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How do you find humor in a stressful situation?

Humor a Coping Tool for Stress

By Dr. Sonia Parikh, MD (Psychiatrist)Published 3 years ago 3 min read
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One of the main goals of finding humor in a stressful situation is to use humor to create distance between yourself and your stress.

Humor is a healthy defense mechanism against emotional pain. It is healthy for the immune system, triggers the release of endorphins, and relaxes the body. It can ease anxiety and tension and strengthen relationships by increasing playfulness and triggering positive feelings between people. Laughter shifts perspective on difficult situations and allows people to see them in a more balanced and less threatening light. Humor also gives people a little bit of emotional distance from a difficult situation, decreasing feelings of being overwhelmed. Positive types of humor include cheerful humor, brings people together, and self-enhancing. Hostile humor can be less helpful and has self-defeating humor and aggressive humor that puts down other people.

All humor may not help with stress. People may use humor to insult others in a way that may decrease social support from others. People might feel worse about themselves when they make jokes at their own expense when times are tough.

Start your day with a Smile

A smile can be different types (either real or fake) in both the scenarios your body to release feel-good endorphins because of the act of smiling. Even though a fake smile tends to lead to a genuine one, stress will melt more readily, and laughter will come quickly.

Relaxation Techniques

There are different types of yoga and relaxation strategies that will help you to build your resilience and your sense of humor. Sometimes deep breathing and home meditation will be a great way to release stress and get some more giggles into your day.

Three types of experience of humor: Laughter is the physical expression of humor. When we recognize humor, the mental navigation that occurs is referred to as wit, and the emotional delight we feel is called mirth. When we allow ourselves to feel the internal giggle of something funny fully, hundreds of chemical changes occur — shifting our state from surviving to thriving.

By using humor strategically, planning time to experience things you find funny regularly, you build a mental muscle that is more in tune with the humor of your day. You experience more of what you focus your mind on seeing by paying attention to anything else. You need to be more proactive about putting things in your path if you want to have more fun, play, and laugh.

Below are few techniques which to try:

  • Sending a text message to a friend every day and sharing a funny image.
  • A funny cartoon can be added to the signature of your email.
  • Create a playlist of funny videos and watch it during your break/free time.
  • Look for funny things while you go on a walk.
  • A funny podcast or YouTube channel can help reset your brain to relax if you listen to it each evening.

The best way to create a new habit is to enlist the support of a friend, so ask someone to be your humor buddy and commit to share things you find funny as often as you can. Each time you receive your humor nudge, you'll be reminded to stop and reflect, and when you share, you'll not only find funny yourself, you'll know that you're contributing to help recharge someone you care about. The more we commit to shift our stress for good, the more positive and calm our world will become. Little neural nudges can make a big difference when we're all practicing together. And the more we can all see funny, the better we can collaborate to solve the world's stress.

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About the Creator

Dr. Sonia Parikh, MD (Psychiatrist)

Dr. Sonia Parikh, MD is an adult psychiatrist and cofounder of Savant Care, Inc. She is a TMS (Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation) practitioner.

She completed her residency training at Stanford University.

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