Laughter is a way of elevating your mood by expressing joy. When you laugh, you can relieve your inner anxiety. This happens because when you laugh, your body releases endorphins.
However, did you know? It turns out that laughter is not just to improve mood, but also to increase emotional intelligence. How could that be? Curious? Come on, see the following explanation!
Humor and Emotional Intelligence Studies
A psychologist who studies humor studies, Janet Gibson says that laughter is a powerful and fun tool to increase emotional intelligence, as quoted by Inc. from posting The Conversation.
There is a long list of scientifically validated benefits of humor. From exercising a baby's muscles and brain to acting as a non-pharmacological antidepressant, and science shows that an appreciation of humor is an effective sign of intelligence for enhancing emotional intelligence.
Train Emotional Intelligence by Adding More Humor
People who have lower emotional intelligence will struggle more to improve social humor. Gibson also provides suggestions for practicing emotional intelligence by adding more humor to life.
Gibson also explains further that by practicing a little laugh every day, you can improve social skills that you may not have naturally.
"When you laugh in response to humor, you will share your feelings with others and learn from the risk that your response will be accepted, shared, or enjoyed by others and not rejected, ignored, or disliked," Gibson continues.
Laughter is a proactive way to increase emotional intelligence
Over time, laughter has become a proactive way to increase emotional intelligence.
"A growing number of therapists are advocating the use of humor and laughter to help clients build trust and improve the work environment; a review of five different studies found that measures of well-being did increase after laughter interventions," reports Gibson.
Increase Emotional Intelligence by Training the Laughter Muscles
Training the muscles of laughter is not difficult, really! You can start looking for entertainment that is around you. For example, watching comedy shows, or chatting with friends by throwing jokes at each other.
You can also try the recommendations given by Gibson. He recommends hanging out with funny people, watching comedies that make you laugh, or writing down three funny things that happened today.
Well, how? It has been answered that laughter can increase emotional intelligence. Come on, start practicing emotional intelligence by laughing!