When I was doing some training for the United Nations in East Africa a while back, some friends and I got together one night at a house to watch a movie and make cookies.  The cookie dough never made it to the oven (a destination few cookie dough batches in my world meet) and the movie was interrupted several times by impromptu dancing.

We cranked some tunes on an IPod and boogied our butts around with big sloppy grins on our faces.  You can get a sense of what we were dancing to here.

After we’d eaten the raw cookie dough and I’d corrected the impression I’d made on a visiting Colombian woman that no, not all Canadians eat raw cookie dough, we called it a night.

I reached over to turn off the IPod whereupon my pal Melanda said, with raised eyebrows and a look of shock on her face Oh, I didn’t know it had an off switch.

I continued chuckling for as long as my eyes stayed open that night.  I wondered about what role technology has come to play in our lives, about our 24/7 lifestyles, about expectations to not ever tune out, turn off, to always be on and available.

I wondered about my off switch as a trainer.  Training’s hard work and I’m a better trainer if I hit the off switch regularly and frequently.

When I relax, making cookie dough, dancing, listening to music, reading and walking/hiking about all call to me.  ‘Nuggles with my kids, gatherings with friends or a good movie all help that off switch stay off.

And you?  What helps you relax, tune out and turn off?

Having a happy disposition affects how long you live, up to 7 years longer than grumpy folk.

Researchers at Wayne Statue University in Michigan looked at 230 pictures of major league baseball players from 1952.  They categorized the pictures according to how much they were smiling and their laugh lines.  They then looked at life expectancy.

Players who were in the ‘no smile’ category lived about 72.9 years compared to those with had the biggest grins who lived 7 years longer to an average age of 79.9.  Remarkable how a slice in time from someone’s life (a mere snapshot) was adept at predicting longevity.

Laughter and smiling are universal.  We learn to laugh before we learn to walk or talk.

The ancient Greeks were onto this when they built their hospitals beside the theatres.  They knew that  patients got better faster if they watched comedies while they were convalescing.

Today we call it bio-psychoimmunology – a mouthful meaning our brains aren’t nearly as smart as we think they are.  Laugh or smile even when you don’t feel like it and the benefits to your psyche and your body are the same.  Your brain can’t tell when your laugh is real or not and regardless, releases a flood of hormones that make you feel better, lowers your blood pressure, massages your internal organs and more.

Sobering if it weren’t so funny.  The old adage ‘put on a happy face’ has some merit after all.

Arlene Dickinson is smart, savvy and easy to listen to.  She’s CEO of Venture Communications, ‘one of Canada’s largest marketing firms’.

At a recent talk she gave, she was asked for her top advice.  Here  it is, plain and simple.

‘Thank god you don’t live in Haiti [or more recently earthquake stricken Chile].  We are blessed to live in this country.’

More specifically:

- ‘opportunities exist to get through tough times, we have freedom and democracy, we have so much’

- ‘we have to look forward, that’s what entrepreneurs do, make it happen, there’s always a market’

- ‘it’s a marathon not a sprint – take care of your diet, sleep and exercise – stay healthy.  The average millionaire in the US dies at the age of 60′

Are you sprinting or in it for the marathon?  How do yo know?

Like this post?  Here are two more about Arlene’s business philosophy.