We all know that laughter is the best medicine: It boosts our immunity system, reduces stress and anxiety, improves relationships and gives us hope. Laughter probably makes us richer too since it has the magical effect of bringing people closer together, creating a more conducive atmosphere for business deals to happen. But the irony is many of us don’t laugh enough and even more lead a humorless, stressful and unhappy existence.
How then can we laugh more and stress less? The first crucial step is, perhaps, to stop associating humor as something frivolous, childish, or time wasting. Imagine what this world will be like if everyone uses humor everyday to spice up his or her life? We’ll be less uptight, laugh more, improve our health and make this world so much more livable and fun!
Humor is a viable and great way to live. It’s about seeing the playfulness in life, even when things seem hopeless; it’s about choosing to laugh instead of vexing and stressing over life’s absurdities. But, a good sense of humor is never insensitive. It pokes fun and heals everyone without putting anyone down or makes one feels inferior or uncomfortable. Of course, like every good and simple thing in life (meditation comes to mind), it’s an art that takes conscious efforts to cultivate and master. But for those who chooses this path, a joyful and deeply satisfying ride awaits.
So are you ready to open yourself up for more laughter and spread more joy? Then, kick off your shoes, loosen your buttons and look at some fun and easy ways to cut stress and enjoy life more with humor:
1. Keep a Laughter Treasure Chest
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Why Humor: To introduce more humor into your life, you need to expose yourself to more laughing matters. A good way is to build your very own laughter treasure chest which you can draw on whenever you need a funny idea or a happiness boost. But instead of gold bars, rubies, diamonds and rare antiques, you will have humorous books, comics, funny movies, newspaper cuttings, tear-off from magazines, jokes, self-concocted stories and anything else that crack you up in your chest.
If you prefer a digital treasure trove of laughter, simply substitute all the above-mentioned items with their digital equivalents. Good online resources you can put in your e-library include Comics.com, Youtube’s Comedy Channel, JibJab, NYT’s Laugh Lines Blog and Awkward Family Photos.
How to Laugh More: Access your treasure chest at least three times a week, twenty minutes each time. Fish out an item randomly, offline or online, and enjoy your reward thoroughly without inhibitions. It’s probably a good idea NOT to do this at your workplace!
2. Solve Problems with Humor
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Why Humor: Why limit the use of humor to leisure pastime? Why not use humor as a tool to solve real-life problems? Say you’re anticipating a stressful event, like an appointment with your dentist, a stay with a less than friendly relative, or a speech which you can’t refuse. Instead of being overwhelmed by the thought of it, use humor creatively to see you through the situation.
How to Laugh More: Bring along one or two comics or humor books to liven up long period of anxious waiting, make some self-deprecating statements to ease up tense conversations, or insert a comic strip to build rapport with your audience. The possibilities are endless. The importance is to keep humor in mind and use its healing power to dissolve stress and tension.
3. Turn on Your Humor Radar
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Why Humor: Many people go about their days unconsciously looking for faults and problems, making their life and that of others a living hell. If this sounds a lot like you, it’s not too late to change your ways.
How to Laugh More: Swap your fault-finding detector with a humor-locating radar. Pay attention to chances for chuckle instead of opportunities for trouble. Keep an eye for funny moments and you’ll start to see more of them in your life. Want to bring your humor radar to the next level? Try picking up hidden comic relief during challenging times, such as a face-to-face meeting with your biggest foe. Be very cautious though!
4. Have a Date with Humor
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Why Humor: The often used excuse for the lack of humor in life is, there’s simply no time for something as trivial as laughing. But since you know that laughing is a potent antidote to chronic stress, then you may as well make time for laughter, just like the way you’d allocate time for sleeping, eating and working.
How to Laugh More: Each week, make a date with yourself or someone who looks like he or she can use a good dose of laughter. The only thing to do during a humor date is to relax and laugh till you can’t get up straight. If you’re bringing someone else along, be sure to agree on the humor-inducing material or activity beforehand. Because one man’s humor can well turn out to be another man’s bored-to-death penalty.
5. Make a Face
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Why Humor: Consumed by stress and anxiety, and have no access to your laughter treasure chest? Use your face. Make funny faces, contort your facial expressions, or simply, smile. Contrary to common beliefs, you don’t have to smile only when you’re happy. Studies found that the opposite is also true: We can smile for no reason and actually start feeling better.
How to Laugh More: Just say cheese (or kimchi for the vegans) to yourself and hold it for a minute or two. You’ll instantly push your happiness marker a few notch higher and downgrade your stress and anxiety level correspondingly. For better results, do a comic face by pulling your mouth, nose and eyes in opposing directions, all at the same time. Want to learn advanced face-deforming tricks? Look no further than face contortionists like Jim Carrey or Mr Bean for inspirations.
6. Join a Laughter Club
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Why Humor: If you’re fortunate enough to live in a city where there is laughter clubs, join one right away. That will give you regular stress-relieving doses of laughter as you meet up with like-minded people for the sole purpose of having a roaring good time. None exists where you live? Don’t despair. Set one up right in your home. Recruit family members, friends, neighbors or your pets. Or set up a club of one. Laughing at the idea? That’s all you ever need.
How to Laugh More: A number of humor groups or clubs exist all over the world. The first place to search is the laughter clubs by Laughter Yoga. It’s a global organization, which started in India, set up with the aim of spreading unconditional laughter to improve one’s health and well-being. You will learn how to laugh for no reason, which by the way is a great skill to pick up, and get to join many others in the simple but life-enhancing act of laughing your head off.
Are there movies, books or websites that never fail to tickle your funny bone? Do share them with us in the comments. Thanks!
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Great post, Wee! I like that you chose a laughing baby as your picture. Babies naturally laugh quite a bit, and in contrast, show just how rarely the rest of us laugh.
Just as it’s possible to find something positive in any situation, it’s usually also possible to find something humorous. I think people who are able to do either are some of the best people to associate with.
Spot-on, Vin! Yes, babies do laugh much more frequently than we adults. (Of course, they cry as often too, simply because they don’t hide their feelings the way we do.) Humor, or rather playfulness is an innate part of ourselves. We derive laughter and joy when we play. And laughter makes us feel good, physically as well as mentally. There’s actually a profound truth in the saying “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.” I’d add dull and sick to the sentence. Compare a baby who is totally engrossed with her toy and an adult who is stuck in a job that he doesn’t enjoy and that consumes all his time, it’s not hard to see why we need to play and laugh more in life.
About finding something humorous in any situation, it’s important to exercise sensitivity, especially in difficult circumstances. Humor when used correctly can transform an environment and the way people feel instantly. Almost like a wide-area magic spell! Unfortunately, the opposite is true too. So, people who have mastered the art of using humor, like you’ve said, is truly someone worth knowing!
Everytime I look at a zebra I think God definitely has a sense of humor. It’s very true that humor can go a long way to diffuse stressful situations. Nice article!
Thanks, Annaly! Glad that you enjoyed it. But instead of being tickled by zebras, I get dizzy when I look at them, especially if there are a bunch of them!
Nice post! Yes, I am agree with you that laughter is the best medicine. After coming back from my long hour work, I used to get full of stress and anxiety. I had a lot of DVDs collection, most of them are comedy. I used to watch it and I feel relax and stress free. You will not believe there is a movie that I already watch it infinite time and it makes me laugh whole the time.
Laughter is still the best medicine to compensate stress and worries. Just be happy always because I am sure it will reward you a good day!