Podcast Ep 19: How to Find Humour to Ease Anxiety & Stress

It can be tougher to tackle stressful situations when humour isn’t part of our lives, so how do we change that around and find humour to help us? That’s what I speak about in today’s podcast. Listen here to know more, but if you can’t have a listen, then you can read what I’ve said too – or now, you can even watch a video version of this podcast right here. The choice is all yours:

How to Find Humour to Ease Anxiety & Stress

“Helloooo, I’m Shruti and this is my podcast space where I speak about life lessons, chronic conditions, mental and physical health tips and experiences.

Please note that this podcast is available in text format on my website allthingsendometriosis.com in the podcast section. And very importantly, this podcast does not aim to substitute any medical advice because I am not a medical professional – I’m just sharing what I’ve observed and learnt over time.

Now let’s get onto today’s topic which is all about finding humour to ease anxiety and stress… and you’ll be really surprised how simple it can be to start off.

Every family, every person goes through problems, that’s a given – but I wonder, well actually I believe that what we’re taught when we’re younger plays quite a role in how we handle our problems.

Even in the most stressful of situations, I grew up to see how my family found humour or at least a smile or a chuckle – it didn’t obviously take away the problem, but it did another important thing, it instantly toned down the anxiety, which helped improve focus on problem solving.

So whether it’s major financial issues or a scary medical crisis, we’ve lived life filled with humour – we’ve always seen the lighter side to the situation and sometimes have even found a greater good from it.

So, I know, a bit surprising there but it does happen.

Okay now the oblivious me, living in my bubble of dealing with problems by keeping it light I’ve realised by interacting more and more with the world out there that this isn’t the case for many.

And I realised that humour or even a smile wasn’t part of many people’s upbringing so their default settings are of anxiety, stress, fear, anger, frustration, and even tears. I’m not saying I don’t feel these sets of emotions myself, but I also have humour which doesn’t allow me to be in that state of anger, anxiety and frustration for a very long time.

I’ve also learnt that our default settings can be changed. I know this because for many other situations, I’ve had to and frankly aren’t we all forced to adapt when we’re in a new situation?!

But again, I can say for a fact that because of the humour, I was able to adapt better and even change my default settings in other situations.

So how do we “find” humour?

Before we go looking for it, there are two important rules I apply when it comes to humour as a matter of respect and principle for myself and others.

1. I do not indulge in self-deprecating humour especially when trying to manage a problem.

2. I do not make fun of or take lightly anyone else’s problems.

Because humour is meant to ease situations and reduce anxiety – it’s not supposed to pull down or hurt any one.

So when someone is trying to share their challenges or issues – that’s really not the time to laugh off someone else’s troubles.

What I’m really speaking about is how we approach our troubles. This isn’t about how to throw humour into someone else’s issues – there we need to listen and be supportive.

Changing old patterns isn’t easy – as humans we don’t like change, we’re very comfortable with our habits whether they’re good or bad for us.

So first we need to be okay to add humour and reduce anxiety in our lives.

Once we’re cool with that then we can begin by starting with the most powerful tool – smiling more.

Whether life is normal, exciting or problematic, smiling is a brilliant default to happen.

Slowly, the habit of smiling brings with it the openness to chuckle, to laugh and eventually to be able to see the humour in any situation you’re facing.

I know I’ve made it sound so simple and I’m not giving you any major steps like I usually do with most of my podcasts like when I spoke about the art of getting angry, or finding joy in your own company or even when I spoke about adult bullying in my last episode…

This time, finding humour begins with smiling regularly, but what if you forget to smile?! Initially it is easy to forget any new habit so how about setting random but multiple reminders on your phone to smile – sometimes those reminders will be a bit annoying but sometimes you’ll quietly smile away for no reason and that’s the best part!

Please trust me on this, as smiling slowly grows to becoming a regular habit, you will regularly notice the humour around you – I repeat, you WILL notice moments of humour – even in really sticky situations and times when anxiety is high, a smile can trigger that much needed bit of humour to reduce the anxiety and help us tackle the situation we’re in with improved clarity.

You will go through that journey from a smile, to a bit of chuckle, to maybe a louder laugh and then seeing humour, quite regularly.

So I’m not asking for a lot – just begin with a smile.

Okay people, that’s it from me, in case you didn’t know I have restarted my YouTube channel which is also Footprints, No Boundaries, so if you’re interested then please do check it out and subscribe… but as for this podcast, if you wish to share this podcast then please do, if you wish to share your thoughts you can message me on Instagram and my insta handle is @footprintsnoboundaries or email me on [email protected]..

…thank you for listening… b-byeeee…!”

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I’d love to know what you thought of today’s podcast. Please do share your thoughts in the comments section below…

Previous: Podcast Episode 18 – From School Bullying to Adult Bullying – What I’ve Learnt

Up Next: Podcast Episode 20 – Do You Seek Approval?
(text version will be posted next Sunday, but if you would like to hear it on Spotify, then you can here)

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Disclaimer: I am not a medical professional. I am a patient and have created this platform to share my experiences. This is all purely informative and in no way am I providing medical advice. Please consult a medical professional.