Now, a recent study from cardiologists at the University of Maryland, has shown that laughter may have a beneficial effect on the heart.

Sometimes it takes ten seconds to see some humor in your dilemmas, sometimes ten years.

The tragedy of September 11th was so sudden, so enormous, and so horrendous, both in terms of lives lost and global consequences, that this country and the world went into immediate and prolonged shock.

Since the goal of my programs is to show audiences how humor can both help them heal as well as deal with not-so-funny stuff, I decided to discuss the events of the previous week, the pain all of us were feeling, and how humor and some laughter might be beneficial.

When you do find humor in trying times, one of the first and most important changes you experience is that you see your perplexing problems in a new way - you suddenly have a new perspective on them.

The studies indicate that focusing our attention on someone else, takes our mind off of our own problems. We stay healthier and thereby live longer.

Our attitudes are the crayons that color our world.