by Karyn Buxman

We come into this world laughing.  Any parent can tell you about the joy of babies laughing, for no known reason save the joy of it. As children age, they keep on laughing: on average, kids laugh 300 times a day.  Yet the older we get, the less we laugh. The average adult laughs 15 times a day
-- a 95% reduction from the carefree days of childhood.

Where have the giggles gone? Did the chuckles canter away, leaving humor high and dry? Have our high-stress, high-tension lifestyles made it impossible to laugh? Some people think so.  Yet these same people acknowledge that humor is one of the most affordable, accessible stress relief tools going.  With that in mind, we have to ask: why aren't adults laughing -- even half as much as we used to when we were children?

One of the reasons we don't do things -- any thing -- is that we're afraid.  We're afraid of being bitten, so we don't pet the dog.  We're afraid of being rejected, so we don't ask the pretty girl or handsome guy out.  We're afraid of getting audited, so we don't underreport our income every April 15.  Every action has a potentially negative consequence, and it's fear of those consequences that keep us from acting.

What are we afraid of when we don't laugh? Here are the top three fears, things that make people hold in the laughs -- even when they want to.

I don't want to be the only one laughing: What would happen if you laughed and no one else did? Would you be judged by your friends, your peers, your family members? Would they think you were dumb, gauche, unsophisticated, mean? The fear of being the only one to laugh is strong and pervasive.
Many people will only laugh after someone else has, letting someone else 'shoulder the burden' of laughing first.

Concerns about professionalism plague many would be laughers.  Our jobs dominate our lives: we spend far more time at work than we do with our families or friends. With our financial security dependent upon our work, and a dour economic picture, the need to laugh gets pushed off of center stage. Many people worry that the occasional giggle would destroy their professionalism.

Concern over being seen as 'mean' stops many people, who are confused about the difference between therapeutic, appropriate humor, and the taunting, teasing, sarcasm that we first encountered in the school yard.  Obviously, we should not be using humor to inflict pain; there is plenty to laugh at in this universe without targeting other people.
Make yourself aware of the difference, and diligently practice the former.  You 'll find you won't have to worry about the latter -- it will feel 'wrong' when you use mean spirited, negative jokes.

Need a quick laugh? Check out The Journal of Nursing Jocularity: It's full of
(http://www.journalofnursingjocularity.com/2009/07/20/jnj-talks-to-gina-barecca/) nursing humor , nurse horoscopes, nurse jokes, and
(http://www.journalofnursingjocularity.com/category/humor/hysterical-stories/) hysterical nursing stories!  It's laugh out loud humor!

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