Can Being Silly Lighten Your Load?

How do people bring themselves to smile and be silly through hardships, finding the lighter side of life? 

Yes, BE SILLY!

Being silly is a great way to access your inner genius! It helps us to change our state of mind, from a lesser negative state to an expansive and more positive state. We make the best decisions from states of mind that are higher.

Silly originally meant happy and prosperous, before it came to be seen as absurd and foolish. When did we let naysayers take over our word power? Silly as happiness is a state of mind, and it takes practice. I call it applied humor.

Applying Humor Like a Salve

Here are three ways to practice Applied Humor.

1. Read the funnies! (Did I just date myself by saying that?)Cartoons are a great way to see the positive and humorous side of negative situations. Examples: The Far Side, Batch Rejection, Sashotso Art.

Apply the humor to your own situations. Ask yourself what situation in your life most resembles the one in the comic. Find the humor in it and let out a little giggle, even if it hurts.

It helps if you can do this with a trusted friend, for each other. Two for the price of one. "I'm not laughing at you; I'm laughing with you!"

2. Watch Improv. (Even better if you can practice it.)
   Improvisation is not just entertainment. It's a life-skill. My family loves to watch Whose Line Is It Anyway? but we don't just watch. We take our favorite skits and practice those skills.

While "Yes, And" is one of the most powerful improv skills, we also like to answer questions with questions. Called Questions, it is the skit where two contestants may only speak in questions, and contestants swap out after a mistake.

Though this is hardly fodder for figuring out where to go for dinner, it is a practice that begets laughter and creative thinking skills.

3. Be Open to Silly! Misery loves company, but so does silly. If we want to be sillier, despite hardships, we have to be open to it. It helps to find silly people to hang out with.

Notice which people bring your energy up and make it a point to spend more time around them until your discomfort with silliness has a certain warm blanket feel to it, transforming itself into a trusted friend. Hardships come and go; they always will. The truth, although uncomfortable for some, is that we always get to choose how we respond.

Do you have a favorite way to enjoy humor in your life?

Epilogue

This post was inspired by a HARO (Help A Reporter Out) query for Bored Panda.) I used to be very good at getting featured, and I decided to give it a go again. One way to ensure you aren't disappointed if your query response isn't chosen to be published, is to let it inspire you to write your own article.

I was quoted and you'll see a remnant of my response after #21 and #27 in this listicle 50 Times People Couldn’t Help But Notice That These Things Look Like Other Things. I decided to write this blog post anyway as I felt that it could be expanded on and featured on my own website.

#21

We all know at least one person who still manages to have a light-hearted perspective despite the hardships they are going through. At one point, it may have made you wonder how they could do it. According to transformation coach Michele Jennae, having the openness to be sillier through the hard times is a must. 

“Hardships come and go; they always will, but we always get to choose how we respond,” she said, adding that spending time with people who bring your energy up also helps.

#27

So, what if you’re the type of person who takes themselves seriously and is looking to change that? One of Michele’s tips is to expose yourself to “the funnies,” such as cartoons. She also advises applying humor to your own daily situations to see life’s absurdities. 

“Silly as happiness is a state of mind, and it takes practice,” she stated in her own words, conveying that lightheartedness is a deliberate choice.

Thank you Miguel Ordoñez and Mantas Kačerauskas for the feature! I love the funnies in your "Look Alike" article too!

Transformation happens at the EDG, sometimes at the EDG of SILLY!

♥ Michele Jennae