Humor for Taking Back Your Personal PowerHeather Callaghan 2. Humor Keep a sense of humor, especially about yourself, it is a strength beyond all measure Humor breeds life, acceptance and personal power. It is freeing and absent of fear. You wont find much of it in strict, punitive, controlling regimes often found in the following institutions: Why do you think that is? Humor cannot coexist with the force of control. Because it aids in acceptance or integration, you will see a weaker version of it in the entertainment industry. Weak because the purpose is to accept something unpalatable. That can be anything between full-blown propaganda to embarrassingly bad commercial advertisements. After talking about that, he writes: On the other hand, like love, laughterheals because it arises through viewing asmall context from a larger and moreinclusive one, which removes theobserver from the victim posture. Everyjoke reminds us that our reality istranscendent, beyond the specifics ofevents. Gallows humor, for instance, isbased on the juxtaposition of theopposites of a paradox; the relief of basicanxiety then results in a laugh. One of thefrequent accompaniments of suddenenlightening realizations is laughter. Thecosmic joke is the side-by-sidecomparison of illusion with reality. Humorlessness, in contrast, is inimical tohealth and happiness. Totalitariansystems are notably devoid of humor atany level. Laughter, which bringsacceptance and freedom, is a threat totheir rule through force and intimidation;it is hard to oppress people who have agood sense of humor. Beware thehumorless, whether in a person,institution or belief system; it is alwaysaccompanied by an impulse to controland dominate, even if its proclaimedobjective is to create prosperity or peace. Having a sense of humor with oneself can bring acceptance of all forms; and, as Hawkins says, removes one from the victim stance. There are plenty of studies done about humor and health. One anecdote comes from the movie The Secret, where a woman healed herself completely of breast cancer after shutting out external influence and stress and watching comedy with her husband. She didnt use any chemo, cutting or radiation. Just humor. If you want to infuse more humor into your activism, consider a book called Comedy Writing Secrets. Heather Callaghan is a natural health blogger and food freedom activist. You can see her work atNaturalBlaze.com and selfnewsPost.com. Like at Facebook. Read Other Articles by Heather Callaghan 