"April Fool's" Special by Mike Montague-Optimism Guru, Lenny Ravich, Share's the Power of Humor in Healing

As is "April Fool's" Tradition, I exchanged an episode with my good Friend Mike Montague, and on this year's show he is offering up a terrific episode where he interviewed Optimism Guru Lenny Ravich, on the "power of humor-creativity-and-laughter in healing". it is fun, great information, and only available here or on Mikes podcast...check it out: The Playful Humans Podcast!

Host: Mike Montague

Transcript

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Mike Montague: 0:01

Hey everybody. Welcome to another playful humans podcast. I am your host, Mike Montague. And my guest this week is Lenny ravage. He's an optimism guru from Tel Aviv, and we're going to talk to him about his book, everlasting optimism. We'll talk to him about his Gestalt awareness, healing therapy, and all kinds of great stuff around humor, creativity and laughter. I'm really looking forward to this one you can find Lennie and Lennie ravage.org You can find playful humans at play where humans.com where we help other adults rediscover the power of lay all right, here we go. No wait bottom

Unknown: 1:04

making the best moves I've had from a guest so far. Congratulations. You're already winning the podcast here. But we'd like to start with the joke of the week. The joke of the week is brought to you by glass coffins will glass coffins be a success remains to be seen. But last conference All right, the official joke of the week

Lenny Ravich: 1:35

let me what is the funniest animal on the farm? A horse. The committee hen. Comedian hand. Okay, okay,

Mike Montague: 1:47

there's two, you got one coming

Lenny Ravich: 1:48

in even better than remains to be seen.

Mike Montague: 1:53

I kind of like the Gotham one better.

Lenny Ravich: 1:56

So my favorite joke. It's really not my favorite, but it is my favorite short one is this woman goes to a priest and she says I gotta get divorced from my husband. And the priest says why? And she says because he thinks he's a refrigerator. He gets up in the middle of the night and says I'm a refrigerator. So the priest says to the beat you, oh, was he abusive? No, no, he's a good man. He just thinks he's a refrigerator. So the priest says, we'll just accept them. And she's done that can Can't he sleeps with his mouth open. And the light bothers me.

Unknown: 2:34

Like that. It's good. Good, man. I'm just getting up. You're kind of getting ready to wrap up the day

Lenny Ravich: 2:42

over there. Right? So yeah, Tel Aviv.

Unknown: 2:46

But it's in the great mood, tell us how you become an optimism guru.

Lenny Ravich: 2:51

You say so. I mean, you just get up in the morning and you make a commitment that everything that happens today is going to be for the best. And you make a commitment. You know, you do that every day. It's a decision. So how do you become one you practice out? And how the Schwarzenegger get that body with the gym every day? So you get up every day and you look in the mirror and I say I'm, I'm 86 Okay, that's funny. So I say, I'm still here and I laugh. I really laugh at the mirror. I go. I'm still here. And I go out with a great feeling great energy and I make sure that nobody absolutely nobody can ruin my day. That's a commitment. Today is going to be a great day people ask me, how are you? My answer is always and they expect the answer. Now is my best moment. Because there is no other moment. One guy, a neighbor of mine, who was religious said to me, now is the best moment because there is no other moment. Something's wrong with you. Don't you ever watch the news? And I told my wife my wife doesn't watch the news. She videotapes, the news? She video the news so she can watch it again wife suffered just one time. And then she'll watch it again the week after and look at it and say boy, am I glad that's over. So there's another way of being optimistic. Looking at the news from the video with saying, Great, that's over.

Mike Montague: 4:35

That is an interesting way to look at it for sure. I'm with you. I feel like you already nailed several things we'd like to talk about on this podcast. But one for me is I think I jinxed us in 2020 I'm not joking March 8 of 2020. I got on stage in front of 1200 people and I said now is the best time to be alive. You know We have modern dentistry, we have all this opportunity. We have technology life is amazing. And then the next week the world shut down. But I still go with the thing that we wouldn't necessarily trade now for even five or 10 years ago because humans are always making progress. And we forget that we have always also worried about ending the world and the planet and it hasn't happened yet. 16 Are

Lenny Ravich: 5:31

you ready for this? Yeah. 988

Mike Montague: 5:39

saying I jinxed us again. I just did it again.

