We can be frightened for all kinds of reasons; some are logical, such as a fear of snakes which might bite you, but people can be frightened of all sorts of  things, many of them harmless: clowns, butterflies, clocks, moonlight. We call them phobias, and there are long lists of these phobias, most of them seemingly totally irrational.  However, not all fears can be classed as phobias, and we have lots of different words to describe fear, and even ways to describe the people who experience these feelings.

Thanks to the wonders of Facebook I have recently linked up with a friend I used to play with when I was about eight years old. The phrase ‘scaredy cat’ was often used as a playground jibe when I was very young. Bigger and older children might dare someone to do something  - such as climbing up on the bicycle shed and then jumping off into the coke pile – a really foolish thing to do as you would probably end up covered with coal dust and many scratches, and at worst you could break a leg.  So the sensible thing to do was to take no notice of such jibes, but not everyone felt able to stand up to the teasing.

Could fun and laughter be an antidote to burnout?

When you think of burnout, what is the first thing that comes to mind?  Maybe horror images of someone so burnt out that they become a vegetable with no brain function left. Well, what if you were told that answer isn’t that far fetched?

When someone burns out, the brain’s emotional responses become suppressed, the brain can't cope any longer, and the person may well give the general impression of suddenly having a short fuse.

The simplest way to cure this is usually embarking on a well-earned break from the stresses of everyday life, but sometimes all we need is some fun and laughter to turn the universe back to how it was meant to be.

Here are a few ways that laughter and fun can help you to cure any symptoms of burnout.

When we are children growing up, our imagination is the key to untold worlds.  And it has been shown that kids with very active imaginations are more likely to dream and strive for greater things as adults.

Modern life is so noisy nowadays, it is the noisiest it has ever been in history, and with noise, many sounds are filtered out. As a result we could end up missing some of the most important things in life. This can have far reaching implications, and is aptly known as “overstimulation.”

Forget your smartphone, and your i7 chip set, the brain in your skull is the most efficient processor the world has ever known, capable of processing stimuli from a variety of sources, but sometimes it can all become too much. 

Being self-critical is a great way to push yourself into being a better person. Perhaps you want to do your job better, or maybe you want to help other people. You may even want to yell less at your kids. When you critique yourself, you have the ability to make changes. But, can you go too far?

More Slang

Sir Winston Churchill once observed that Americans and the British are ‘a common people divided by a common language’ …

Never was that as true as when describing the Cockneys.

You’ve probably heard their accent, made famous in everything from movies based on Dickens and George Bernard Shaw novels, to computer-generated gekkos telling real gekkos how to go forth and sell car insurance. Linguists say that the Australian accent has its roots in Cockney culture, as they comprised a large percentage of prisoners, shipped there by the British when they viewed the Land Down Under as an ideal penal colony. Cockneys are the crafty characters from east London who admire those among their lot who can make a living simply by ‘ducking and diving, mate,’ which is their version of wheeling and dealing on a working-class level.