Eighth International Conference on Health, Wellness & Society

Abstract

The use of humor is a way to promote mental and physical health. Hans Selye, a noted expert on stress, has written that a person’s interpretation of stress is not dependent only on the external event, but is also affected by that person’s perception and meaning of the event. Humor is a matter of perspective and perception. Humor has been viewed as a way of looking at a situation from a different point of view, diffusing a crisis and providing an opportunity for increased insight. A sense of humor is a powerful stress coping behavior. Humor can enrich our lives, help psychologically, and stir us physically. Research indicates that how we deal with stress influences our lives and relationships to health. Stress has been connected to heart disease, chronic fatigue and low self-esteem. Humor produces the opposite psychological response to stress. With stress, you have a rapid pulse, muscles are tight, and blood pressure is up. After laughing, all these signs are down. Research out of the Department of Clinical Immunology at Loma Linda University School of Medicine suggests that laughter stimulates the Immune system offsetting the effects of stress. Humor is a stress reliever that requires no prescription and has no side effects. Understanding factors which foster humor will provide an approach to creating humor.