Perhaps, all we need to do in order to laugh more is change our perspective. How we perceive situations can make or break our day. Take comedians for example. Unlike many of us, they manage to see humour in simple, ordinary, everyday events and circumstances. Bangalore-based comedian Sanjay Manaktala says, “Comedians have trained themselves to see the world differently. Comedians look for humour in everything, so we see the word differently than most. You see the road being dug up again and worry about a possible traffic jam. Whereas, I see an opportunity to make us all laugh at how we’re all screwed. I am better person today than I was when I wasn’t a comedian.”
Try as we might, finding humour in every situation is not that easy. One, not all of us have the talent to look for humour in mundane situations. Two, not all of us find miserable situations funny. So how do we go about it? Dr Madan Kataria has a solution. According to him, our body cannot differentiate between stimulated and real laughter. He adds, “Over the years, I have discovered that humour and laughter form a cyclical process. The more we laugh (whether we find something funny, or not), the more we’ll develop a sense of humour within us.”
Many think humour is the cause and laughter the effect. So, it is good to know it works the other way around as well. By merely cultivating the habit of laughing (as an exercise), we can improve our sense of humour! In fact, even the father of psychology Williams James is known to have once said: “We don’t laugh because we’re happy, we’re happy because we laugh.” In a nutshell, humour and laughter can reduce stress, improve physical wellbeing, and help face life’s problems with a more positive attitude.