Humor is Therapeutic

Humor is a quality of perception that enables us to experience joy even when faced with adversity.  Finding humor in a situation and laughing freely with others can be a powerful antidote to stress. Our sense of humor gives us the ability to find delight, experience joy, and to release tension. This can be an effective self-care tool.


The word humor itself is a word of many meanings. The root of the word is "umor" meaning liquid or fluid. In the Middle Ages, humor referred to an energy that was thought to relate to a body fluid and an emotional state. This energy was believed to determine health and disposition (i.e. "He's in a bad humor").
A sanguine humor was cheerful and associated with blood.
A choleric humor was angry and associated with bile.
A phlegmatic humor was apathetic and associated with mucous.
A melancholic humor was depressed and associated with black bile.


In modern dictionaries, humor is defined as "the quality of being laughable or comical" or as "a state of mind, mood, spirit". Humor then is flowing; involving basic characteristics of the individual expressed in the body, emotions, and spirit.


Stress has been shown to create unhealthy physiological changes. The connection between stress and high blood pressure, muscle tension, immuno-suppression, and many other changes has been known for years. Modern research shows that laughter creates the opposite effects. It appears to be the perfect antidote for stress.
Studies show that the experience of laughter lowers serum cortisol levels, increases the amount of activated T lymphocytes, increases the number and activity of natural killer cells, and increases the number of T cells that have helper/ suppressor receptors. In short, laughter stimulates the immune system, off-setting the immunosuppressive effects of stress.


Research done in the last ten years helps us understand the mind-body connections. The emotions and moods we experience directly effect our immune system. A sense of humor allows us to perceive and appreciate the incongruities of life and provides moments of joy and delight. These positive emotions can create neuro-chemical changes that will buffer the immunosuppressive effects of stress.


Laughter can provide a cathartic release, a purifying of emotions and release of emotional tension. Laughter, crying, raging, and trembling are all cathartic activities which can unblock energy flow.


In his book 'Stress without Distress', Selye clarified that a person's interpretation of stress is not dependent solely on an external event, but also depends upon their perception of the event and the meaning they give it; -- how you look at a situation determines if you will respond to it as threatening or challenging.


Because different people respond differently to the same environmental stimuli, some people seem to cope with stress better than others. Sociologist Suzanne Kobassa has defined three "hardiness factors"  which can increase a person's resilience to stress and prevent burnout: -- commitment, control, and challenge. If you have a strong commitment to yourself and your work, if you believe that you are in control of the choices in your life (internal locus of control), and if you see change as challenging rather than threatening; then you are more likely to cope successfully with stress.   One theme that is becoming more prominent in the literature is the idea that a causative factor in burnout is a sense of powerlessness.


In this context, humor can be an empowerment tool. Humor gives us a different perspective on our problems and, with an attitude of detachment, we feel a sense of self-protection and control in our environment.
It is reasonable to assume that if locus of control measures strongly as internal, that a person will feel a greater sense of power and thus be more likely to avoid burnout.


Humor perception involves the whole brain and serves to integrate and balance activity in both hemispheres. Derks has shown that there is a unique pattern of brain wave activity during the perception of humor. EEG's were recorded on subjects while they were presented with humorous material. During the setup to the joke, the cortex's left hemisphere began its analytical function of processing words. Shortly afterward, most of the brain activity moved to the frontal lobe which is the center of emotionality. Moments later the right hemisphere's synthesis capabilities joined with the left's processing to find the pattern -- to 'get the joke'. A few milliseconds later, before the subject had enough time to laugh, the increased brain wave activity spread to the sensory processing areas of the brain, the occipital lobe. The increased fluctuations in delta waves reached a crescendo of activity and crested as the brain 'got' the joke and the external expression of laughter began. Derks' findings shows that humor pulls the various parts of the brain together rather than activating a component in only one area.


Laughing at yourself is not always easy. Frequently one is too immersed in a problem to find any humor in it. It can help to seek out people with that special flair for seeing the funny side of a situation; to use the talent available to aid in the quest for laughter and comic release.


Try to create humorous images of problems, exaggerate the situation into the absurd, laugh at your own idiosyncratic behaviors... you will see the stress and tension lift off.


published in www.crescentlife.com