Do you want to use humor to feel better fast? Also, what types work best, and how do you use them? These simple tips may help, and they’re easy to do.
Humor to Feel Better? Check Out These Ways to Benefit
If you’re bored, you can use humor to feel better. However, laughter and humor help you overcome many other troubling emotions or challenging situations. Yet, not every type of humor works for everything. Some laughter helps you heal and feel better fast.
For me, there are some amazing ways laughter makes me happy. You can discover this, too. Here are some types of humor and how to use them to your advantage.
The Science Behind Why You Feel Good After You Laugh
Whether it’s a belly laugh, a chuckle that goes on for a while, or a slow realization that something is funny, there’s a scientific basis for why laughter makes you feel good.
When you laugh, your muscles relax, you breathe better, you have better circulation, and your body produces endorphins. At the same time, it reduces the production of stress hormones.
- Humor is helpful as a stress-coping mechanism. It also contributes to greater motivation and focus.
- The positive emotions you feel with laughter can lead to improved pain tolerance.
- Laughing with others brings you together, builds social bonds, and increases self-confidence.
- Other benefits of laughter include improvements in self-esteem, energy, hope, and empowerment.
- At the same time, laughing reduces anxiety, depression, tension, and loneliness.
Feeling Anxious or Depressed? Use Self-Deprecating Humor to Feel Better
Considerable research into therapies that work for those who feel anxious or depressed shows that self-deprecating humor works well. Mental health professionals use this powerful tool to help clients find clarity and perspective, defuse their intense emotions, and feel better about themselves.
What Is Self-Deprecating Humor?
It may sound negative, but this humor helps you take yourself less seriously. It isn’t about making fun of yourself, but helping you get out of a negative feedback loop. The key is how you feel after you say something self-deprecating that you find funny. If you feel bad, it didn’t work, but if you feel better, you’re on the road to achieving emotional balance.
Other Benefits
Besides helping you regulate emotions and achieve balance, using self-deprecating humor to feel better can also work between individuals. It’s a way to lighten the conversation and find common ground through humor. This facilitates connection and makes you feel less isolated.
Furthermore, self-deprecating humor is a sign of self-confidence and supports overall improvement in mental health. It also helps promote trust.
Try Dry Humor to Feel Better
It may not work for everyone, but it may help you feel better if you like dry humor. According to official definitions, dry humor, or deadpan, has a distinct lack of emotion during delivery. What makes it funny is the absurdity of the words in contrast to their flat delivery.
While I disagree that those who use dry humor are necessarily pessimistic, suspicious, or paranoid, that’s at least one summary of this type of humor.
To my liking, dry humor surprises me and makes me think about it before I react. Then, I laugh. It’s more like a slow burn where the effect sneaks up on you. Besides, I like surprises.
Laugh Until You Cry Humor
Do you remember laughing so hard that tears came to your eyes? This usually happens when a joke is so original and funny that you can’t help laughing out loud. It may occur in a group after one person tells a hilarious joke. First, one, and then another, start laughing, until everyone laughs in unison.
Call it contagious, side-splitting, or laugh-until-you-cry humor, but this type of humor works to feel better. It can also help you feel happy.
Stand-Up Comedy
Do you have a favorite comedian, one who always makes you laugh? I have a couple on my list and always tune in to their Netflix specials. What makes this humor to feel better? If you’re like me, you enjoy laughing. It removes tension, you forget your worries, and life seems easier.
Besides, finding a stand-up comedian through videos or streaming media is easy. You can also check out live stand-up comedy in your area.
Use Witty Humor to Feel Better
Last on my list is witty humor to feel better. The more I research, the more I realize this type of humor is closer to dry humor than the other types I like. The person delivering the witty lines is intelligent and knows the impact of their words.
First, you think about what the person says. Then, it’s the Eureka moment when you get the meaning and start to laugh. You can’t help it. These lines you repeat to others, although they may be lost in context.
Think of Jerry Seinfeld in Seinfeld! Or Eddie Murphy as Axel Foley in Beverly Hills Cop. You get the picture. These comedians are naturally funny, and almost anything they say can be hilarious, given the right situation.
The bottom line: If you want instant relief from some of your troubles, use humor to feel better. Laughter and sharing with friends are great ways to be happy.
