The power of laughter

“ Laughter means: taking a mischievous delight in someone else's uneasiness, but with a good conscience. “

Friedrich Nietzsche

I’m in a somewhat amused mood today and I’m pondering the benefit of laughter and what motivates us to laugh.

I like the quote as above by Friedrich Nietzsche (I’ve no idea who he was other than a brief statement about him on the site I looked at….. would be tempted to read more, but I would then lose focus on what I’m doing and go off at a completely different tangent!)

The statement mentioning laughing with a good conscience resonates with me. People can sometimes get offended by some of the more controversial jokes. More often than not  the sense of being offended has more to do with their conception of another person being offended, not themselves. I’m not too worried about whether a joke is politically correct or not. I’m more interested in it’s wit content. If the joke is without wit, then it is possible that the “joke” has a more sinister objective.

Laughter is good for us. It gives a great sense of release. We often laugh heartily after a time of extreme upset. How many times have you been to a funeral, then spent time afterwards celebrating, laughing and reminiscing about the good times of the person you have just said goodbye to?

So how do we laugh with a good conscience?

I believe that first and foremost, we can learn to laugh at ourselves. Stop taking ourselves too seriously. Self depreciating humour is quite a powerful tool when used correctly. It may seem like “putting ourselves down” but we must seek whether the “put down” is really coming from ourselves, or whether it has been influenced by somebody else.

As far as self improvement is concerned, when we have learned to get in touch with ourselves and learned to accept who we are, then there is the clear ability to be able to use self depreciation appropriately.

Once we can laugh appropriately at ourselves, we give ourselves permission to laugh at others, or other situations with good conscience. We can see the irony in a situation and relate it to some of our own experience, or how we might take ourselves too seriously in that position.

Have fun. Have a good laugh today at something and do it with a good conscience. The benefits are enormous.

Seasonal blessings

Marty

P.S.

If you want a good source of amusing material, check out this guys blog that I found today. Here is somebody who know how to use humour and irony.

http://vicusscurra.blogspot.com/2010/11/keep-bloody-noise-down.html