How to Enjoy Your Present this Christmas

By Cliff Kuhn, M.D.
The Laugh Doctor
"It all starts with a SMILE"

Merry Christmas everybody! More importantly though, merry
today! More on that later...

Did you ever beg your parents to let you open gifts before
Christmas morning? I was successful one year. I convinced my
mother to allow me to open my presents on Christmas Eve - but my
younger brother declined.

He was always smarter than me.

I tore through them in ecstasy. A child's dream! Then my
balloon deflated like someone had stuck a pin in it; Christmas
was over. By the time my brother was opening his gifts the next
morning I was in agony and tears, wishing I had waited. And I
learned a lesson that I've only just made sense of recently.

Christmas is certainly a children's holiday. What child doesn't
go ape over the idea of getting a bunch of presents? For many
families Christmas morning represents an orgy of gifts - and no
one denies the fun of being a child on Christmas morning, nor
the thrill of playing Santa either.

But do you ever remember feeling letdown after the presents were
opened? Maybe you still experience this. Many of us have felt
low after Christmas morning passes, even mildly depressed, and
here's where my lesson can help us.

And here's where your humor nature can help you put Christmas in
a more fun perspective.

That low feeling comes from something we were trained to do on
Christmas as children. As a child most of us were taught,
whether consciously or subtly, to focus on that one big event:
Christmas morning! Santa, toys, dreams coming true, a
cornucopia of gifts and candy, magic! It was all about that big
morning.

And that focus on Christmas morning unwittingly trained us to
lose our most precious gift: the opportunity to be fully alive
in this moment. Because we were so focused on the future, we
weren't fully present. You might say that we weren't fully
present because we were focused on the presents. Ho, ho, ho!

And once we lose our focus on this day, on this present moment,
we're sunk. Because happiness, joy, love, and freedom are found
right here and right now - not in the future. No event, not
even Christmas morning, can withstand the pressure of being
weighted with those expectations!

We always suffer when we make a future event responsible for
bringing us the joy and happiness we can only find today, in
this moment. Especially when we make Christmas Day
responsible. As you know from "It All Starts with a SMILE",
when you're not fully present in this moment, you've cut
yourself off from your most precious, God-given resource for
health, happiness, and joy. You've cut yourself off from your
humor nature.

So this Christmas, invite your humor nature into your life
today. You don't need to forgo Christmas morning, nor caroling,
gifts, playing Santa, sending cards, and extending Christmas joy
to friends and family. Just remember that your joy is found
today, not December 25th. And help reinforce that with the
young people in your life too.

You might find, by keeping your focus on today, you feel much
less of a letdown when Christmas Day passes. If you're like me,
you'll even find that you can enjoy Christmas Day much, much
more heartily. Without those massive expectations you once
unwittingly placed on it.

Bless you and yours this week. And don't just have a Merry
Christmas - have a merry TODAY!

Your Attention Please!

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Some Humor to Help You Smile

David Letterman

"Last Christmas I got no respect. I gave my kid a BB gun. He
gave me a sweatshirt with a bull's-eye on the back."

Rodney Dangerfield

Please - do your friends a favor! Send them
this newsletter or tell them to sign up for it
themselves by going to "http://www.natural-
humor-medicine.com/Fun_times.html" Let's
spread the happiness virus together!

Cliff Kuhn, M.D.
The Laugh Doctor
7406 Wesboro Road
Louisville, KY 40242
"It all starts with a SMILE"