Humorous Stress Relief Can Bring Joy
to Almost Any Situation

People love humorous stress relief. It provides contrast that tickles our funny bones and helps us see stressful situations from a broader perspective. Laughter feels as wonderful as rain in the desert or sunshine after a storm.

The Mind Invents
Unnecessary Stress

An enormous amount of our stress comes from how we think about the events in our lives, rather than the events themselves.

So what if the glass of milk got spilled? We could just clean up the milk and move on with our day.

But what if we keep thinking about that spilled milk? Then we are creating our own stress!

If we keep "stewing" on the spilled milk:

• what it cost,
• the mess it made,
• how long it took to clean up,
• how careless we were,
• how it "should not have happened,"
• "if only” things had been different,"
• "if only the other person hadn’t distracted us," etc,

then we are taking the situation and magnifying the stress.
(I speak here with years of personal experience.)

Better to dispel negative emotions and indulge in humorous stress relief.

Humorous Stress Relief Often Helps Us: 

• see our situation from a larger perspective,
• look at things in a different light or from a different angle, and
• let go of our emotional baggage, our suitcases full of resentment, worry, blame, fear, etc.

In addition, laughter feels good.

Laughter helps to quickly break up the repetitive pattern of stressful thinking and relieves us of that burden. It shifts our biochemistry and strengthens our immune systems.

Laughter "works" to relieve stress even when there does not seem to be anything funny to laugh about. The following video demonstrates this enigma. But don't take my word for it. Watch it and experience it for yourself. (It is only about two and a half minutes.)

But what if you need some stress relief and you are not near your computer to turn on the laughter video. The truth is, you don't need the video, although it is fun and can help. You can do it on your own.

For an experience of instant stress relief,

try a few minutes of simple

ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.

Then try a few more.

ha, ha, ha, ha, ha

Do it out loud!

Even if it seems boring,

keep laughing

ha, ha, ha, ha, ha

Laughter Has a Healing Influence
Even When the Situation Seems Serious

I don’t know why it works, but it does. Even when the situation you are facing seems serious, or tragic, or unfair, find the courage to laugh anyway. It’s a great survival tool.

Many years ago I discovered a lump in my breast. I felt anxiety and fear. For the next week I practiced what I called "wiggle giggle". For 30 minutes a day I walked and laughed. Even when the best I could do was a mechanical ha, ha, ha, I laughed anyway. By the end of the week I looked for the lump and could not find it. It was completely gone and never came back!

Make Laughter and Stress Relief Humor
a "Serious" Hobby

• Collect good jokes.
• Watch funny movies.
• Read funny books.
• Share a good laugh with a friend or family member and the joy multiplies!

Humorous stress relief can bring joy to almost any situation.

Laughter is a healing influence which helps us see the world and ourselves in a different light.

Discover more simple methods of Instant Stress Relief or, return to

Gentle-Stress-Relief home page.