Funny is it normal

They fall into the gray zone of ordinary life—giving you the choice to laugh or not. So, choose to laugh whenever you can. Laugh at yourself. Share your embarrassing moments. The best way to take yourself less seriously is to talk about times when you took yourself too seriously.

Attempt to laugh at situations rather than bemoan them. Look for the humor in a bad situation, and uncover the irony and absurdity of life. When something negative happens, try to make it a humorous anecdote that will make others laugh. Surround yourself with reminders to lighten up. Keep a toy on your desk or in your car.

Put up a funny poster in your office. Choose a computer screensaver that makes you laugh. Frame photos of you and your family or friends having fun. Remember funny things that happen. If something amusing happens or you hear a joke or funny story you really like, write it down or tell it to someone to help you remember it. Many things in life are beyond your control—particularly the behavior of other people. Find your inner child. Pay attention to children and try to emulate them—after all, they are the experts on playing, taking life lightly, and laughing at ordinary things.

Deal with stress. One great technique to relieve stress in the moment is to draw upon a favorite memory that always makes you smile—something your kids did, for example, or something funny a friend told you.

Think of it like exercise or breakfast and make a conscious effort to find something each day that makes you laugh. Set aside 10 to 15 minutes and do something that amuses you. The ability to laugh, play, and have fun not only makes life more enjoyable but also helps you solve problems, connect with others, and think more creatively. People who incorporate humor and play into their daily lives find that it renews them and all of their relationships.

Life brings challenges that can either get the best of you or become playthings for your imagination. But when you play with the problem, you can often transform it into an opportunity for creative learning. Playing with problems seems to come naturally to children. When they are confused or afraid, they make their problems into a game, giving them a sense of control and an opportunity to experiment with new solutions.

Interacting with others in playful ways helps you retain this creative ability. Here are two examples of people who took everyday problems and turned them around through laughter and play:. Roy , a semi-retired businessman, was excited to finally have time to devote to golf, his favorite sport. But the more he played, the less he enjoyed himself. Although his game had improved dramatically, he got angry with himself over every mistake. Roy wisely realized that his golfing buddies affected his attitude, so he stopped playing with people who took the game too seriously.

When he played with friends who focused more on having fun than on their scores, he was less critical of himself. Now golfing was as enjoyable as Roy had envisioned. He scored better without working harder. And the brighter outlook he was gaining from his companions and the game spread to other parts of his life.

Jane worked at home designing greeting cards, a job she used to love but now felt had become routine. Two little girls who loved to draw and paint lived next door. Eventually, Jane invited the girls over to play with all of her art supplies. At first, she just watched, but in time she joined in. Not only did it end her loneliness and boredom, but it sparked her imagination and helped her artwork flourish.

As laughter, humor, and play become integrated into your life, your creativity will flourish and new opportunities for laughing with friends, coworkers, acquaintances, and loved ones will occur to you daily. Laughter takes you to a higher place where you can view the world from a more relaxed, positive, and joyful perspective. This holiday season alone, millions of people will turn to HelpGuide for free mental health guidance and support.

So many people rely on us in their most difficult moments. Can we rely on you? All gifts made before December 31 will be doubled. Cookie Policy. But rats aren't laughing at jokes. They laugh when they're playing, in the same way humans do, to show that they're happy and to encourage bonding. The rats that played more, laughed more. And the ones that laughed more preferred to be around other rats that laughed.

This is evidence that human laughter has evolved from play vocalisation, a behaviour seen in many other mammals. In humans, laughter has developed into an important emotional expression, used throughout many channels of communication.

Think of the ways we try to convey laughter in text based media, like smileys and LOLs. Ask adults what makes them laugh, and most will tell you it's jokes and humour.

But they would be wrong. Robert Provine, a psychologist from the University of Maryland found that we actually laugh most when talking to our friends. In fact we're 30 times more likely to laugh at something when we are with other people. Intriguingly, within these conversations, we are still not laughing at jokes: we laugh at statements and comments that do not seem on the face of them to be remotely funny. The science of laughter is telling us that laughter is less to do with jokes and more a social behaviour which we use to show people that we like them and that we understand them.

In my lab we see the importance of laughter in our brain imaging studies. We compared staged laughter with the real thing. Not only does your brain automatically tell the difference, but listening to staged laughter produces greater activity in an area called the anterior medial prefrontal cortex. It's known to be involved in understanding other people's emotions. It shows that we automatically try to comprehend someone's deliberate laughs, even when not instructed to do so.

Our brain scans also reveal that laughter is contagious. Even when someone is having their brain scanned, which is not really very funny, you can see their brain responding to the laughter by preparing their facial muscles to join in. And the more that someone shows a contagious response to laughter, the better they are at telling whether a laugh is real or forced.

This seems to suggest that joining in when you hear laughter is more than just contagion - it may be helping you to understand what that laughter means. The fact that laughter encourages laughter is why an MC at a comedy club will spend a lot of time warming up the audience and keeping the energy high between acts.

But familiarity and our own expectations are still often at the heart of laughter. People find jokes funnier if they think they were told by a famous comedian. One says to the other: 'Funny, I can smell carrots too'. Learn More About funny. Share funny Post more words for funny to Facebook Share more words for funny on Twitter. Time Traveler for funny The first known use of funny was in See more words from the same year. Style: MLA. Get Word of the Day daily email!

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