The organization has recently began inviting more corporate-type members," Cortino said. "The importance of humor is being recognized more and more in the business setting."
Members recently received "10 Tips for Finding Humor in Turbulent Times," and were urged to put the tips in their own words and send it out to local media in their area. Cortino said she found the message to be very timely at this time, when the usual holiday stress is multiplied by economic hardships and fears.
"The great thing about humor is it's free and available to everyone," Cortino said. "It's sugar-free, fat-free and tax-free. It's available 24/7 and you don't need a prescription. There's no assembly required and you don't need batteries. It's environmentally friendly and, best of all, it's socially contagious."
The important line drawn by Cortino and others in AATH is therapeutic humor is not humor at another's expense.
"Healthy, therapeutic humor enhances relationships, is nonhostile, sympathetic, benevolent, tolerant and often philosophical," she explains. "Let us be careful to distinguish it from hurtful, harmful humor that is more aggressive, critical sarcastic and cruel, often based on put-downs and involves laughing at someone else's expense."
Cortino has started a online program, "Healing Humor: Live Happy — Be Healthy" at her Web site, http://snipurl.com/23els. The five-session audio program is free and gives participants access to companion E-books.
"The program introduces applying humor in various aspects of life," she said. "It's all about thinking outside the box."
She said she has noticed more peopled signing up for her program lately, with numbers doubling in the last two months.
The program was begun in celebration of Frye Regional Medical Center's "Spring 2008 Healing Arts Festival."
Cortino said she recommends AATH to anyone who is interested in learning more about therapeutic humor as she uses it as a resource base for her research on the subject.
For more information on the Association for Applied and Therapeutic Humor, go to www.aath.org.
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