The social benefits or humor and laughter
Humor
and playful communication strengthen our relationships by triggering positive
feelings and fostering emotional connection. When we laugh with one another, a
positive bond is created. This bond acts as a strong buffer against stress,
disagreements, and disappointment.
Laughing
with others is more powerful than laughing alone
Creating
opportunities to laugh
·
Watch a funny movie or TV show
·
Go to a comedy club.
·
Read the funny pages.
·
Seek out funny people.
·
Share a good joke or a funny story.
·
Check out your bookstore’s humor section.
·
Host game night with friends.
·
Play with a pet.
·
Go to a “laughter yoga” class.
·
Goof around with children.
·
Do something silly.
·
Make time for fun activities (e.g. bowling,
miniature golfing, karaoke).
Shared laughter is one of the most effective tools for
keeping relationships fresh and exciting. All emotional sharing builds strong
and lasting relationship bonds, but sharing laughter and play also adds joy,
vitality, and resilience. And humor is a powerful and effective way to heal
resentments, disagreements, and hurts. Laughter unites people during difficult
times.
Incorporating more humor and play into your daily
interactions can improve the quality of your love relationships-as well as your
connections with co-workers, family members, and friends. Using humor and
laughter in relationships allows you to:
·
Be
more spontaneous.
Humor gets you out of your head and away
from your troubles.
·
Let
go of defensiveness.
Laughter helps you forget judgments,
criticisms, and doubts.
·
Release
inhibitions.
Your fear of holding back and holding on are
set aside.
·
Express
your true feelings. Deeply
felt emotions are allowed to rise to the surface.
Bringing
more humor and laughter into your life
Want
to bring the fun? Get a pet…
Most of us have experienced the joy of playing with a
furry friend, and pets are a rewarding way to bring more laughter and joy into
your life. But did you know that having a pet is also good for your mental and
physical health? Studies show that pets can protect you depression, stress, and
even heart disease.
Laughter is your birthright, a natural part of life that
is innate and inborn. Infants begin smiling during the first weeks of life and
laugh out loud within months of being born. Even if you did not grow up in a
household where laughter was a common sound, you can learn to laugh at any
stage of life.
Begin by setting aside special times to seek out humor
and laughter, as you might with working out, and build from there. Eventually,
you’ll want to incorporate humor and laughter into the fabric of your life,
finding it naturally in everything you do.
Here
are some ways to start:
·
Smile.
Smiling is the beginning of laughter. Like laughter, it’s contagious. Pioneers
in “laugh therapy” find it’s possible to laugh without even experiencing a
funny event. The same holds for smiling. When you look at someone or see
something even mildly pleasing, practice smiling
·
Count
your blessings.
Literally make a list. The simple act of
considering the good things in your life will distance you from negative
thoughts that are barrier to humor and laughter. When you’re in a state of
sadness, you have further to travel to get to humor and laughter
·
When
you hear laughter, move toward it.
Sometimes humor and laughter
are private, a shared joke among a small group, but usually not. More often,
people are very happy to share something funny because it gives them an
opportunity to laugh again and feed off the humor you find in it. When you hear
laughter, seek it out and ask,”What’s funny?”
·
Spend
time with fun, playful people.
These are people who laugh
easily-both at themselves and at life’s absurdities-and who routinely find the
humor in everyday evebts. Their playful point of view and laughter are
contagious.
·
Bring
humor into conversations.
Ask people, “What’s the funniest thing
that happened to you today? This week? In your life?”
Developing
your sense of humor: Take yourself less seriously
One essential characteristic that helps us laugh is not
taking ourselves too seriously. We’ve all known the classic tight-jawed
sourpuss who takes everything with deathly seriousness and never laughs at
anything. No fun there!
Some events are clearly sad and not occasions for
laughter. But most events in life do’t carry an overwhelming sense of either
sadness or delight. They fall into the gray zone of ordinary life-giving you
the choice to laugh or not.
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