Lenny Ravich: 5:45

That was the best time and if you look back and, and history and you find all the diseases that we died from, and children in childbirth, and people who were in in poverty, and you look at the world today, we're really in a place of abundance right now. It's, it's never been this great all over the world. And people are getting out of poverty all the time. But people are just getting out of this poverty. And this is this another look at the victims and the people don't realize the hundreds and 1000s of millions of people who just died from disease. Just 100 years ago from the Spanish flu, they dropped like flies. Okay, and we're worried about Corona. I mean, do me a favor.

Mike Montague: 6:28

Yeah, I mean, even when chlorine and everything else, it's been the most peaceful, time to be alive to which is crazy to think. But just because we hear about more stories doesn't mean that there actually are more stories that that's well,

Lenny Ravich: 6:43

if it bleeds, it leads, you know, you're gonna watch TV, they're gonna show you what remains to be seen. They'll show you something that's happening. They'll take the camera and go right into some kind of a riot or some kind of violence. Oh, my God, what in the world is going crazy? This is what this is. What how do they sell peanut butter?

Mike Montague: 7:04

So I want to dive in with you. Because I feel like you're an expert here. You had a school for quite a long time. I'd love to hear more about your background too. So we'll we'll circle back to that. But I want to ask you about healing therapy via humor, creativity and laughter. Seems like I would rather choose those three then surgery pills and whatever else. The options are. Any kind of drugs or alcohol. So how come more people don't do that.

Lenny Ravich: 7:36

More people don't join

Mike Montague: 7:39

he'll through laughter, creativity and humor. I don't know

Lenny Ravich: 7:43

how people don't do it. My experience is that more and more people are. I mean, when I first started out back in 93, when people were laughing, but they were laughing at me. Even suggesting that I was gonna go out and teach people have a laugh and I have humor and out of be an optimist. They were laughing at me now you have all over the world. Just check it out. You'll go laughter leaders all over the world. I belong to clubs that have yoga laughter leaders they get together. There's a teacher in India who is a doctor and he's sitting the pills just didn't help his patients. We took them out to the park and taught him how to laugh. He taught what is called Yoga laughter I studied with him his name was Bhutan. Kataria. I studied in the United States, I went to a place in the United States called me Apply. Apply humor and in therapy applied. At age, I can't. I used to go there every single year and give keynotes and listen to people listen to experiences and why so my experience is that more and more people are, you know getting bit by the bug of laughter, humor, optimism, and positivity. Positivity basically done research about other positive people live longer lives stronger, so why not? You know, so that's my experience.

Mike Montague: 9:11

I've heard all I've looked at the research and I've really been diving deep into this over the last few years, about about three years started a little before the pandemic but it really focused on on Play and creativity and humor, like you talked about here, the last three, and I found a couple of things to be interesting. I think the easiest explanation for me is that life is kind of like a Google search algorithm if you put in bad news you're gonna get bad news out of it. If you put in good news, you're gonna get good news out of it, your brain juices to see and give you more of what you're looking for and so does life. So is it more than that? Is there something magical or scientific even about it? optimism that creates these positive results, or is it basically you get what you asked for?

Unknown: 10:07

Yeah. Well, it's and and it's not either or, if you're talking about the science, yeah, you can look into the what happens when a person thinks positive thoughts or watch his positive movie or laughs There are endorphins in the body. And we will know all this, you've done the research and the endorphins, protect your health, they protect your immune system, they they make you feel good is dopamine. So why not, you know, go for those who have also in your body cortisol, which is a poison. Whenever you think of something bad or you're getting angry, or you're jealous of something or you're envious of your body produces cortisol, that that is a killer. And the antidote to that is laughter and humor and positivity. And I catch myself I mean, it's automatic, that you're gonna start thinking of bad stuff, it's automatic, you never get out of it, the only way you get out of it is remains to be seen when you get into that glass coffin. But it you know, I found myself all of a sudden thinking about something negative. And I said, going with it. The thing is, it's called mindfulness, you catch yourself. And you say, What am I thinking? What am I that? Is that going to help me? Is that going to improve my health? Is that going to advance me as a human being to make me more sensitive, more empathetic, more compassionate and kinder? Or is that going to ruin my day? I don't want it anymore. Get out of here, get another thought. You just have to keep catching yourself. If you get mindful enough, you can catch yourself because we're always thinking thoughts all the time. Some of the bad ones come sneaking in all the time. There's not a day that goes by, you know, it doesn't get me where you got to struggle to get out of your exam, easily throw it away. Let me have a good one. Okay. So it's that it's scientific. It's is what you look for. It's what you ask for, is what you're grateful for. I go swimming every day. And I'm in a state of grace, I swim and I'm going, thank you, your God, I am blessed. Thank you for abundance, substantial abundance of love, of optimism, of humor, of wealth of health. You know, you think that way, like you said, in Google, what you what you put in is what you get out. Okay, so I'm 86 years old, and I laugh a lot. As much as possible. I teach people to laugh, because I want them to laugh. And that's where the action is. So why not do it? So it is this and this?

