Saturday, February 12, 2005

Cliff Kuhn M.D.'s Fun Commandments Are Your Key To The Natural Medicine Of Humor

My current Fun Factor prescription is the culmination of decades of subsequent research, practice, study, and application of my Fun Commandments with my patients. I actually went on a national tour as a stand-up comedian to do research! (I hope you didn't have to sit through any of my performances) I continue to work (and play) with world famous humor practitioners like Mr. Jerry Lewis, whom I have counted as a colleague, friend, and admirer for over a decade! If you combine all the amazing lengths I have gone to study humor's healing effects with my national stature as a Professor and former Associate Chairman of the University of Louisville School of Medicine's Department of Psychiatry, you quickly realize that I am the only doctor in the world with the qualifications and expertise to teach you about my Fun Commandments and Fun Factor prescription.

My Fun Commandments Are Designed to Change Your Life

My Fun Factor prescription is your source for finding freedom from your pain and illness, navigating swiftly through grief and change, having relationships better than you ever dreamed, ridding yourself of your bad habits once and for all, finding and loving a job of your dreams, and so much more. But it all started with my Fun Commandments and, to this day, my Fun Factor prescription is still centered around these dynamic principles.

This article introduces you to my Fun Commandments and "primes your pump" for the day you are ready to step into a life you never dreamed possible for yourself - the day you start using my Fun Factor prescription!

We all know about humor's value, especially in recreational settings, and most people agree that laughter is beneficial. If you are part of this majority, you are to be applauded because you are already more than halfway towards turbo-charging your life with the natural medicine of humor. As you read my Fun Commandments and begin to practice them in your life, you will start to see that most of us have barely scratched the surface of humor's potential to supercharge our personal and professional lives. If you maintain an open mind and are willing to learn, no matter how successful you are now, my Fun Factor prescription and, of course, the Fun Commandments which form its foundation will lower your stress levels by as much as 40%, make profoundly positive changes in your relationships, and increase your job satisfaction by up to 55%.

My Fun Commandments are more relevant today than ever before because I continue to explore and enlarge their scope and impact. In fact, two of the Fun Commandments you're about to read were added within the past year. You can rest assured that, until you invest in my Fun Factor prescription, my Fun Commandments will provide you with a foundation for amazing energy, growth, and positive change - as they have done for hundreds of my patients, family members, and friends.

Dr. Kuhn's Fun Commandments



  1. Always Go the Extra Smile

    Of all my Fun Commandments, this one provides you with the most energy. It is the one strategy most effective for increasing the fun in your life. Smiling is a way to open your heart and at the same time touch the hearts of others. We have measured decreased stress, improved immunity, increased tolerance for pain and frustration, and higher levels of creativity - even from a "fake" smile!


  2. Tell the Truth

    Of all my Fun Commandments, this one helps you keep an inventory of yourself. Our humor natures are open windows to the truth; therefore, if you want your sense of humor to be strong and available, you must make the effort to be true to yourself. This Commandment promotes trust in yourself and keeps you on a steady, forward pace since you will be much more cognizant of what is working in your life and what isn't.


  3. Laugh With Yourself First

    Of all my Fun Commandments, this one helps you take yourself less seriously. When you make a mistake, laughing with yourself keeps you from beating up on yourself. It is a boost to your self-esteem because it is a vote of confidence in yourself. This Commandment sends a clear message to you that you are okay. You know that your foibles do not form links in an unbreakable chain, because you are learning from them and becoming more effective.


  4. Welcome Your Mistakes

    Of all my Fun Commandments, this one allows you to stop being so hard on yourself. Jerry Lewis once told me that he is always nervous before he goes on stage, but "the trick is to harness the fear and make it your ally." In other words, don't be afraid of your mistakes - welcome them! In fact, your mistakes can be so helpful to you that I suggest making them on purpose. You're going to make mistakes anyway. Making them on purpose helps you turn your fear into fun.



