A *funny* personal development project

I am especially glad of the divine gift of laughter: it has made the world human and lovable, despite all its pain and wrong.” -- W.E.B. Du Bois

I was recently watching Steve Martin talk about comedy. He observed that laughter releases tension. Comedians are basically winding us up and then giving us a way to release the tension.

This just gave me more ammunition for my belief that adding more laughter to my life is a pretty important priority.

I mean, anyone feeling a little tense lately?

I feel like my life got gradually more serious beginning in college. Not a conscious decision.

For now, let’s just say there is a lot of material in that period of my life that could explain this unintentional trajectory.

Then a couple of years ago I was doing an activity reflecting on happy childhood memories and realized how much laughter featured in those special times.

• A Balderdash game with my relatives in Texas.

• My Aunt Susan imitating my Grandpa Russ taking a photograph.

• Watching kung fu movies with friends in high school.

• The time my mom and I cracked up about my dad’s “Herb Store” business idea. (We imagined a store selling different versions of guys named Herb…and laughed for hours…)

Of course, wanting to laugh more is a little tricky. Because the best laughter is pretty spontaneous, right?

Well, it turns out we can cultivate laughter and humor just like we can cultivate happiness, creativity, optimism, or problem solving.

I’ve been caring about laughter for a while but it hasn’t been my #1 priority or anything.

And I’ve recently started to notice that I am definitely laughing more.

Do you feel like you need more laughter in your life?

What have you tried to add more laughs?

Here is some of what I have tried, including examples of things that make me laugh...

I started out by watching funny movies and shows. (e.g. Schitt's Creek, Ted Lasso)

Then I remembered that I used to love to read humor writers and returned to them. (Have you read David Sedaris’s new-ish essay “Themes and Variations” ? Very funny to me…)

I started to follow people and accounts on social that are funny. (@adriennehedger, @damnyouautocorrect or #autocorrectfail, @thedailyshow, @newyorkercartoons)

We are the average of the 5 people we spend the most time with … so, spend time with people who like to laugh or laugh a lot.

Find things that my kids think are funny. I might not laugh out loud to the same things on my own but their laughter is contagious.

Share funny stories and memories with people.

Read funny quotes. (Like: “Always be yourself. Unless you can be Beyonce. Then always be Beyonce.” )

All of this can feel a little awkward at first but it’s worth persevering.

Better to accomplish whatever we set out to with a sense of humor.

Humor is an important element in playfulness. Playfulness is a powerful anecdotes to so many of our troubles...including the Effort Scramble I wrote about last week.

So in approaching our life with more humor and laughter we are likely to be more creative, take more risks, and find better solutions to the challenges we face.

“There is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good humor.” –Charles Dickens ​

Yours in laughter,

Marijke Ocean Joy