Bringing Laughter to Your Daily Life

Laughter is universal – everybody knows how to laugh and laughter is one of the basic ways we communicate with each other.  Interpreting laughter is a vital human skill which is more difficult for some than others. For example, people living with autism may sometimes find laughter challenging to understand and consequently uncomfortable. While everyday laughter is most common in conversation, it is possible to laugh out of context, for no other reason than for the boost in mood it gives us. This type of laughing is used in laughter therapy, which is gaining popularity, and has been shown to improve mental health and help people cope with cancer.

However, not all laughter is kind or positive. Unkind laughter may mock and exclude. While positive humour and laughter contribute positively to wellbeing, negative humour has the opposite effect. Positive humour is commonly used unconsciously to cope with life’s challenges. We use humour to reframe difficult situations and to make light of situations when we have come out of the immediate stress of coping with something uncomfortable. Laughter helps us change perspective and move on from challenge.

Laughter was studied extensively by Robert Provine, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at the University of Maryland[1].  Provine conducted research outside the laboratory which he termed ‘sidewalk neuroscience’.  Provine and his students observed laughing behaviour when people were in social settings.  Most people think that they laugh at jokes or when they find something amusing. In fact, what Provine found was that most of the laughter produced in our daily lives is not in response to something funny but is a form of punctuation and bonding behaviour when speaking with others. This form of laughter creates and strengthens social bonds. It is a form of social glue.

Although we laugh most often with others, we can also use deliberately generated laughter on our own as a simple and accessible tool. Laughing stimulates a natural boost in neurochemicals, which boost mood and immunity, and may also alleviate pain. The idea of laughing just for the joy of it may seem strange at first and will quickly become comfortable as it becomes a habit. So how can we establish the habit of laughter? The easiest way seems to be to attach it to something which happens already. For example, laugh in the shower, laugh when you put on the kettle to boil or when you are doing the washing up.  Attaching laughing as another thing you do to an activity which you already perform regularly helps it become a habit. As with all habits, perseverance is key.

In our recent webinar, the ways people came up with for bringing more laughter to their daily lives included:

·       Teaming watching comedy with ironing

·       Taking the Mickey out of yourself

·       Not taking life too seriously – looking for levity.

[1] Scott, S. K., Cai, C. Q., & Billing, A. (2022). Robert Provine: the critical human importance of laughter, connections and contagion. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 377(1863), 20210178.