Adding Positive Humour for Our Wellbeing and Mental Health

(This article was first published on Linkedin on 1 September 2018)

Photo Credit: Priscilla du Preez

Not a single day goes by without news highlighting the alarming state of our mental health. Whilst there is a lot to do, there tends to be an over-reliance on the negative in our culture. The human brain is slightly more biased towards the negative, catastrophes and survival. It is therefore vitally important to bring some balance and share some good news, wherever possible.

Photo credit: left, Charlie Chaplin in ‘Pay Day’ courtesy of United Artists, right: London Comedic Duo Barber & Benson

Much has been achieved recently to break the stigma around mental health issues, especially in the workplace. It is heart-warming to witness that in many organisations more and more employees feel that they can talk openly about their mental health challenges as they would about any physical ailments.

Free capabilities, known so far to be uniquely human, we often tend to forget about or neglect to consciously incorporate in our day to day lives and in the workplace are positive humour and laughter. So what exactly are laughter and humour, what are the potential benefits to our wellbeing & mental health and what easy steps could we start thinking about to improve our wellbeing?

“A Merry Heart Does Good, Like Medicine” King Solomon

Humour can be defined as “the tendency of particular cognitive experiences to provoke laughter and provide amusement”. It is said to derive from the ancient Greek “humoral medicine”. It was believed that the humours (fluids in the human body) regulated human health and emotion (Singh et al, 2011). Humour is defined as a higher order cognitive capability and so its effects on more serious mental health disorders is complex (especially in sufferers of more severe mental health pathologies).

Psychiatrist Black (1984) described laughter as a “unique, ubiquitous human phenomenon”. He further defined it as a behavior which “has many causes, including humor, incongruity, relief, and a sense of well-being.” 

Modern humour and laughter research has been scarce, mostly anecdotal and therefore not always conclusive, for various reasons, outside the scope of this article. However, a growing body of evidence does point to their potential therapeutic value not only in the treatment of a host of health (physiological) conditions (better cardiovascular and sleep health) but also in the alleviation of mental health and psychological conditions such as improved self-concepts and self-image, reduced aggression, anxiety and depression (see references).

In the business context, research has been published by the MIT, London Business School and Harvard Business Review (HBR) linking humour and laughter with increased engagement, collaboration and wellbeing as well as less boredom and stress in the workplace. Initiatives known of include firms like IBM or Yahoo using fun names for meeting rooms like Kajagoogoo or Southwestern using ‘LUV’ vouchers (HBR, 2014).

Research also shows that for humour and laughter to positively affect mental health and wellbeing the below attitudes/factors need to be taken into account: 

1. As highlighted by Freud (1928) humour distinguishes itself from other laughter-related phenomena like joking, wit sarcasm, and irony. For Freud, humour referred specifically to a benevolent and tolerant amusement at the imperfections of human beings and the world, not taking oneself too seriously and being able to poke fun at oneself with a philosophical detachment in one’s outlook on life. Humour here is inclusive and non-hostile.

2. No negative (mean-spirited, aggressive, disparaging) humour, which has been shown to have the reverse effect on wellbeing, except in the case of adversity. (Martin, 2007). Research exist on deprecating humour (against an aggressor for ex) which has in some specific contexts been shown to be effective in regaining hope or mastery in an otherwise desperate situation. Research exists with prisoners of war (POWs) reporting finding this sort humour useful in dealing with extremely distressing, traumatizing or life-threatening situations (Henman, 2001). 

3. Humour uses up what we psychologists call ‘our attentional resources’, which distract us from the negative event in question (Strick et al., 2009). 

4. Positive humour increases emotional regulation.

How could we incorporate more humour and laughter day to day?

Photo credit: Monty Python from ‘Albatross’

Below are some steps from the ‘Humour code’ HBR recommends implementing to bring a bit more humour and increase our sense of wellbeing:

• It’s not whether or not you’re funny, it’s what kind of funny you are. 

• Be honest and authentic. If you can’t be “ha-ha” funny, at least be “aha!” funny. Cleverness is sometimes good enough.

• Good comedy is a conspiracy. Create an in-group.

• Don’t be afraid to chuckle at yourself. It signals everything is okay.

• Laughter is disarming. Poke fun at the stuff everyone’s worried about.

• To tell whether a workmate’s amusement is real, not faked, look for crinkling around the eyes; if it’s there, you’ve got true “Duchenne” laughter, named for the French physician who identified it

In addition, I asked my friends Faye Barber and Paula Benson (photo below), creators of the London based stand up comedic duo ‘Barber & Benson’ for their tips on how they have incorporated humour and laughter in everyday life and the workplace. They shared the below with me: 

• Laugh at yourself and don’t take yourself too seriously. 

• Take things lightly. Life can be hard and everyone else might also feel pressured. Make fun (when appropriate) wherever possible to lighten the load.

• Do you like to laugh? Have you thought of unleashing your comedic talents? Why not join a comedy class? It’s lots of fun.

• Come watch us! We’re regulars on the London circuits. We’ll be performing our ‘Historians sketch’ at Party Piece comedy night on Tuesday 4 September. For more info @BarberAndBenson (twitter and Facebook)

Faye and Paula are friends so I will be biased of course! However I can share that my friends and family from abroad who do not all understand English laughed hysterically at their sketches. There is something of the universal and humble about the way they poke fun at themselves and at our society’s inflated and often superficial cultural idioms!

A 2014 Ticketmaster report revealed the seismic transformation of comedy as an entertainment and art form in the UK with a huge surge of touring comedy acts all over the UK. According to a 2015 TimeOut survey, there were 12,798 comedy shows in London that year! 

Whether you prefer watching comedy in the comfort of your own home or live, re-consider this unique human art form as a powerful antidote to the vicissitudes and challenges of life!

References

Beard, A. (2014) Leading with humour. Harvard Business Review.

Black, D. (1984) Laughter. JAMA. 252(21):2995-2998

Freud, S. (1928). Humour. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 9, 1 6. 

Dolgoff-Kaspar, R. et al. (2012) Effect of laughter yoga on mood and heart rate variability in patients awaiting organ transplantation: A pilot study, Alternative Therapies. 

Hayashi, k. et al., (2016) Laughter is the best medicine? A cross-sectional study of cardiovascular disease among older Japanese adults, Journal of Epidemiology. 

Henman, L. (2001). Humor as a coping mechanism: Lessons from POWs. Humor: International Journal of Humor Research, 14, 83 94. 

Ko, J. et al.,(2011) Effects of laughter therapy on depression, cognition and sleep among the community-dwelling elderly, H Geriatrics and Gerontology. doi:10.1111/j.1447-0594.2010.00680.x.

Lebowitz, K.R. et al. (2010). Heart and Lung, Effects of humor and laughter on psychological functioning, quality of life, health status, and pulmonary functioning among patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: A preliminary investigation, doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.hrtlng.2010.07.010.

Martin, R. A. (2007). The psychology of humor: An integrative approach. Burlington, MA: Elsevier Academic Press. 

Strick, M., Holland, R. W., Van Baaren, R. B., & Van Knippenberg, A. (2009). Finding comfort in a joke: Consolatory effects of humor through cognitive distraction. Emotion, 9, 574 578. 

Sugawara, J.,et al. (2010) Effect of mirthful laughter on vascular function, The American Journal of Cardiology.

Warner, J., & McGraw, P. (2014) The Humor Code: A Global Search for What Makes Things Funny. Simon and Shuster Paperback. New York, N.Y.