The Lighter Side of Life

Humour is known to lift the mood, enhance connection between people and increase feelings of positive emotion. While it can include more obvious things like telling jokes and making others laugh, it also involves being able to look for the fun in everyday events and not taking yourself, or others, too seriously.

Some people are naturally ‘funny’ (or think they are…) and seek out opportunities to see the lighter side of life, while others might have to work at this. Thankfully, given the positive impact it has on our overall well-being, humour is a trait that can be developed with a little bit of effort.

The activity below encourages us to be more aware of the everyday entertaining little things that can too easily be forgotten when the more serious business of life gets in the way!

Research suggests that engaging with this activity can enhance well-being for up to a few months after completion.

‘Three Funny Things’

Throughout the day look for humorous moments. At the end of your day, choose three things that made you smile or laugh and write them down, including detail about why/how they occurred and how it made you feel. These can be things that happened to you or something you saw, did or heard. The magnitude of them is not important – only the impact they had on you is relevant.

After doing this every evening for a week, take time to think about how you feel about the last seven days and whether the activity has had a positive impact on you. If it has, re-engage with it each month or so for a week at a time.

As well as building a habit of being more aware of silly/funny moments in your day, your record of entertaining events could also serve as a ‘pick me up’ in the future if you choose to read back through them.

Thanks for reading!

References

Wellenzohn, S., Proyer, R. T., & Ruch, W. (2016). Humor-based online positive psychology interventions: A randomized placebo-controlled long-term trial. Journal of Positive Psychology, 11(6), 584-94.