Mike Montague: 12:46

Now, I think you just answered it. But I want to ask it one more for our audience members who maybe are not quite sold yet. Do you feel like optimism and pessimism are a personality trait that people are, are maybe born or naturally more pessimistic than others? I've heard stats that like, maybe only 17% of people are actually naturally optimistic, most of us are, are biologically tuned to look for things that will kill us or or pessimism. I heard you just say that you can change that you can choose not to continue down that path. But do you think there is any natural proclivity or personalities that get in the way?

Lenny Ravich: 13:26

Yeah, I think I mean, this is not a theory of mine and haven't researched it. But I think that people, you know, we all just survive, you have to expect the worse. You know, when you cross the street, you just can't. You have to, you have to drive your car, like everybody's out to kill you. I mean, I went to get my car, washed it. And I'm thinking myself, I got a meeting with you at three o'clock. I hope I make it back. And I can see it all the you know, so everybody's out there to kill me. You have to be paranoid. So yeah, we're wired to see things that could eventually destroy us. And you got to catch that and say, hey, look, I'm really safe. I've got a wonderful family. I'm safe in my car. I'm a good driver. I'm not drunk right now. Not right now. On the killing review, but I'll get there. It's gonna be all right. Because it goes thoughts came up, you know? Am I going to meet Mike today? Or am I going to be in the hospital? You know, these are things that come up automatically because you have to survive. So it's a survival skill. Also, on the other hand, humor and laughing is also a survival skill. So it's how you train yourself, you know, because I came from a family that was very cynical. And I didn't know that until I got married and my wife caught me time after time. Stop doing that, and stop doing that in public and then I'll never do it again. I promise Yes. And then like in 50 1000s time she pushed me up against the wall is that you do that one more time off with your head. And I really didn't understand this is what I'm doing. It's part of it might my script that I got was generated Scotland. It's called intergenerational wound that came down from generations to generations of generations. It finally hit me I call it the, I call it the hot potato theory. Like my grandmother threw my mother a hot potato. She couldn't handle it. She hands it to me, I handed to my kids at the age of 12. I had to go to my kids and apologize. I had to go to and say, Look, I've been very cynical to you guys. I've been very violent. I came from a violent home. I'm sorry, forgive me. Don't ever do that to your children. When I get you the buck stops here. That potato hot potato is stopping in this generation. It came down for many, many generations, it stops now, I caught myself. I went through a couple of workshops, I got therapy, I got married. I got that cured me.

Mike Montague: 16:08

I want to ask you more about that for sure. But I did want to roll back to your life before you found this. So if I'm doing the math, right, I'm not. You know, you've mentioned in the number, so we're not shying away from him. But if you're 86, and you started this in the 80s, is that what you said? What did you do before? Did you ever like work a boring office cubicle job and have to be like, Whoa, wait, I need to shake myself out of this and find it. What was the arc that led you to discovering

