Loretta LaRoche

Loretta LaRoche wouldn’t call herself Rubenesque.  “No,” she’s says with a little giggle, “I ‘m more like an avocado with legs.” She is one huge ball of fun and laughter and being in her presence is nothing less than a vacation from the trials and tribulations of life.

A stress management guru, Loretta uses humor as a coping mechanism.  “I know you can’t become funny out of nowhere, so you have to lighten up your attitude.  I use humor and laughter to reduce stress because it’s one of the components of Mind Body Medicine,” she tells me. “ When we laugh, our endorphins increase making us feel better.  A positive attitude, she continues,” is likea mood contagion, so I tell people, go catch a mood, and make it a good one at that!   We don’t realize that most ofthe stress we’re under is self-created.” And as she threw her hands in the air, cornering me with her pointer finger, she said, “ When you’re in the supermarket and someone’s moving alongat their own speed, who is really is creating the frustration?  You are! So I say you’re better off, laughing it off... and if you want to liveyour life awfulizing and catastrophizing that’s your choice.”

She refers to her personal history as Brooklyn with aHollywoodesque backdrop.  “We weren’t wealthy, it was more like the movie “Moonstruck.”  We were one big Italian family, looking for love in all the wrong places and hooked on great Sunday feasts. The major problem was my mother. She was more like Joan Crawford’s twin sister than a homemaker and I really suffered.  My attitude came out of a necessity to survive.  Humor, Victor Frankel said, is the soul’s preservation.” 

“So let’s face it, now’s the time to step back and look at your own life.  Do you have one …or are you pursuing it?  I can promise you, ”she cajoled, “when you leave this planet no one will say you did it all…so stop trying and lighten up!”

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