What is the purpose of ‘Humour’ in our lives?

Humour is an attitude of light heartedness where we don’t take everything seriously. It is an antidote to all the negative aspects of our lives.

If we look at life in a humorous way, it negates all the negative feelings that arise from a situation. We do this often, but are not always conscious of it. For example, a sad smile, which is a very basic kind of humour. We smile at ourselves when we are in a sad situation. But the best kind of humour is when we are actually laughing at ourselves.

It is easy to laugh at other people; it is also easy to laugh with other people; but to laugh at one’s own self is the richest kind of humour. The day we learn to appreciate that kind of humour, we will never take an insult. Because then we start to laugh at things that normally would have hurt us, and we convert what is supposed to be normally negative into something extremely positive. It gives us an attitude to take us right through our lives.

So what is the first step towards humour? The first step is to realize that nothing is important. Our physical, emotional and mental selves make things seem important. What’s more, we even make other people think that everything is important. But, in reality, nothing really is important.

Humour has a strong impact on our consciousness, so much so that we begin to look at everything from a very light-hearted point of view. Because when we laugh, and are happy, our body releases pheromones and serotonin, which act as pain-reliever and mood elevator, respectively.

Humour–the attitude of laughter, the attitude of looking at things from a light-hearted perspective—is so often missed. It is a balm, a pain reliever of a kind that has an effect even on the people who are trying to hurt us.

Therefore, laughter truly is the best medicine.