Lenny Ravich: 16:37

optimism? I call it the yellow brick road. Because I never knew that you know which step I was going to take next. But I knew that thinking step something's going to happen. And I'm also very lucky because I get visions I get something comes into my head. And one of the visions was theater, go go go go study theater. So I went to a school in Boston called Emerson College, where I studied theater arts in broadcasting, I met a girl that I fell in love with who told me don't major in theater because nobody needs another aging actor. You have to have something to fall back on. So study English in education and you might if you'd like acting, you're gonna look teaching because you know, you're gonna. So I got a BA that that I went into the army. I got drafted into the United States Army. And the day that I was inducted Elvis Presley was coming out. It was this was he was inducted in 57. I was going in and 59. And after I got out of the army, I went straight to New York to become an actor. 30 bucks in my pocket. But I was single I said what the hell? And the thing is, I can work you know, I go to a restaurant. Why do I work at a restaurant cuz you know, you're going to eat, you know, you don't have to have money for food, okay, you go to a good restaurant. So I'll wash dishes bottles, I'll be a waiter, I'll sweep the floor, but I get the best meal. So I that was my career as an actor, being in a restaurant always having something to eat, and then going for auditions, that I succeeded in becoming a Shakespearean actor. I mean, I was, I was actually professional, because I was making money. But I didn't like it. I mean, you were up on stage, doing stuff that is no relation to the audience. You're getting back into your dressing room, and you're all by yourself thinking I may go up off depressed to the point of pain. And so someone came to me and said, Do you want to would you like would you like to go to a new country? This is this is back in 16 162. There's a place for Israel. They're looking for people to come there because it's a new country. I had no idea what I had to go to the library to look it up and go to give me a free ticket. That's all I needed to hear that you got a free ticket. That's all I needed. So I said okay, so I went you know, that was the beginning of so I went and I bought on a kibbutz kibbutz is like farming on farmer. And but it was great food. So that that takes care

Unknown: 19:21

of that getting a pattern. Yeah, I'll do a lot learning. If you just say there might be pizza. You don't even actually have to have pizza. You just say hey, will you help me move with there might be pizza. Amen.

Lenny Ravich: 19:33

That's about it. That's about it. And the rest is history. I became an English teacher and then I came back to the United States with my wife and a child at that time. And I was very lucky all my life. I was very lucky. I guess. It's just that optimism. i My sister was living in Birmingham, Alabama. This was 1967. This was integration. The end of Jim Crow they were looking for English teachers White, who would go into a A black school, you know, volunteer. And there was no such thing as a male teacher in Birmingham, Alabama, especially a Jewish guy, you know, Jewish male teacher in Birmingham. But when they need you, they need you. They hold their nose, is it okay? Did you take the white Jew put it. And so I've worked with the school, and I use all the, the education that I had as an actor. And I began to direct musicals at dish and they never know what a musical what talent. And when I directed music management and Bye Bye Birdie, I directed Guys and Dolls and I developed an audience it was, it was a man and I didn't take a penny for it. It was all volunteer, you know. And I loved it. It was a wonderful, wonderful experience. And then from there, you know, it just follow the yellow brick road is wherever it takes you. And no, this is the optimism about it. And just know that everything is going to work out, okay, you're gonna might get beat up, you will, you might get a lot of pain, you will, you might fail you will. But it's not what happens to you. It's how you respond to what happens to you. Okay, and this is, this is a formula that I learned. It's called E plus r equals O is the event you're going to have events in your life. You know, you're going to get knocked down, you're going to get bumped you're gonna get hurt, you're gonna get rejected, you're gonna get unloved, you're gonna get divorced, are you gonna what happens to you? And then you have plus r, which is your response, how does your what is your response to what's going on, and that leads to O which is the outcome, you want a positive outcome, okay, then have a positive response, chose the best response possible in any situation to get the best possible outcome.

Scott Edwards: 21:57

Stay with us. We'll be right back. Hey, regular listeners to this podcast. Before we start this week's special show, I wanted to let you know on a new program, it's a subscription service that allows you access to all the early episodes, the first 100 shows, along with all the bonus shows, it'll be lots of fun. Seriously, it's just a way to help support the show and help me cover the cost of this entertainment format. I hope you're enjoying listening to it as much as I am enjoying creating it. Of course, if you have any comments or questions, be sure to email me direct at Scotts comedy stuff@gmail.com Scott's comedy stuff@gmail.com. But in the meantime, if you enjoy a lot of the quality content interviews and stand up comedy sets, become a subscriber. And we'll make sure to have some extra fun stuff for you. All right, here comes this week show.

