Humour & Hunger!

My greatest challenge has been to develop a sense of humour, and still I struggle to achieve this essential element. I am by nature serious, dedicated and diligent in my endeavours. Laughter and fun and a great sense of humour are admiral qualities and should be extolled. People who laugh more and find the funny side of life, tend to acknowledge and celebrate their achievements more readily, and are able to laugh at themselves when life throws them a curve ball. Mistakes and mishaps are always less embarrassing when you can perceive them through the lens of humour.

There are a few times in my life, when I have literally fallen over my feet and landed on my face in complete mortification. With time and perspective, I’ve been able to view these embarrassing moments as amusing. Had I been able to see the funny side of things earlier in my life, the hard surface of the ground would have been softened, and the dents and knocks to my ego, lessened.

The ability to perceive and appreciate life through humour, allows a person to heal from the harshest of life’s lessons .....in the most extraordinary way. Humour is more than just being able to laugh out loud, it’s a state of mind that allows us to see things in a different perspective. It allows us to appreciate the harshness of life without causing ourselves undue strife and stress, and it allows us to celebrate the fun things in life with pure unadulterated joy!

Being physically hungry can cause even the most positive person to lose their sense of humour. When you experience real physical hunger, all other needs and appetites are forgotten in the desire and need to satisfy your body’s hunger. The difference between real body hunger and just feeding one’s appetite is a fine line between understanding whether you are eating to satisfy body hunger, or whether you are trying to appease an emotional hunger or uplift your mood and disposition.

If you eat a slice of chocolate cake after a three course meal, then you are satisfying your appetite for a delicious treat, rather than a physical need. If you consume three bars of chocolate, one after another, then you are probably trying to uplift your mood or improve your disposition, rather than satisfying your body’s need for food.

Because even the slightest twinge of body hunger, can seriously effect our mood, we tend to pre-empt this from happening by consuming in larger quantities just to maintain our current disposition.

There is a simple test to do to discover if you are experiencing physical hunger or an appetite you want to appease. First, have a glass of water, about 70% of what we perceive of as body hunger, is actually thirst, unless we drink adequate amounts of water throughout the entire day. If after 30 minutes there is still a gnawing need, check to see when last you ate something, and whether it was a light snack of an apple, or something more filling like a sandwich. If you haven’t eaten anything in the last 2 to 3 hours and your last meal was lacking in nutrition, you probably are physically hungry, so eat something more substantial and nutritious. If you have an idea or feeling that your ‘hunger’ is more emotional than physical, a simple distraction like phoning a friend, reading a book, a walk around the office, a 5 to 10 minute break from your routine doing anything physical: walking, skipping, jumping up and down, filing the paperwork on your desk, a walk to the copier, will usually work to distract you enough to help you forget your ‘perceived hunger’ and restore your balance. And if you are really hungry, physically in need of food, nothing will distract you long enough from your need, desire and eagerness to eat!

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