When you think about self-care and reducing your daily stresses, SNL and the latest comedy special on Netflix probably don’t come to mind. But believe it or not, humor is a low-cost, effective way of easing your mind when you’re stressed. If your sense of humor is the first thing to go when your life gets stressful, you might want to re-prioritize your coping methods. There are immediate benefits to turning life’s inconveniences into jokes and many long-term advantages to approaching life with levity.
What happens to your brain when you laugh?
When you stress about something, it creates a chain reaction in your brain. Your thoughts are like falling dominos, knocking into the next one at ever-increasing rates of speed, eventually toppling over cataclysmic reactions. Laughter in response to a joke or situation can interrupt that chain reaction, preventing your stress-reaction from becoming outsized in response to the stimulus.
People with well-developed senses of humor respond with less anxiety to stress. They have their general mood less disturbed by stressful incidents. But laughter does more than just good stuff for the brain; it has a positive impact on your entire body:
- Floods internal organs with oxygen-rich air and the brain with endorphins.
- Increases and decreases heart rate and blood pressure, leaving you feeling relaxed.
- Stimulates circulation, relieving the physical symptoms of stress.
Laughter benefits whole-body health and is more fun than meditating or fitting a quick yoga routine into your workday.
There are significant long-term benefits from improving your sense of humor and laughing more.
Approaching life with levity can actually change your outlook on life and decrease your overall stress long-term. A stressed mindset for an extended period eventually deteriorates your immune system. You’re helping keep your body healthier for fighting off infections and viruses when you’re able to laugh off the small stresses in life.
Over time, you can also decrease your levels of depression and anxiety. Laughter releases brain chemicals that make you feel good, making it a natural antidepressant. It calms your brain down, so you’re able to find humor in stressful situations. With practice, a humorous reaction to stress will temper your negative reactions. Instead of spiraling out during the chain-reaction of stress thoughts, you’ll remain level-headed and feel less anxious about the situation.
Hone your sense of humor into a stress-busting machine.
Unfortunately, just laughing at old SNL skits isn’t enough to reap the full benefits of using humor to ease your mind. Set your sights on developing your sense of humor to find the ridiculousness in your life and make a joke of it. The goal isn’t to have a tight five-minutes at the next comedy open-mic downtown; it’s to shake off catastrophic thinking when something stressful happens. There are a few ways to change your approach to stress:
- Tell stories to your colleagues and friends about your daily inconveniences and flubs. Not to complain or vent, but to frame the situation as outlandish and laughable.
- Share memes, cartoons, or sketch comedy clips. We’re blessed to be living in an age where short comedy is at our fingertips. Follow comedians on Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok and spend a few minutes laughing when you feel stressful thinking taking hold. Share the ones relevant to your life with coworkers and friends to invite them to laugh with you.
- Incorporate humor into your surroundings. Are there cartoons that always get a chuckle out of you? Memes that you can’t help but laugh at, no matter how ridiculous? Add them to your office decor or desktop. When humor is all around you, it’s more likely to be right at the surface when you need it.
Even if you’ve never thought of laughter as self-care, it’s an accessible, affordable way to deal with everything from minor inconveniences to big life upsets. By reminding yourself to laugh often, you’re changing your approach to life and empowering yourself to become more resilient.
