If you feel that stress is pressing down on you from all directions, you're on the right train today because we'll learn more about how humor can help us sail through difficult situations.
Since the start of the pandemic, there's been a 66% increase of those reporting that their mental health has been negatively impacted by stress and worry caused by the virus crisis. Those who have trouble sleeping, eating, and consuming alcohol had also increased.* Now more than ever, we need effective methods to rise above this dim situation.
So, what’s the role of humor, laughter, and play in these stressful times? As mentioned in recent Economist and New York Times articles, laughter can help reduce blood pressure, relieve stress, and enable people to gain resilience* --on top of numerous other benefits that we’ve talked about in the article previous to this "Why Laugh? Humor & Mental Health". Humor expert, Andrew Tarvin, found that companies harness the power of humor to positively impact the bottom line. He explains in his talk that the skill of humor does work at work.
Finding humor in everyday situations -that are otherwise stressful, frustrating, or annoying- actually helps us to stop overthinking, to calm down and enjoy the moment. Because humor is a great pick-me-up for both short term and long term, it's easy to see the connection between laughter and de-stressing.
Here's a list of valid reasons why many of us are stressed these days: unemployment at an all-time high, super storms/earthquakes, forest fires, growing plastic-trash problem & climate change, political divisions & unrest, impending global depression, PLUS we're supposed to wear masks and stay away from each other at least 6ft!
Granted this, psychologist Dr. Kelly McGonigal encourages us to view stress positively: our body's stress response has a built-in mechanism for stress resilience. The "love/cuddle" hormone, oxytocin, is actually helping us cope better as our body releases it (along with the stress hormone). Here is how to make stress your friend. Humor consultant and international stress management expert, Loretta LaRoche, also teaches us about how to "Humor Your Stress".
While humor and laughter have positive impact on our health & wellbeing, JarvisHypnotherapy is able to help if you're struggling in coping with chronic stress, anxiety, or depression.
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