How Humor Helps us Cope

Hardships in life are a given, but what if we found a way to laugh about it? Our guest shares how he's used humor to cope with the deepest pains in his life.

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Episode summary:

When we go through hardships and struggles, finding the humor in them can help us relieve stress and change our perspective. This week on The Science of Happiness, our guest shares how he’s used humor to triumph over hardship in his life. Kerry is a former member of the Bay Area Freedom Collective, a re-entry home where formerly incarcerated people can find community and connections. He started performing comedy based on his personal experiences during the 12 years he spent in and out of the prison. Kerry shares with us how processing his experiences by writing jokes about them changes his perspective on his traumatic past and helps him cope. Later, we hear from psychologist Andrea Samson about how humor can help us face down some difficult situations.

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How to Do This Practice:

1. Every day for one week, spend 10 minutes thinking about the things you found really funny that day.
2. Write them down in as much detail as possible and describe how each of those things made you feel. It’s important to write it out, as opposed to only doing it in your head.
3. Write down the reason why these things were funny. You can also answer the question, “Why did this funny event happen?”

Find the full Three Fun Things practice at our Greater Good in Action website: https://ggia.berkeley.edu/practice/three_funny_things

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Today’s Science of Happiness Guests:

Kerry is a former member of the Bay Area Freedom Collective, a home by and for formerly incarcerated people, which provides resources and support for their re-entry.

To learn more about Bay Area Freedom House: https://www.collectivefreedom.org/

or: https://www.facebook.com/bayareafreedom/

To financially support the Bay Area Freedom Collective: https://givedirect.org/freedomcollective/

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Andrea Samson is director of the chEERSLab at UniDistance Suisse and the University of Fribourg. She studies how humor helps us deal with one difficult situation and emotions

Learn more about Andrea’s research: https://tinyurl.com/3t42rp93

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More resources on humor from The Greater Good Science Center:

• Listen to The Science of Happiness episode on how humor can strengthen a relationship: https://tinyurl.com/4jem5r25
• How a Little Humor Can Improve Your Work Life: https://tinyurl.com/4u2949mk
• How Laughter Brings Us Together: https://tinyurl.com/2s3zfp7h
• Why Do We Laugh?: https://tinyurl.com/4rr4d7ch

More resources on humor:

• New York Times - Is It OK to Laugh During Dark Times?: https://tinyurl.com/4c22uekj
• Guardian - You’ve got to laugh: why a sense of humor helps in dark times: https://tinyurl.com/3xpvkcm2
• ABC - Why Pain Makes Us Laugh: https://tinyurl.com/4fa6snj5
• The Atlantic - The Link Between Happiness and a Sense of Humor: https://tinyurl.com/3mke3wpc
• Mayo Clinic - Stress relief from laughter? It's no joke: https://tinyurl.com/4w8f4rwx
• Scientific American - Laugh so you don't cry: how laughing kills the pain: https://tinyurl.com/3sysuwyf

Tell us what you think about using humor as a coping strategy by emailing us at [email protected] or using ...