Gratitude and Humor
We wanted to thank everyone for their attendance and participation! We enjoyed researching and teaching on this subject. Here is a summary of the class this week:
Gratitude: A feeling of thankfulness or appreciation
What are you grateful for? Your house? clean water to drink, cook, and bathe in? How about a toilet that flushes? 100 people: A World Portrait has compiled statistics to demonstrate what the world would be like if it were a village of just 100 people. The statistics are astounding! Check it out here.
A really great article that pulls together a lot of great research on gratitude was published by Harvard Health Publications called In Praise Of Gratitude. Some studies that were cited in this article included:
- A study in which participants wrote a few sentences each week. One group wrote things they were grateful for, the second group wrote about things that aggravate them, and the last group was assigned to write about events that affected them (with no emphasis on positivity or negativity). After 10 weeks interesting results came back. The gratitude group was more optimistic, exercised more, and also had fewer visits to physicians. [Emmons and McCullough]
- Another study looked at the effects of writing and personally delivering notes of gratitude to someone who had not been properly thanked for their kindness. The results of the study immediately raised the happiness score of its participants for extended periods of time. [Seligman]
- A study done at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania found that managers who express gratitude to their employees see a jump in the amount of work that gets done.
Some "Ways to Cultivate Gratitude"
- Write a thank you note
- Thank someone mentally
- Keep a gratitude journal
- Count your blessings
- Pray
- Meditate
Humor: A comic, absurd, or incongruous quality causing amusement
Last week we learned about how humor is a great way to reduce stress. This week we took a step back to look at humor and its many benefits in a more broad perspective. 10 Reasons Why Laughing is Good For You explores many different benefits of having humor in your life. These include:
- Decreases Stress
- Helps Coping Skills
- Improves Blood Pressure and Flow
- Provides a Burst of Exercise
- Manages Pain
- Boosts Social Skills
- Reduces Aggression
- Lowers Blood Glucose Levels
- Energizes Organs
- Boosts Immune System
An important equation to remember: SMILE + FROWN = SMILE. Smiling and laughing is contagious. Check out this video!
How to Incorporate More Humor Into One's Life:
- Count your blessings
- Move toward laughter
- Spend time with fun people
- Bring humor into conversations
- Share something silly about yourself with a friend
- Don't forget to laugh at yourself
- Find humor in something serious
Here is a website with some clean and funny jokes!
**It is important to note that humor when used in the proper way can provide many health benefits, but when it is used improperly it can be even more detrimental than the situation.**
