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Stress is certainly one of the most talked about topics in today's world. Google "stress" on the internet, and you'll get "About 4 270 000 000 results". Google « laughter » and you'll get..."About 1 160 000 000 results". Roughtly 1 laughter to 4 stress. 

This fact got me curious. This is by no mean a scientific study, but just a little fun that got me thinking. What do we prefer to focus on ? What are we led to focus on?

Interestingly, other search engines like Yahoo! or bing give othere results : 2,250,000,000 results on Stress... and 192,000,000 about laughter! Roughtly one one laughter to 11 stress. Even worst! Where exactly is the truth?

Another interesting view point is that the definition of laughter is pretty clear and similar whoever you talk to. A doctor might be inclined to tell you more on the effects of laughter on your hormones, heart and immune system, and a stand up comic might tell you more about how laughter is a guarantee to keep a captive audience. But they are talking about the same happy feeling and its physical symptoms and facial expressions.

When you ask a doctor to define "stress" they might also tell you about the effect of what we call stress on our immune system, heart, hormones levels and more. But the stand-up comedian will probably tell you about their own stress when writing their script or before getting on stage or on screen. We all have a different definition of stress and how it shows up for each person : tiredness, lack of sleep, irritability, hypersensitivity, lack of focus... The list goes on. 

I liked one definition offered by the Irish Heart Foundation  :

Stress can mean different things to different people. Stress is often defined as a mismatch between the demands placed on us and our ability to cope with these demands. The way we cope with these demands will depend on the way we think, our personality and our previous life experiences etc.

Stress is difficult to measure, but we all know what it feels like and how we cope in stressful situations. For some, it can threaten to take over their lives while for others, once they are aware of its causes and effects, stress can add excitement and challenge to their lives. It can be positive when it motivates us to get things done, however, it can be negative when we feel constantly pressurised or traumatised by too many demands.”

So what is your definition or stress, and which do you usually get bak to : laughter or stress?

My suggestion to you today : What about watching out for situations, images that make you smile, and mayne laugh?

Another idea is... to tap!  Your initial statement could be :

Even though I have a tendency to feel stress more easily than I feel laughter, I'm ready to learn a new way.

Follow your intuition and tap away. What do you have to loose? A little bit of your daily load of stress? ;) Let me know how this is helping you?