Mike Montague: 23:03

I love that. And I love also you said several things that resonated with me. The first one was that yellow brick road idea that you just kind of as long as you keep going, the outcomes not decided. So you can still write that by changing your response. Right? It's that all the Schrodinger cat thing is that like, we don't know the outcome until we get to the end. And it's not the end yet. So what are you worried about like

Lenny Ravich: 23:29

your temper? Forget about it. You'll never know the outcome and you have no control over anything. The only thing is is you go and whatever happens happens and you either decide to suffer or he decided to enjoy. I mean, that's it that okay? And I got this from a guy by the name of Viktor Frankl, he wrote a book Man's Search for Meaning. Okay, I recommend that book, as well as mine, mine is called 123 Everlasting optimism where you can

Unknown: 23:58

do it and talk about that really quick because that was going to be my my next question. What is in there? Who's it for? What's it for?

Lenny Ravich: 24:05

This is a book called everlasting ask him is it that I wrote and it's called nine principles for success, happiness and powerful relationships, because that is what optimism will bring you. And you can get this on Amazon and you can get it on Kindle people who like to read it on their phones or on you know, whatever. You can get it on Kindle. What's in it. It's really mostly about wildlife, what we're talking about right now, and how I handled it and how I handled the events, the responses and the outcomes. The outcome, you never know. Okay? You only have control over the response. That's what you got. Okay, the outcome never happened. Because it's all the process. All life is just a process. It's your what is it called? Something in progress, perfection in progress. You know, it's like the Constitution of the United States a more perfect nation. You never get to become a perfect nation, but cuz you're aiming for it, and you're becoming a more perfect person as you go along and the more pain you have, the more meaning in life you have, because you give it meaning. And you that makes you the person that you are okay? It's not that you get there, you don't get anywhere. It's all above the road is over three yellow brick road that makes you into the person that you are at this moment. I mean, this moment what this is an outcome talking to you. Are you kidding? Is this why I came into the world for you?

Mike Montague: 25:30

I believe it just maybe Lenny but I have. I have one really last, you know, juicy subject for us to dive into before we play a game and get out of here. You've been married for 56 years. And I feel like the outcomes of marriage 60% of them end in divorce the other 40% end in death. It's with those outcomes. How do you remain optimistic and married for 56 years? Fear of

Lenny Ravich: 26:03

she's afraid to be alone and I'm afraid of her.

Mike Montague: 26:11

That's the honest answer. Like that.

Lenny Ravich: 26:15

Well, you get you get the you get the the answer in the Bible. People read the Bible, they, you know, they think it literally but there's really the message. It's like when God created Eve for Adam, it says in Hebrew, he created a woman for as Rocky Nick doe. Now the word is is help. And the word Nick DOE is against him. So she's a helper by being against him. So people look at the options against me, you know, and I'm going to get a divorce. But that against you is what is helping you. Okay, this is the Bible. I mean, you've done a lot of things there that once you start to analyze them, it's really a lot of secrets. There are a lot of secrets in the Bible.

Mike Montague: 26:58

Yeah, that is interesting. There's a lot of things that I found are just kind of universal laws of truth that every religion or human if they think hard enough kind of discover. And I think optimism is one of those things that it always just made sense to me that if you're pessimistic, and you're scarce, and you're thinking that people are trying to steal from you, or you're trying to steal from other people, you don't have anybody on your side. So eventually you're going to lose or you're going to be alone. And the other way, if you are optimistic, you believe things are going to work out, you believe you're lucky. You believe you can work with other people and stay with other people. You're going to attract more people and you're gonna attract more opportunities, and you're going to eventually find more success that way. So I don't think it's actually a hard lesson to learn. It's a hard one to live. Well,

Lenny Ravich: 27:55

look, you're right, you're absolutely right. If you think that people are going to steal from you, they will. Because you got to be right. Okay, people have to be right. You know, then I told yourself, they're gonna find somebody to steal for them so they can be right. Well, they'll put themselves in a position to be stolen from or disloyal. Or for some reason, if you if you're looking for people to trust, you might find you know, a bad egg here and there and you say, Hey, that's a bad egg. You know, just get rid of it. I've had those in my life, Holy mackerel. But I learned the most from the bad eggs. The bad things were the best teachers, man. Okay, so it depends on how you look at it. You look at those people as your teachers, the ones who caused you the pain are the ones who stole from you, the ones that lie to you. Those are the best teachers, because you're not going to learn from your friends. We're gonna get they got that teacher. Everything is cool. Thanks a lot. You know, think that that prayer? God, send me more enemies, because I got a lot of to learn. I don't know how much time we got left. To be on this planet. Send me some enemies so I can learn. I