  5. Listen Very Carefully

    Of all my Fun Commandments, this one keeps you from being too self-centered. Successful comedians will tell you that the capacity to listen is their number one creative tool. Yet listening is an often overlooked and under taught skill and most of us are very poor at it, preferring to form our next phrases rather than hear what is being said to us. To really listen we must turn the volume down on our own internal chatter and this allows us to communicate from our hearts rather than our heads.



  6. Let Go Frequently

    Of all my Fun Commandments, this one provides you with serenity. If you've ever learned to juggle you quickly discovered that we all have a tendency to hold on to objects for too long. The same phenomenon occurs in life and, since we are all jugglers - juggling our family, our work, our community responsibilities, and our own care, letting go is a vital skill that will prevent stress and give peace of mind.


  7. Challenge Your Assumptions

    Of all my Fun Commandments, this one keeps you open minded and learning. It is also an effective way to bring humor into your life. We make assumptions because it saves us time and energy in our busy lives, but assumptions can keep us from growing and changing if we are not capable or willing to see new perspectives. Get in the habit of seeing things around you in a different way and your sense of humor will become supercharged.


  8. Stay Focused, Yet Flexible

    Of all my Fun Commandments, this one eases you through changes and transitions. This strategy is about keeping your priorities clear, but keeping your options open. You can't help but become an inspired opportunist when you develop a trait for seeing the victories inherent in what you used to call defeats. As you'll come to find out, this trait is shared by all successful people.


  9. Act and Interact with People

    Of all my Fun Commandments, this one gives you a constant and reliable source of amusement. Reaching out and touching someone is often a learned skill, but it pays big dividends. Realize that taking chances means you will make mistakes, but they will happen less often if you are willing to learn from them. You'll also find that a failed action is much more valuable to your health and success than a failure to act.


  10. Practice Wanting What You Have, Rather Than Getting What You Want

    Of all my Fun Commandments, this one helps you attract, and hold on to, abundance. One of the great paradoxes of life is that, as long as you try to fill your inner void with things outside yourself, your void only gets bigger. Learning to love what we have and who we are - right now - opens us up to receive so much more, because we want things for the right reason. We're no longer trying to "fix" ourselves.



  11. Choose to Motivate Yourself With Fun Rather Than Fear

    Of all my Fun Commandments, this one teaches you how to set goals and achieve them. You really only have the choices of fun or fear when it comes to motivation and they both work well. The problem, however, with choosing fear is that it is impossible to sustain the motivation without harming ourselves through burn-out and stress. Choosing fun to motivate ourselves is the simple difference of striving toward positive goals, rather than escaping negative ones.


  12. Celebrate Everything

    Of all my Fun Commandments, this one provides you with abundant joy every day. If you make a practice of celebrating events you normally treated as mundane, you will be filled with an energy and spirit that you haven't felt since childhood. Left to choose between feeling like a jaded pessimist or a naive optimist (of course, I'm using two extremes as examples), why wouldn't you choose the latter? Either way, your life will still unfold around you - but you will see it as a gift.


Your Three-Step Process to Soup-Up Your Personal and Professional Life, No Matter How Well It's Going Now!

  1. Subscribe to Dr. Kuhn's Fun Times newsletter. The Fun Times is all about using your natural power of humor to increase the quality of your life - especially your health and success. The Fun Times is 100% free, and is delivered instantly, every week, to your email inbox. If you sign up now, I'll also throw in a copy of my "Stop Your Seriousness" Ecourse and my book, Ten Ways You Can Be Happier...Right Now! which will show you how you can use my Fun Factor prescription in your life to increase your success and health!


  2. Check out The Fun Factor. This prescription has changed so many lives for the better - it would be a shame if you passed it up. Check it out here if you're sick of wishing about finally fulfillling your potential!


