Stress

In the 1950's, an experiment took place that counted how many times people laughed each day.

The average result was 40 times.

A similar experiment was recently conducted and the results were astounding.

They showed that, average, we now laugh about 8 times per day.

The results of this survey prove that we are just not having as much fun as we used to.

There was once a traveler who wanted to understand how to ease his troubled life.

On his journeys, he met a woodcutter who was carrying timber on his back.

The traveler asked the woodcutter what the secret to life was. The woodcutter simply replied by dropping all of the timber that he was carrying.

He told the traveler that often through life we carry an unnecessary load. Many of our desires, ambitions, responsibilities and goals all add to our load without benefiting us very much.

Life should be played like a round of golf, simply because life is very much like this magical game.

On a golf course, there are 18 holes.

Some of these holes are short and should require only 3 shots to complete.

Others are slightly longer and challenging and require 4 shots to complete.

The remaining holes are the longest and, in many ways, the most challenging and require 5 shots to complete.

In many ways, this is like life. Some days are easy and are only a Par 3. Others are slightly more difficult but still within your control and are Par 4. Finally, there are some days which are just chaotic and it is a success if you get through them in one piece! These are Par 5 days.

Michel de Montaigne once said:

"My life has been filled with terrible misfortune; most of which never happened."

It has been estimated that 95% of the things that we worry about, never happen.

From the remaining 5% that justify worry, many of these are beyond our control.

We live in a society where we are encouraged to worry. We worry about our finances, our security and our safety. We are told that we are under attack and that our homelands are no longer safe.