World events and corporate calamities have overburdened many of us to extreme levels of stress. Hectic lifestyles and social pressures seem to conspire against us. Add the world’s traumatic political situation and combine it with three years of volatile stock markets, and it is easy to understand that stress is taking its toll. The problem is that many of these sources of discomfort are completely beyond our control.

Much stress can be averted through positive action rather than anticipation or prediction of world events. Focus on family, friends and career. These are the things that really matter. Other goals such as financial success, creativity and freedom will follow. Add a little humour to this recipe and you are bound for a gourmet life, filled with challenges and opportunities.

Humour is a great stress reliever. A recent study revealed that the average child of four years will laugh four hundred times in a day. The average adult will laugh a mere fifteen times over the course of a day. Try an experiment. Just start laughing. Laugh out loud at anything, just do it. Laugh until your stomach aches. When you are finished, you should see a positive mental shift.

We need to feel celebration in our daily lives. Forcing ourselves to be joyful is one way to take control and focus on things that are truly important. The awful financial stock markets will recover, and so will the gloomy world events become more stable. Living a life of amazingly funny abundance provides us with a sense of control and peace of mind that we all desire.

We are not trying to play psychologist here, but simply asking that you try to ease up on your feverish lifestyle. You can also call it simplifying your life. Don’t be swayed by the uncontrollable day to day disruptions that we all experience. Only then can you begin to relax and start laughing again.

This is a monthly article on financial planning. Call or write to Rick Sutherland CLU, CFP, FDS, R.F.P., of Fundex Investments with your topics of interest at 798-2421 or E-mail at rick@invested-interest.ca.