  3. Make a commitment to consciously focus on one of Dr. Kuhn's Fun Commandments each day. If you are like most people, you'll find that each of his Fun Commandments holds a special relevance in almost any situation. You'll realize that the natural medicine of humor really can do everything for you that Dr. Kuhn promises because it changes you from the inside out!




Cliff Kuhn, M.D.
The Laugh Doctor

The Natural Medicine of Humor
"Discover a unique, FREE, and incredibly powerful prescription created out of desperation by a (formerly) stressed-out Kentucky psychiatrist"

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Sunday, February 6, 2005

The Natural Medicine Of Humor Is Worth Much More Than "30 Pieces Of Silver"!

Thirty pieces of silver - that's what Judas was paid by the Jewish elders for his betrayal of Jesus, according to the New Testament. While the phrase "piece of silver" was commonly used to describe a variety of coins from Jesus' era, we can assume that Judas committed his betrayal for a pittance. The term "thirty pieces of silver" has become part of our lexicon now, symbolizing the price of betrayal.



How may times have we sold ourselves out for thirty pieces of silver? Betraying our true nature and values is such a common foible that I made Tell the Truth one of my Fun Commandments. Ignoring this Commandment exacts a high toll on our humor nature, but abiding by it pays big dividends.



As a physician I know I don't have sole custody of the truth; according to my wife, I'm lucky to get occasional visiting rights! But I do know this: we all know more truth about ourselves than we're letting on. It's hard to admit to ourselves that we are inconsistent, absurd, and sometimes dead wrong - let alone revealing that to another.



Our humor nature can calm such fears because it like us just the way we are. It loves our inconsistencies, thrives on our incongruities, and celebrates our foolishness. Our humor nature will not join us in our efforts to be false because it loves and respects us too much to sell us
out
.



Therefore, if you make the effort to be true to yourself you will strengthen your humor nature. And, in a delightful snowball effect, when your humor nature is strengthened you will find it that much easier to be true to yourself! Yep, when it comes to telling yourself the truth, each act reinforces the next!



It's about time you faced a fact - you are a very special person! What's not to trust? You are worth celebrating. Besides, as I realized some time ago, who's going to put up with you unless you set the example for them?




To begin being true to yourself and stop selling yourself out, complete the following three questions:





  1. The purpose of my life is:




  2. I have been placed in this situation in order to:




  3. My highest priorities today are:


    A.


    B.


    C.






Here's one more tip. As you answer those questions, don't linger over the negative, stressful feelings. Practice the "catch-and-release" technique taught in meditation; acknowledge the negative feelings only long enough to release them. That way you will not deny your negatives, but you will also not allow them to taint your true values and priorities.



By the way, just as you have regretted selling yourself out, Judas apparently deeply regretted betraying his friend. According to one tradition, Judas returned the money to the Jewish elders before hanging himself. The money was then used to buy a field where the poor could be buried.



Don't wait until your regret becomes that overwhelming! Start telling the truth today and use your strengthened humor nature to abide by it! I'll be interested in your results!




FYI - In response to some requests I have just written an article about my Fun Commandments. You can read it by visiting the article's page on my website.



Cliff Kuhn, M.D.

The Laugh Doctor



The Natural Medicine of Humor

"Discover a unique, FREE, and incredibly powerful prescription created out of desperation by a (formerly) stressed-out Kentucky psychiatrist"



The Blog Directory



Listed on Blogwise

Thursday, February 3, 2005

The Natural Medicine Of Humor Will Keep You From Jumping Off That Cliff

"Don't be a lemming" is a phrase we're all familiar with. This comes from the lemming's (those cute, furry, little rodents who live in Arctic regions) propensity to commit mass suicide - following each other blindly off cliffs to their death in the sea below.



But did you know that "lemming suicide" is a myth most likely traced to Walt Disney? I'll explain more in a moment...



