“Laughing makes us feel good.” It is common knowledge; everyone knows this. But very few people know that laughing is a healthy activity that enhances our overall well-being.
According to Doctor Madan Kataria, “Laughing changes you, and when you change, the world around you changes too.”
Similarly, the Harvard Business Review found that people can become more capable when they laugh at work.
Laughter further helps to reduce tension and pain. It’s a day to spread awareness of the many health advantages of laughter.
Isn’t it interesting?
It’s not a secret, though. Throughout history, medical professionals, healers, and therapists have discussed laughter’s advantages.
Why should companies stay behind? Companies need to understand how to harness the power of humor to increase employee happiness, engagement, and satisfaction.
Advantages of Laughing at Work for Both Employees and Employers
Establishing a culture of humor in the workplace benefits the team and the company. It effectively boosts productivity, general well-being, communication, trust, and teamwork. Laughter empowers the workplace in different ways, like through team-building and training exercises or by providing opportunities for employees to laugh and enjoy themselves. Let’s discuss the top six benefits of laughter in the workplace for your employees and the company:
- Encourages team spirit
Laughter helps improve team morale by creating a happier and more positive work atmosphere. Members of a team who get along better and are more involved with one another will work harder, feel more driven, and be more productive. Since jokes can induce conditional laughter, it’s a good idea to incorporate unconditional laughter—that is, laughter yoga exercises—into the mix.
- Reduce stress levels
A hearty laugh can effectively lower stress levels (cortisol) by a significant amount. Laughter minimizes sick days because stress weakens the immune system, leads to fatigue and heated discussions, and increases the risk of illness. Laughter minimizes sick days because stress weakens the immune system, leads to fatigue and heated discussions, and increases the risk of illness.
Laughter is a natural mood enhancer and a much better substitute for drugs or alcohol, which can negatively impact work productivity and work-life balance. Team members who laugh experience a reduction in stress and anxiety levels due to the production of feel-good hormones such as dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin, and endorphins. Laughter also makes people feel relaxed and gives them a positive attitude throughout the day.
- Encourages Creativity
Laughter increases the amount of oxygen that enters the brain, fostering creativity and pushing team members to think creatively. This further helps in coming up with creative concepts and solutions. A longer laughing session can boost creativity and generate fresh, interesting ideas that will benefit the team and business when there is no tension involved and the right side of the brain is stimulated and oxygenated.
- Enhances Interaction
Collaborating through laughter, especially through practices like laughter yoga that involve unconditional and nonjudgmental exercises, can help dissolve barriers and enhance teamwork by fostering empathy and communication. Laughter makes working together more enjoyable, and productive.
- Strengthens the immune system.
Team members are more resilient to viruses, have fewer sick days, and are healthier due to the lymphatic system’s production of NK and T cells. As a result, when team members rely on one another to finish tasks, more trust is built.
- Boosts Efficiency
Laughter can boost productivity by fostering fresh ideas, unique methods, and problem-solving abilities by boosting motivation and excitement. Working as a team not only improves relationships within the team but also increases production, which benefit the business.
Laughing as a team has several positive effects on both the team and the company. It helps create a happier, more cooperative, and more productive workplace.
Every year on the first Sunday in May, World Laughter Day is celebrated, aiming to spread joy, health, and harmony worldwide.
History of World Laughter Day
Dr. Madan Kataria, the lady who started the global Laughter Yoga movement, came up with the idea for World Laughter Day in 1998. On the first Sunday in May, people celebrate World Laughter Day across 70 nations. It occurs on May 5th of this year. The Laughter Day celebration is a global initiative to encourage people to keep laughing.
Easy Ways to Encourage Laughing at Workplace
Laughing more often is a small but powerful way to boost your productivity and general well-being. Here are some unique ways managers or business owners can encourage launching at the workplace:
- Laughter Yoga: This is a structured wellness practice that focuses on sustained, conscious laughter. It is predicated on the notion that laughing has positive effects on the body and mind. Usually, groups of people engage in these recreational activities together.
- Cartoons or Jokes: Consider sending funny messages every day. These ought to be accessible to a wide audience, lighthearted, and even ridiculous. Even apps that spread jokes and encourage laughter exist. Even though not everyone will find every joke funny, these lighthearted words will elevate and encourage employees.
- Story Telling: You can invite a staff member to begin a meeting by telling a humorous story about a hilarious incident that happened to them. This encourages laughter and allows your team to get to know each other better.
- Allow Foolish Act: Set some days for Christmas clothes, silly pet photos, and costumes, among other things.
- Show comedic TV series or films: You plan for a comedy show for the whole team in the common area or break room. Select light-weight programs. A timeless comedy like Charlie Chaplain or Abbott & Costello may appeal to all audiences.
Not everything will indeed make you laugh, so the same applies to your team as well. Comedy is highly subjective, like other forms of entertainment. However, since laughter spreads, you can use all of these activities to revitalize your staff and lighten the mood, even on the busiest days. Apart from the above activities, think of making some changes to your life as well.
Talk with a smile
Talk with a little higher voice and lots of smiles. It is human nature for people to look to the meeting facilitator to provide them with cues about appropriate behavior, including when it is acceptable to laugh. A sincere smile is the easiest and most powerful facial cue that it’s acceptable to laugh at. Your voice pitch is the most important aural cue. A little higher pitch in your voice indicates that you wish to set a lighter rather than more serious tone for your group, almost regardless of cultural background.
Lead by example.
Since laughter spreads like a yawn, there’s not much that can be more effective in getting your colleagues to laugh than laughing aloud. But just as most people can detect the difference between a true and forced laugh, so too can they tell the difference between a genuine and artificial smile, which brings us to our final piece of advice.
To sum up, laughter is a secret ingredient that successful businesses need
Using humor as a leadership tool can have a long-lasting effect on morale, rapport, trust, and productivity within your team. Embracing humor in your workplace will help you build a productive team that values innovation, candid communication, and a strong sense of unity. Share a joke, a clever comment, or a humorous anecdote; it can be the key component.
We may build our social bonds, boost our performance and productivity, and improve our physical and mental health by creating time for laughter and enjoyment. We can create a happier and more satisfying existence by practicing a positive outlook.
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