Do you use humour enough in your life? Could you use it more? It can bring enormous benefits such as reduction of stress when used wisely.
VIA character strengths.
Today’s is humour. Each week I focus on a different character strength and think about how in the next seven days I can use that strength more. Humour is particularly good. We’re going to look at the definition, the essence of, dimensions and so on.
It’s part of the virtue transcendence.
Definition; it’s about liking to laugh, bringing smiles to other people. About seeing the light side, making jokes, not necessarily telling jokes.
The essence is offering pleasure, laughter to others.
The dimensions; it’s about playfulness.
Some questions you can ask yourself to use humour more; What situations promote your sense of humour?
What strengths do you use to be sensitive to the context, to express humour at the right time?
How do you initiate playfulness with others? And how do others initiate it with you?
Some interventions that you can use.
Each day for the next seven days, write down the three funniest things that you experienced or did, and explain why these things happen? How did it all come about?
Cultivate a playful attitude and sense of fun. Consider situations when you’re serious? Where you’re playful? And try to spend more time here.
Reflect on the benefits of adopting a playful outlook on life.
Spend time playing with young children, do at least one fun thing every day. Remind yourself to be playful.
The golden mean: In the middle between overly serious on one side, and the other extreme is giddiness, where they’re just finding everything funny, and nothing’s funny.
It correlates with these five areas: Social intelligence, Zest, Kindness, Hope and Love.
Actions that you can use to incorporate humour more often:
Find the fun and the lighter side in most situations, strike a balance between taking things seriously enough, and not taking them too seriously.
Learn a new joke three times a week tell them to friends. Note how laughing improves the mood of the group.
Be friends with someone who has a great sense of humour, watch how they use this strength to deal with bad news, with difficult decisions.
Go out with friends at least once a month, bowling, hiking, biking etc, and note how group the group dynamic improves when you laugh together.
Number five, send funny emails to friends rather than forwarding those boring chain letters. Does anyone still do that?
Share humour from your own life.
Some information:
Humour is connected with a number of health benefits.
It’s one of the strengths most connected with pleasure and positive emotion.
It’s one of the five strengths most associated with life satisfaction and happiness.
Sunday: Personal Development
The VIA Character Strengths survey lets you know your greatest strengths and how to utilise them to your advantage. Every week I focus on improving one of these 24 strengths.
Find out which are your top strengths at http://HabitsHealth.pro.viasurvey.org
Upcoming events:
Free nutrition webinar at www.tonywinyard.com/webinar
5 week Habits & Health programme at www.tonywinyard.com/workshop
Take my quiz to unlock your personal key to healthier habits.
Find out if you are controlling your habits or your habits are controlling you—plus exactly what to do about it!
https://habits-health.com/
Here are the 24 strengths:
Appreciation of beauty and excellence
Bravery
Creativity
Curiosity
Fairness
Forgiveness
Gratitude
Hope
Humility
Humour
Integrity/Honesty
Kindness
Leadership
Love and to be loved
Love of learning
Open mindedness/Judgement/Critical thinking
Perseverance
Perspective
Prudence
Self-regulation
Social intelligence
Spirituality
Teamwork
Zest
Blog posts weekly schedule:
Mondays: Movement
Tuesdays: Habits
Wednesdays: Nutrition
Thursdays: Breathing
Friday: Mindset
Saturdays: Sleep
Sundays: Personal Development
