The Empowering Benefits of Comedy and Humour

20/04/2023
Live Well Diary Team

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benefits of comedy and humour

Comedy and humour are powerful tools for mental health. They can help you to feel happier, more relaxed and less stressed.

Humour is a manner of looking at the world that makes you see things differently from other people. It’s about seeing the funny side of life, even when things aren’t going well, or you’re feeling down on yourself.

Laughter has many benefits, including lowering blood pressure; reducing stress hormones like cortisol (the stress hormone).

When I was very ill, I do believe laughter helped a lot in making me recover fully.

The Benefits of Comedy and Humor on Mental Health

  • Boosts mood. A good laugh can make you feel happier and more relaxed, which is why many comedians are known to be happy people.
  • Reduces stress. Laughter helps you cope with stressful situations, such as dealing with an illness or the death of a loved one, by releasing endorphins that reduce your perception of pain and increase feelings of pleasure.
  • Improves relationships: Humor is contagious! When someone laughs at something funny you said or did, they feel closer to you because they know you understand them on some level (even briefly). This creates trust between two people, which is essential for healthy relationships!
  • Boosts creativity: Humor allows us to think outside the box by challenging our assumptions about what’s possible or not possible in life; this leads us down new paths where we might discover solutions for problems we didn’t even know existed before!

How to Incorporate Comedy and Humor Into Your Life

Watch a comedy show.

Watching a comedy show is an excellent way to incorporate humour and laughter into your life. There are countless options, whether it’s a stand-up comedy special, a sitcom, or a sketch comedy show.

You can watch a show yourself, with friends, or with family. Streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime have many comedy shows.

benefits of comedy and humour

Read a funny book.

Reading a funny book is another excellent way to add humour to your life. Many authors specialise in writing humorous books. You can also find humour in fiction or non-fiction books, comics, and graphic novels. Reading a funny book can be a great way to unwind after a tiring day or pass the time while travelling.

Listen to a podcast or audiobook with jokes.

Podcasts and audiobooks are becoming increasingly popular, and many options are available that incorporate humour.

Practice self-deprecating humour: make fun of yourself!

Self-deprecating humour involves making fun of yourself or your shortcomings. It can be a great way to show humility and to connect with others. Making fun of yourself can also help you to not take yourself too seriously and to feel more comfortable in social situations. To practice self-deprecating humour, start by identifying something you’re not great at or find funny about yourself. Then, find a way to joke about it that is light-hearted and not mean-spirited. For example, if you’re not a great cook, you might say, “I burned water the other day, so I think I’ll stick to takeout for a while.” Remember to keep it light and not to be too hard on yourself.

benefits of comedy and humour

Tips for Finding Humor in Everyday Life

  • Look for the positive. It’s easy to be stuck in the negative aspects of life, but humour can help you see things in a different light. When you’re feeling down or stressed, ask yourself what’s funny about your situation.
  • Seek out, funny people. Humour is contagious. So surround yourself with people with a good sense of humour and enjoy laughing together! If you don’t have any friends with this quality yet, try going to comedy clubs or taking improv classes together so that everyone can practice being silly on stage (and off).

How to Use Comedy and Humor to Overcome Stress and Anxiety

You don’t have to be a stand-up comedian or an improv performer to use comedy and humour as part of your self-care routine. You can start right now with these three simple steps:

Learn to laugh at yourself.

Humour is an excellent way to relieve stress and improve your overall well-being. Learning how to laugh at yourself is essential as it can help you put things into perspective and avoid taking yourself too seriously. When we take ourselves too seriously, we can become overwhelmed by stress and anxiety. Learning to laugh at ourselves can reduce our stress levels and increase our happiness. We can start by acknowledging our mistakes and finding the humour in them. This will help us to avoid getting bogged down in negative thoughts and emotions.

Embrace imperfection

Embracing imperfection is another crucial step toward using humour in your self-care routine. Many people strive for perfection, but this can be a stressful and overwhelming goal. By embracing imperfection, we can reduce stress levels and increase happiness. We should learn to accept our flaws and mistakes and not be too hard on ourselves. Instead, we should celebrate our strengths and accomplishments. Learning to appreciate imperfection can be a powerful source of humour and positivity.

Find the humour in difficult situations.

Finding humour in difficult situations can be challenging, but it is essential to use humour as a self-care tool. When we face difficult situations, it can be easy to become overwhelmed by negative emotions. However, if we can find humour in these situations, we can reduce our stress levels and increase our happiness. Humour can help us see a situation’s lighter side and put things into perspective. It can also allow us to connect with others and build stronger relationships.

Conclusion

Laughter is the best medicine and can be yours for the taking.

It is essential to make humour a part of our daily routine, whether by watching a comedy show, reading a funny book, or spending time with friends who make us laugh.

Doing so can reduce our stress levels and increase our happiness, leading to a more fulfilling and enjoyable life.

Images Used

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio: https://www.pexels.com/photo/cheerful-man-with-smartphone-drinking-juice-on-street-3799832/

Photo by Lucas Guimarães: https://www.pexels.com/photo/cheerful-elderly-woman-looking-away-5131406/

Photo by ELEVATE: https://www.pexels.com/photo/two-smiling-women-sitting-on-wooden-bench-1267696/

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