Natural medicine is a hot topic. There are more than enough websites, newsletters, and products offering solutions to your ailments to keep you busy for a year investigating them. The advent of the Internet has made it easier than ever to research and try alternative or adjunctive treatments. You no longer need to an entire afternoon waiting in a doctor's office to remedy many of your symptoms because reliable, reputable purveyors of proven natural medicines are all around you.



Luckily for you, you already possess the most powerful natural medicine on earth. You carry this medicine around in your own chemistry and its benefits are unparalleled. While I would never recommend that you discard traditional medicine (I am a medical doctor, for goodness sake!), I do know beyond a shadow of a doubt that maximizing the amazing, free natural medicine of humor can solve a wide array of medical and personal problems.



No other doctor in the world has the credentials I have to teach you about this particular application of the free natural medicine of humor. Having discovered the power of humor twenty-five years ago while working with a terminally-ill cancer patient, I have spent more than two decades researching, fine-tuning, and prescribing humor in an amazingly diverse array of personal and medical applications. You will soon discover that you can use the free natural medicine of humor to skyrocket your relationships, your career, your stress management, your weight loss, your mental health, your fitness program, your parenting, your sexual health and more, because humor is powerful, abundant, free, and always accessible to you.



After decades of research, I can teach you how to turn on humor's amazing power as easily as flicking on a light switch. From working as a performing comedian on the national Comedy Caravan tour to developing intimate, working relationships with great humor/practitioners like famous comedian Jerry Lewis, I have learned how you can infuse your personal and professional life with such an amazing level of resilience and energy that you will feel reborn - no matter how successful you are now!



In this article I will outline the third main reason that the free natural medicine of humor is far superior to any other medicine, natural or otherwise. (The other two main reasons are covered in my last two blog posts)



Humor Is An Attitude, Not An Action




The best part of using the free natural medicine of humor, for many people, is that you can do it whether or not you're a funny person capable of telling jokes and making others laugh. Don't worry if you're "not funny" or are not the "life of the party"; you do not need to be funny to use the natural medicine of humor because humor is an attitude, not an action.



As you internalize my Fun Commandments, you will see that the benefits come almost entirely from your own shifting paradigms and not your outward actions. You will encounter many situations where everyone else is (literally) "deathly serious" and jokes would be inappropriate, but you will still be infused with an amazing, private energy because you will be smiling on the inside! You may never become good at making other people laugh; yet you will be laughing with yourself everyday because your spirit has been transformed by the free natural medicine of humor.



I'm sure you're realizing the implications of humor as an attitude rather than an action. First, you are always in control of your attitudes; simply by intently focusing on my Fun Commandments you will find yourself brimming with opportunities to capitalize on humor's natural power. Second, although jokes and laughter are sometimes not appropriate, having a light attitude always is - regardless of your circumstances. After some practice you will be filled with energy, creativity, zest, and vitality during circumstances that would've ordinarily drained and defeated you!



My unique prescription, The Fun Factor, unlocks the free natural medicine of humor and is one prescription that refills itself daily, especially when you are receiving my newsletter, The Fun Times. The Fun Times has the largest circulation of any newsletter in its industry and serves as a strong weekly reminder to use humor's power throughout your personal and professional life.



By the way, lemming populations do explode in number every four years. So, with 100 million lemmings running around, it is concievable that a few get pushed off a cliff - accidentally. The whole "lemming suicide" myth, however, originates from a 1958 Disney film called "White Wilderness." In "White Wilderness," the production team captured hundreds of lemmings, took them to the filming location, and chased them off a cliff to create a dramatic scene. And the legend was born!



You, of course, do not have to be a lemming; you don't have to follow the crowd and adopt deadly seriousness. You now have a blueprint for taking yourself lightly and unleashing a torent of energy, vitality, zest, and creativity. See you at my website!



Cliff Kuhn, M.D.

The Laugh Doctor



The Natural Medicine of Humor

"Discover a unique, FREE, and incredibly powerful prescription created out of desperation by a (formerly) stressed-out Kentucky psychiatrist"



The Blog Directory



Listed on Blogwise