Catching up with Karyn

Later this week, I'm appearing in Chicago, where things have been, as you may have heard, a little chilly lately. Just the thought of confronting sub-zero temperatures and the need to take precautions against frostbite is enough to stress this California girl out - but what can you do? Work still needs to get done, even when the weather's not cooperating.

Humor is power. It helps us build emotional resiliency, preparing us to better face things like -45 degree weather. I believe this. The research supports this. I tell people of all types - business leaders, nurses, health care systems administrators, students, teachers - how to use humor to prepare them to tackle even the most challenging thing.

But there's just one problem. I couldn't think of a single funny thing about extreme cold weather. Perhaps I had a frozen funny bone. It happens.

That's when I turned to my trusty friend, the Internet. At times like this, when you really need a laugh, Google Image Search is truly your...

48 hours out is when the freakouts start. There are two types of holiday freakouts.

The first one is exhibited by the Type A personality who started shopping way back in June, put up their decorations two minutes after Thanksgiving was officially done, and STILL haven't gotten everything they need to get to  make this holiday absolutely perfect...do you know how hard it is to find purple sequined Santa hats in this world, people?

The second type of holiday freakout is exhibited by people who haven't started yet. Even though retailers have been pushing the message that Christmas is coming pretty well continually for 6 months now, these folks completely failed to get it. Christmas sneaks up on them, surprising them all at once with its imminent arrival.

Whichever type of holiday freakout you're currently experiencing, you can get over it faster with laughter. Smiles and laughs can diminish muscle tension.  They’re also contagious.  Practice wearing a smile to...

Kids realize something that we have forgotten as adults: The power of play. Don’t take the holidays so seriously that you have no time to sing, dance, play—even jump on your bed! Make time to play everyday, even if it’s only for 30 minutes.

If you have kids around, grab them and head outside. If there's snow. make a snowman! If there's no snow, choose a more active game. Expending the excess energy the kids have stored up means they'll sleep better at night - great for your stress!

Play invigorates the body, challenges the mind, and lifts the spirit. If there's one gift you absolutely need to give yourself this holiday season, it's PLAYTIME!

The holidays mean gathering with our family and friends - and that means that unless you've recently purchased a teleporter, you're going to spend some time on the highway with lots of other people who have all promised that they'll be home for Christmas.

Talk about stressful!  If you get stuck in traffic, take this as an opportunity to reframe. Take a deep breath and visualize the person behind you - the guy compulsively honking his horn --  driving in his underwear.  Imagine the look on his face when he unwraps a sack full of coal and rocks.  At all costs, keep your sense of humor!

Airports can be stressful as well. Bear in mind that while humor can make the hassles of travel easier to bear, you want to exercise some judgement about when and where it's appropriate to joke. TSA agents, for example, are not well known for their sense of humor. This fact is not likely to change during the busiest travel days of the year!

Many of the frustrations of travel are...

At this point in the Christmas Countdown, I'd like to stop and say "AAAAAAAAAAAAARRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH! One week until Christmas! What are we going to do?"

There's a reason for that. And the reason is that no matter how good your stress management skills may be, there is going to be a time where they just going to work. We fight stress, and frankly, sometimes stress wins.

Have you ever had the experience of knowing you were just stressed out to the max? That you knew, with absolute certainty, that while you could easily handle everything that was going on in life right that minute, the addition of any additional bit of pressure to your life would push you right over the edge?

That is the moment your child will discover he is virulently allergic to fruitcake - having 'sampled' some he found in the box of last year's holiday decorations. You can imagine the mess. We're talking ho-ho-oh no vomit here - a sight which sends your Very Helpful Mother-in-Law into overdrive, with...

After my piece on Grati-tweets and Grati-texts, I received an outpouring of emails, texts, and tweets from folks expressing their appreciation of me—wow! It felt great! One loyal reader, Deborah, told me how she’d sent a grati-text to a mentor who lived in another state. The mentor texted back how timely her message was. She’d had a difficult and emotional day and thanked her profusely for her thoughtfulness.

On the flip side, I received this response from a dear friend: “Dearest Karyn, I just wanted to let you know that I believe in the power of gratitude, certainly in the power of laughter and optimism, and HATED your suggestions!”

She went on to explain that she was not just low-tech, but NO-tech. She didn’t open e-cards, refused to text and had no social media accounts—not one!

I LOVED her note! (It’s so awesome when your audience makes your segue for you!) And because one size does NOT fit all, here are 6 tips for showing your...

Well, this morning, the FDA has come out and announced that - even though it seems inconceivable that such a thing could be true! - foods rich in trans-fats, which constitute a good portion of the most awesome food groups - fast and fried - might not, in fact, be good for you. Eliminating these foods from our collective food supply is said to be a lifesaving move, one that will have a positive impact on the rates of heart disease and hypertension we're seeing across the nation.

But I have to say, there may be a problem with this plan. Those trans-fat loaded foods are many people's favorite comfort foods. When we're down, when we're having a rough day, it's not inconceivable that there's comfort to be found in the familiar flavors of a cheeseburger and fries. If that's no longer an option, what can you do to lift your spirits instead?

Laughter is an ideal alternative: it's completely calorie (and trans-fat!) free. Sure, it won't help to laugh when you're hungry. You'll still want to...

Every day, Amanda goes for a walk near her San Diego home. The thirty-two year old has Type 2 diabetes, and regular exercise helps her keep healthy. "I can't say I go anywhere in particular," she said. "I just head for the beach and start walking." Along the way, she listens to audiobooks. "Only funny stuff," Amanda's quick to point out. "Right now, I'm listening to David Sedaris' latest book. Walking makes me feel good, laughing makes me feel good, so I figured why not combine the two?"

Amanda may be on to something. Humor has a vital role to play in helping people with diabetes live happier, healthier lives. Laughing regularly improves the mood and has been found to contribute toward a more positive mindset. There are also very real, very physical benefits to laughter. Enjoying humor lowers the blood pressure, improves circulation, and can even help minimizing post-meal blood sugar spikes.

Laughing regularly is an easy, fun, free way to improve your health. But sometimes those...

Hi Tom!

First of all - I love your work. Over the years, your appearances have amazed me. You've made my heart ache, you've made me think, and most of all, you've made me laugh. In the wake of your announcement that you have been diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes, it's the laughter I want to talk to you about.

As a talented comic actor, you know how humor can be used to accomplish many things. Laughter brings people together, creating bonds between people who might otherwise have nothing in common. Humor can make communication easier, by lowering the barriers raised by class or socio-economic status: we are all the same when we laugh.

Humor is powerful. Ridicule can topple the powerful, comfort the down trodden, and cause the comfortable and complacent to reconsider everything they thought they knew about the world.

You knew this, of course. But did you know that humor can actually make managing your diabetes easier?  It's true. For many years now - just about as long as you've...

Women are the world's best multi-taskers. We have to be. Look at our schedules. If we took the typical woman's day - especially if she's a member of the Sandwich Generation, caring for her children and her parents - and calculated how long it would take to complete every item on the to-do list, one item at a time, the total would be something close to 647 hours!

There's no way to cram 647 hours worth of activity into a 24 hour day. But boy, do we try. So we multi-task.

No matter what we're doing, we're also doing something else.

While we're driving the kids to school, we're also putting together a grocery list and phoning in the prescription refills we'll have to pick up at the end of the day. And coordinating who's getting picked up after soccer practice and who needs a ride to clarinet class.

While we're in the office, we're doing our jobs - and also some freelance HR, smoothing over a conflict between two cranky colleagues who have to work together; fielding a call from the...