Amy Newmark's Blog - Posts Tagged "laughter"

Little did we know when we sent this book to the printer earlier this year that the world would soon be turned upside down. Our new normal is anything but normal.

Yet here we are trying to make the best out of a very tough situation. We hope this new book, Chicken Soup for the Soul: Laughter Is the Best Medicine: 101 Feel Good Stories, our first-ever collection of laugh out loud stories, will lighten the burden and inspire hope.

Here are previews of two of my favorite really funny stories from the book that are sure to put a smile on your face:

Technology can be truly scary.
In her story "Home Alone" Jennifer Clark Vihel was in her bathroom, with her very noisy fan going. But even so, she heard the intruder pounding on her bathroom door and could even see its shadow through the crack at the bottom of the door. Her dogs were outside and she was home alone. Jennifer armed herself with the only “weapon” she could find in the bathroom, a hair clip with a sharp metal point. She was afraid to turn off the fan because that would alert the intruder to her presence, but when she hadn’t heard the intruder pounding on the bathroom door for five minutes, Jennifer mustered her courage. She opened the bathroom door, armed with her hair-clip “dagger.” She was going to make a dash for her cell phone and call for help. And that’s when she found the intruder—her robot vacuum, silent now and stuck under the low crossbar of a chair.

Laughing at yourself is just as good as chocolate.
In Elynne Chaplik-Aleskow's story "Round Trip" she was on one of her many diets and for once she was doing great, having gone a whole month without chocolate. She even made her sister her accountability partner so she’d have to admit it if she cheated. But then one day Elynne was running an errand from work and as she walked down a main street in Chicago she stopped at a light right next to a Fannie May candy store. Elynne cracked; she pushed that revolving door, already tasting the delicious chocolate in her mind. But, as she tried to enter the store, the revolving door wouldn’t stop and she found herself right back on the sidewalk where she had started. Why? Because her sister had coincidentally been passing by at the exact moment that Elynne lost her resolve and had rushed into the door behind her and kept it turning. Elynne says, “We laughed so hard that my need for a chocolate fix passed… for the moment.”


Amy Newmark

With all that we are going through right now I think it's a good time to share some feel good stories from our first-ever humor collection, Chicken Soup for the Soul: Laughter is the Best Medicine: 101 Feel Good Stories

Did you know studies show that laughter does actually make you feel better? A good laugh boosts immunity, lowers stress, relaxes muscles and eases anxiety!

So give yourself permission to laugh when you read these stories... it will make you feel better!

Here's a preview of one of my favorite stories we all can relate to:

If you embarrass yourself in front of strangers, it doesn’t count.
In her story "Number 7" Lacey Bakker was excited about attending her nephew’s important soccer game; they were competing for a spot in the semi-finals. She got there early for the evening game and was happy to find nachos at the concession stand. That would be her dinner. Lacey found a seat and then found her nephew too, waving at number 7 enthusiastically. He didn’t wave back so eventually she stood up so he would see she was there, getting some cheese on her clothes in the process. But he still didn’t acknowledge her, even when an errant soccer ball flew into the stands, hitting her nachos. Now, Lacey was covered in chips and cheese, a total mess. She was mortified and slunk out of the stadium and back to her car. When she called her nephew the next day to apologize for being such an embarrassing aunt, he said, “What are you talking about? My game is tonight.”


Amy Newmark

I love to laugh... it makes me feel good! It's no surprise, studies support that laughing triggers the release of endorphins, the body's natural feel-good chemicals.

I am excited to share our NEW book, Chicken Soup for the Soul: Too Funny! This is our third humor book and I promise these 101 stories will make you laugh.

Here's a preview of two very funny stories from the book that we all can relate to:

The best way to get over total embarrassment is to tell everyone.
In her story "The Keys" Becky Campbell Smith was using her husband’s car to drive her daughter to camp, which gives her an excuse for what happened at the gas station that day. First, she realized she had no idea how to open the gas tank in his car, so while a woman waited impatiently behind her at the pumps, Becky called her husband.

That accomplished, Becky pumped her gas, but when it was time to leave she realized she had lost the keys to the car. At the gas station. While not moving. She had to go confess to the lady behind her that she wasn’t going anywhere, and the disgruntled lady backed up and switched to another line.

But a man pulled up behind Becky, so the pressure was still on. Becky and her daughter searched everywhere for the missing keys. Becky confessed to the man as well, but he stayed put, seeming to enjoy watching her humiliation.

Then a woman at an adjoining pump asked if she could help. Becky said yes, grateful to have a woman volunteer. And that’s when the woman found the keys in one second, hanging in the car door where Becky had left them when she opened the car to get her cell phone. She’d left the door open the whole time she was searching and never thought to peer around the other side of it because her normal car didn’t have keys that had to go in the door. The man behind her burst into applause, apparently pleased by Becky’s performance.

You can go too far with personal grooming.
In Pat Solstad's story "Lip Balm Addict" Pat is a self-proclaimed lip balm addict, so one particularly cold and dry day she applied her lip balm regularly while shopping at Walgreens. She always kept her lip balm loose in her purse so she could just reach in and grab it.

As she walked the aisles, Pat smiled at the other shoppers, but she noticed some of them were giving her peculiar looks. She thought that maybe they thought she was shoplifting because she kept reaching into her purse.

Even the cashier wouldn’t look Pat in the eye when she checked out. It was only when she got home and looked in the entryway mirror that she realized what had happened. She had been grabbing the wrong tube every time she reached into her purse. Her lips and the surrounding skin were liberally coated with red lipstick.



Amy Newmark