Unknown: 29:04

love that. And I think that's a great lesson to end on. We've been talking with Lenny Ramage. He's an optimism guru from Tel Aviv. And you can find them at Lenny ravich.org. Find the book anywhere you buy books, everlasting optimism. Check out that book for sure. I think that's the best way to learn more about Lenny and connect and then if you need a speaker or a guest for anything, go check that out as well as coaching in the happiness and optimism and laughter I think all of that is amazing, Lenny, but before I let you go, do you want to play a game? You want to play a game? Sally? Oh, you're right. I need to change that. That's not the most out of them. Yeah, that will Yeah, the song shall we play? Let's play again. Okay, I got you awkward questions today. So three awkward questions. They don't really have a right answer. I'm just wondering your take. Which animal would you rather have as an indoor pets? A pig or a rooster

Lenny Ravich: 30:08

snake?

Mike Montague: 30:11

Bigger rooster? Well,

Lenny Ravich: 30:13

I think I could handle. I think I can handle a rooster. I think so.

Unknown: 30:17

I think I was gonna go the other way. I feel like if you get pig, it's kind of like a large dog and I've handled dogs. Roosters not so sure.

Lenny Ravich: 30:27

Oh, small dogs. Yeah.

Unknown: 30:30

Would you rather appear? Would you rather appear as an extra in a popular sitcom? Or a popular music video? Oh, man. That's hard. An extra in a music in a musical or or in a

Mike Montague: 30:48

in a music video? Like,

Unknown: 30:51

I get a music video. I think a music video this more action more music. More happiness. You know, a sitcom and do me a favor. Oh, okay. Music dad and then nine. Yeah. So you know that picks your mood up? Yeah. I'll pick that one.

Mike Montague: 31:09

All right. Yeah, I like that. And yeah, we've already seen your highly qualified for that. Okay, now your church pastor tells you and the congregation by Oh, Rabat. Yes. There you go. Your Rabbi tells you that the great flood is coming again. And $10 will reserve your space on his ark. Are you getting on the ark? Yes or no? Yes. All right. Deal. Easy

Lenny Ravich: 31:42

books. What a gamble. Hmm.

Mike Montague: 31:45

Should I shut up that dollar?

Lenny Ravich: 31:47

I'm taking the rooster with me.

Unknown: 31:50

Hey, there you go. I like it. All right, letting you win, you won the podcast and our game. So that means you get a free 32nd commercial for anything you would like to pitch? Do you have anything you can help us with? Or we can help you with?

Lenny Ravich: 32:07

Just to tell everybody in? who's listening to it to please learn this one sentence and say it time and time again. When anybody asks you, how are you? Because I think this will change the wiring in your brain. We definitely. Somebody says how are you? You're given this answer and don't be ashamed to say it. Now is my best moment. Because there is no other moment. And then wait for their response. And watch how they said what did you say? And then watch how they will keep asking you to see if you're still there. You got to keep doing this. It'll change your brain. It'll change the chemistry in your body. Just saying today is my birth now is my best moment. Because there is no other moment and as the Absolute Truth, okay, you want a truth isn't the best moment. It's also the worst moment ever. It is but you've got a choice. You know, choose. You want it to be your worst moment. You want it to be your best moment. I choose Best you choose best. Do whatever you want, but I'm giving you the sentence. Use it. They won't be sorry, kid

Unknown: 33:21

every day. I love it. Thank you so much. Lenny Lenny Ravitch at Lenny ravitch.org The book everlasting optimism go check it out. If you'd like to learn more about playful humans, a couple of things you can do here will trade. If you share this episode with somebody that you think needs to hear it. I will invite you to join the playful humans community. And we'll give you reminders every week to rediscover the power of play in your life. Be more optimistic, be more happy, be more successful, more creative and have more fun in your life. And help others do the same. Have a good one.

Lenny Ravich: 33:58

Thank you. I'd love to come back to you I leave I just leave this leave while

Mike Montague: 34:13

I was waiting for the theme song landing. Alright, now we'll stop