Find a reason to laugh
We have all heard people say, “laughter is the best
medicine.” And it truly is. Humour is excellent emotional caffeine. When you
experience that bit of joy, it blocks whatever bad feeling you may have had.
In a 2010 study in the Journal of Aging Research, one
group of senior citizens received “humour therapy” – meaning that they received
daily jokes, laughter exercises and funny stories for eight weeks. A second
group did not. When the study began, both groups reported similar happiness
levels. At the end of the experiment, the people in the first group reported
feeling 42 percent happier than they did at the beginning. They also
experienced a decrease in pain and loneliness.
It appears that the type of humour you consume and share
also matters. Humour, when it does not belittle others, or when it makes you
laugh at your circumstances, is associated with increased self-esteem, optimism
and life satisfaction and a decrease in depression, anxiety and stress. Humour
that attacks others, follows the exact opposite pattern: while it can feel
satisfying in the moment, it does not block negative feelings (so it is more like
your decaf coffee).
A really good strategy to employ either at work or at home,
is to finish up a meeting or dinner conversation, sharing one thing that made
you laugh today. If we can deliberately cultivate positive emotion, it not only
increases our own personal joy, but it makes us more creative, more productive
and more attractive to be around.
