Laugh at Work Week (April 1-7)

Job stress got you down? Try laughing the tension away. Besides being fun, humor makes work seem less like work in a number of ways. Laughter stimulates the release of endorphins, which are your bodyÂ’s natural relaxants. A good laugh increases productivity, teamwork, employee retention, and job satisfaction. Humor also increases communication throughout the workplace and decreases stress levels.

Celebrate National Laugh at Work Week by bringing humor into your workday with these five tips from Jacki Kwan, humor therapist and author of Almost Home: Embracing the Magical Connection Between Positive Humor & Spirituality (Cameo Publications, $14.99, ISBN 0-9715739-1-3):

Listen to a funny audiotape or radio show on your drive to work. Then, remind yourself of the jokes you heard throughout the day.

•Clip a comic from the newspaper and post it on your desk or workspace. Pick a new comic every week to keep your spirits high.

•Share a joke with a co-worker. Make sure itÂ’s appropriate, of course, and it will keep you both in a good mood for the whole day.

Take a walk on your lunch break. Moving your body will lift your mood, get your blood pumping, and relieve tension.

•Get some funny props: a clown nose, a rubber chicken, an outrageous wig...

whatever keeps you laughing. Keep the props in a desk drawer and break them out when things get too serious.

When used appropriately, humor can give every situation a positive spin, even the stress of your workday. Let National Laugh at Work Week be your excuse to add some humor to your day. But donÂ’t stop there; use these tips throughout the year. Remember, positive humor has absolutely no negative side effects.

Since 1994, Jacki Kwan has helped people enjoy the positive effects of laughter as a licensed Social Worker at the Clinical Level, a Master Practitioner of Neuro-linguistic Programming, a Registered Laughter Leader with the World Laughter Tour, and a Therapeutic Clown. She uses humor to heal patients in assisted living facilities and nursing homes in the Washington, D.C. area