Laughter is often called good medicine, and the worksheet describes it as linked with lower stress and a greater sense of wellbeing. Humor therapy uses laughter on purpose. It is a pleasant practice, not a treatment for any condition. Jokes, funny stories, and comedy films all count, whatever makes you laugh.
When stress keeps you from seeing the humor in a situation, the worksheet offers a short meditation to get a laugh started:
- Stretch to loosen any physical tension that may hold you back, including the arms, shoulders, back, chest, and legs.
- As silly as it seems, start faking laughter and go through the motions of a good belly laugh. The contagiousness of laughing often takes hold, and the laughter becomes spontaneous and genuine. Throw your head back and laugh from the heart.
- Keep going for at least five minutes, or for as long as the laughter lasts.
The worksheet also traces the idea of therapeutic humor back through history. It cites Proverbs 17:22, which compares a merry heart to medicine, and notes that thinkers from the Middle Ages onward, including Martin Luther and Voltaire, suggested laughter alongside other forms of care. In more recent times, some hospitals have brought in clowns to lift the spirits of sick children, and therapeutic humor groups now meet around the world.
