Catching up with Karyn

Growing Up

My story begins with being a nurse. Growing up, I always wanted to follow in the footsteps of my mom and dad.  Both were medical professionals. I felt that helping other people was my calling – so you could say that nursing was always in the cards for me.

Within nursing, I’ve worked in the OR, ER, home health, hospice, and much more! (I know what you’re  thinking…”She couldn’t hold a job?”). It wasn’t that I felt more at home in one area than another; it was actually quite the opposite - each job was a great fit for me! I attributed this to one particular constant in my life: I LOVED learning. After mastering one skill, I was on to the next learning opportunity. This passion for knowledge eventually led me back to school to earn my master’s degree, where I discovered my true calling.

My Passion

I was knee-deep in research when I stumbled upon a small paragraph in a journal. It was about a nurse...

Stress is a HUGE problem in America.

A recent Gallup study revealed 8 in 10 Americans are afflicted by stress! So how can Americans begin to reverse this trend and reduce their stress levels? An easy way to start is with humor!

You might be thinking…

Stress relief from laughter? Really, Karyn?

It’s no joke!

Now, a good laugh isn’t going to cure all ailments, but it certainly helps most! Here are some of the short and long-term benefits of laughter (Mayo Clinic):

Short-Term

• Stimulates many organs (heart, lungs, muscles) – laughter increases your intake of oxygen-rich air, which stimulates your heart, lungs, and muscles!
• Activates and relieves your stress response – laughter cools down your stress response, giving you a nice, relaxed feeling
• Soothes tension – laughter can stimulate circulation and reduce some of the physical stress symptoms (tight shoulders/neck, jaw, back, and chest)

Laughter can also provide some benefits over time. Check out...

There’s a little part of your brain called the reticular activating system (ARAS) which acts as a filter for finding funny!

When you make finding humor intentional, your brain will start showing you things you’ve found amusing in the past.

It’s kind of like the internet!

Have you ever been shopping for something on the internet? Let’s say some shoes.

You do your research and think about buying them. Then decide, well…I really don’t have the cash flow right now; I think I’ll hold off.

Then you close the page and go to one of your favorite news websites…

BOOM! There’s an ad with those shoes staring right at you!

That’s kind of what the reticular activating system is doing for your brain. Oh, you found something funny over here, well check this out!

The key is to be intentional!

If you set your intention on seeing more humor, your reticular activating system will show it to you more often!

Pretty cool if you ask me!

If you...

So, you want to make people laugh, huh? That’s easy! Okay, maybe not. But don’t worry! I’m here to help. Let’s dive into some scenarios and I’ll give you some things to keep in mind before your meeting, performance, company party, or whatever you’ve got going on! 

There are a lot of steps to leveraging other people’s laughter. So, let’s break it down. 

What’s the setting?

• Are you in a meeting?
• Are you performing?
• Are you at work?
• Are you at a company party?

The setting matters! Things that are allowed to be said during a performance versus a business meeting are COMPLETELY different.

Be sure to keep in mind: 

1. Where you are
2. Who you’re with

Before letting all of your family holiday party jokes fly, consider your audience. If you have to think about whether or not something is appropriate—play it safe and leave it out. You’re a creative person! Find a better alternative.

Details, Details,...

When I’m speaking to nursing and healthcare professionals, certain issues are always top of mind for my audience. At a macro level, their major concerns revolve around the state of flux in healthcare today.

On a day-to-day level, their concerns turn toward stress related to

• High workloads (too much to do, not enough time to do it)
• Poor communication (I know you think you understand what you thought I said…)
• The competitiveness of the job market (recruitment/retention)

But I can help!

I come in and talk to leaders in organizations or staff about how to take better care of themselves, so that they, in turn, can take better care of others.

The two main ideas of this talk are

1. Stress management/self-care

2. Wellness

You don’t want someone taking care of you or a loved one who’s stressed out, sick or tired.

Why?

If the answer isn’t obvious enough, studies (NCBI.gov) have shown that people who are stressed tend to:

• make more mistakes
• give the wrong...

My friend and fellow medical professional, Dr. Lee Berk said it best when he said: “if we took what we now know about laughter and bottled it up it would require FDA approval.” It’s true that when we laugh, we feel better. There’s a reason why Facebook is clogged with funny cat videos and those “fail” videos that always seem to hurt a little but ultimately are just there to make us laugh. 

So, my question to you is, would you rather go to the gym and sit on the rowing machine for 30 minutes, or would you rather sit down on your couch and put on a really funny movie? Now, I’m not judging if you chose to go to the gym, but I feel like most people out there (including myself) would decide to put on their favorite, belly-ache inducing, movie and call it a day.

The effects of good belly-ache, top of your lungs, barely-getting-any-air-into-your-lungs laughter can be seen in the immune system and even the cardiovascular system. It’s...

Think about what you’re looking for in a partner or influencer. Odds are you’re looking for someone with a good sense of humor, and if you did, you’re not alone. A sense of humor is on the list of top three traits that someone is looking for in another person. So, why not make sure that you are the person someone else is looking for by being as humorous as you can be!

So, for this video, I want to talk about how you can use humor as a tool to persuade, educate and defuse a situation and make you an overall better human being; basically, I’m going to teach you how to be an excellent influencer. If you’re able to use humor to persuade someone to do something that means you’ve mastered being likable and you’ve also established yourself as someone who has some authority—which is something we should strive for in our work environments, no matter what position you hold.

Not only can humor be a tool to establish authority, but it can...

Are you funny? Do people laugh with or at you? Or maybe you just want to be funny or simply, be funnier? Maybe you want to make people laugh without having to try so hard to be funny. If you can identify with any of these questions, you're in the right spot because I'm going to try my best to address these questions in today's video.

If you've gotten this far into my video series, odds are you're already familiar with your humor quotient and how it can help you with your goals to be a better humorist. It also is going to help you apply humor in your everyday life, but why is that so important?  Whether you're using humor to influence or get closer to your family, friends or at work, you're using it for a reason, and I want to make sure that you're able to be as effective as possible without having to put too much effort in. Applying humor to make someone or a group of people feel good is obviously going to boost morale where ever you are, and it's important that you know that...

What if there was a way to improve your health and well-being without having to watch what you eat or go to the gym? No, this isn’t some fad diet (those never work, just so you know). What I’m talking about is using humor as a way to not only make your personal life better but also to make you feel better. It’s no surprise (to me at least) that laughing makes you feel better-- so it’s essential that we use humor every day to make ourselves, and the people around us, feel better.

In order for you to know exactly where you stand with your humor, it’s important that you know your humor quotient which is something I talked about in my previous video. Your humor quotient is going to let you know how you’re able to appreciate humor and how you’re applying and effectively using humor to control a desired outcome.

But why does this all matter? Why should you want to use humor in your day-to-day? There are three main purposes of why you’d want...

Welcome back! Can I safely assume, since you are excellent humor scholars, that you’ve taken the humor quotient test that I talked about in last week’s video? If you haven’t, go back to last week’s post, then come back and join us!

If you have taken the humor quotient test, excellent! Now, you’re probably wondering what you’re supposed to do with the numbers that you got back. This is where some high school math comes in (I know, it’s been a while). What we’re going to do is graph those numbers, and then you’ll be able to see where you lie in terms of appreciating and applying your humor.

If you find yourself in the bottom left quadrant, you might believe that humor isn’t a crucial part of improving both your professional and personal life! Now, if this is where you landed on the grid, don’t be discouraged—there is always room for improvement no matter where you are on the graph! That’s right. Even if...