Laughing Through Life: Why a Sense of Humour is Essential for Mental Wellbeing
In this month’s mindfulness and wellbeing updates we’ll be talking about a topic that might seem trivial but is actually deceptively important: approaching life with a sense of humour.
At a time when it feels like much of the world is struggling, to say the very least, it can feel hard to justify embracing a more light-hearted and humorous approach to life. Nevertheless, there are numerous benefits to maintaining a sense of humour. We’ll be discussing some of these below, then finishing with some tips on how to cultivate a sense of humour even when you really don’t feel like it.
First of all, you might be surprised to learn that there are physical benefits associated with maintaining a humorous outlook. Verywell Mind describes a number of health benefits associated with smiling, such as lowering blood pressure and helping the immune system to work more effectively, while Mayo Clinic also mentions stimulating circulation and aiding muscle relaxation amidst some other examples of ways in which maintaining a humorous outlook can be good for us.
Over and above the physical aspect, maintaining a humorous outlook can provide important psychological benefits too. Forbes describes humour as improving a person’s physical and mental health as well as encouraging a positive world view and more effective stress responses. Maintaining a sense of humour can also help make situations feel more manageable by providing us with a momentary distraction and a sense of perspective and can make us feel more powerful by allowing us to place some distance between ourselves and our problems.
Lastly, while humour can in some cases be divisive, when used in the right context it can be beneficial to group dynamics in a number of ways. BetterUp lists some of these as faster interpersonal bonding and finding happier resolutions to disagreements, while Psychology Today even argues that a sense of humour developed as an evolutionary survival mechanism enabling greater intergroup bonding and facilitating creative problem-solving by allowing us to think more broadly and bring ideas together more freely.
We hope we’ve convinced you of the importance of cultivating a humorous outlook! Now here are some tips on how to achieve this, even in situations where you might struggle to see the funny side.
Give yourself permission to see the lighter side of life
It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by problems in the world and sometimes we might feel guilty for allowing ourselves more light-hearted moments when so many terrible things are happening elsewhere. While it’s important to be aware of and empathetic towards other people’s suffering, it’s also worth remembering that no single person can solve all of the world’s problems and that it is not necessarily irresponsible to find comfort in the fleeting pleasures of life while still being empathetic to bigger challenges elsewhere.
Look after yourself
Maintaining a sense of humour can help us to keep things in perspective, but it’s also easier to see situations with clarity when we aren’t overly tired and all of our basic needs are being met. Try to practise good habits like eating well and sleeping for an appropriate amount of time. Know when you’re worn out and go easy on yourself.
Spend time in the company of other people
It’s often easier to see things in a brighter light when in the company of others, and even people whom you might not be particularly close to, such as work colleagues, can sometimes help lift your spirits and keep things in perspective. If you have friends or family members that are naturally outgoing and optimistic, spending time in their company can help keep you grounded too. And if you’re the kind of person who tends to dwell on things, being with other people will give you another focus for your thoughts.
Try to smile more
Smiles vary vastly across cultures, but smiling where appropriate, or even just to yourself, can provide some physical respite. According to Verywell Mind, even a fake smile causes your body to release endorphins which can boost your overall state of mind, in turn possibly making you feel more inclined to smile for real. Smiling also seems to be contagious in the sense that we often instinctively return smiles from other people, so you might lift someone else’s spirits too.
Surround yourself with things that lift your spirits
If you like a particular writer or columnist, try to keep up with their writing. Likewise, if there’s a particular series or podcast that lifts your spirits, try to listen to that too. Even if you’re not consuming content that is laugh-out-loud funny, reading or listening to the words of people whose sense of humour resonates with you can still give you a lift, particularly if you do it at stressful times in the day, such as commuting. Limiting your exposure to potentially upsetting content, such as social media pile-ons, can help you maintain a more positive outlook too.
Tell someone else
Sometimes a horrendously stressful situation can come across as being more funny, or at least less tortuous, when we recount it to other people, and they’re likely to provide us with an outside view, a welcome sense of perspective, or at least a listening ear. Listening to other people relaying their own everyday problems in a humorous manner can lift your spirits too.
Try to be mindful of what other people might consider amusing
Humour varies greatly across cultures and is notoriously hard to instinctively pick up. Different places have different cultural taboos and different levels of tolerance for what might be considered ‘dark’ or otherwise inappropriate humour. Likewise, different people find different things funny. If you’re in doubt about how something will land, it’s best not to say it.
Don’t force it if you really don’t think something is funny
Making a conscious decision to try to see the lighter side of things does not necessarily mean that you will always be successful in doing so. If you don’t find a situation funny because there’s something about it that genuinely upsets or angers you, there are other ways of putting the situation into perspective. Likewise, if for whatever reason a situation simply does not amuse you, don’t force it. Remember also that we all have our own personalities and some people are more naturally inclined to see the sunnier side of situations than others. If you’re having a day where nothing feels funny, don’t fight it.
As a last piece of advice, we all find different things funny. Humour is a broad category that goes beyond more obvious manifestations like knock-knock jokes and cat videos. If you’re not a fan of obvious slapstick comedy, you might enjoy engaging with content involving more subtle humour or satire, but the most important thing is to find something that for whatever reason resonates with you and run with it.
That concludes our tips on seeking out the lighter side of life, but we’d love to hear your suggestions for maintaining a healthy sense of humour too, so please don’t hesitate to leave your tips in the comment.
Stay cheerful, and see you again for next month’s updates!
Sources
Andie Kramer | Forbes
Using Humor To Manage Stress And Stay Positive
Elizabeth Perry | BetterUp
Benefits of humor in the workplace (we found at least 10)
https://www.betterup.com/blog/humor-in-the-workplace
Elizabeth Scott | Verywell Mind
How to Use Humor to Cope With Stress
https://www.verywellmind.com/maintain-a-sense-of-humor-3144888
Mark Stibich | Verywell Mind
10 Big Benefits of Smiling
https://www.verywellmind.com/top-reasons-to-smile-every-day-2223755
Mayo Clinic
Stress relief from laughter? It's no joke
https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/stress-management/in-depth/stress-relief/art-20044456
Moses Ma | Psychology Today
The Power of Humor in Ideation and Creativity
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