Surprise, laughter, humor are healthy

Over the years I have noticed that those individuals with an active sense of humor seem to deal much more effectively with life's adversities than do those who do not possess this characteristic. Some health care facilities make laughter and humor a regular part of the patients' treatment. Henry Ward Beecher once said, "A person without a sense of humor is like a wagon without springs-jolted by every pebble in the road." Having a sense of humor does not mean that you go around laughing at everything. Instead, it means that you can look at both the humorous and serious side of things. We need periodic release from the obligation of always being logical and serious about life's responsibilities.

Scientists are studying humor as a means of stress reduction. Medical science is studying the physiological and biochemical effects of laughter and are in agreement that laughter has a definite tension-reducing quality. This cathartic effect produces a sense of well-being in most individuals.

Charles Darwin, one of the first to look at laughter from a scientific viewpoint, noted that it is innate and a reflex action.

Laughter can result from a variety of experiences that can vary from tickling a person's feet to a clown dropping his pants at the circus. In 1928, a psychologist, Dr. Hayworth, in an article titled, "The Social Origin and Function of Laughter" noted the following laughter producing conditions: triumph, surprise, tickling, a funny story, a sense of well-being associated with good health, and an attempt to conceal thoughts or cover shyness.

Why some people can tell jokes and remember jokes better than others is a factor not completely understood. Many accomplished speakers tell a joke at the beginning of their talk. Besides being an ice breaker, scientists feel that laughter produces certain chemicals in the bloodstream which have an alerting effect on the individual, thus making the audiences more responsive to the speaker.

Laughter is contagious as many have witnessed in observing behavior of children in groups. The intensity of laughter can vary from a snicker to a deep belly laugh.

Humor can help make one's job easier by increasing productivity, effectiveness, and morale.

• Humor can help people change from a "misery loves company" outlook to a "laughter loves company" orientation. Jokes sent over the facsimile machine often help break up tension. Favorite comic strips from the newspaper posted on the bulletin board can lighten up the day.

• Humor appropriately injected in conflict situations can aid in shifting the focus from anger and destructive communication patterns to a less tense and a more creative atmosphere. Humor and laugher is often the flip side of anger and bitterness.

• Learn to laugh at yourself. You can take your job seriously but yourself lightly.

• Learn to laugh with others, not at them. Someone once wrote, "Humor is laughter made from pain, not pain inflicted by laughter."

Try to make laughter and a good sense of humor a part of your repertoire for alleviating and coping with stress. Like many of the other helpful things in life, laughter is free.

Copyright c 1993 Harold H. LeCrone, Jr., Ph.D.