Using Humor to Create Empowerment

Humor has the power to transform your experience with a difficult issue from below it (victimized), to above it (empowered). You may have had the experience of finding an experience funny that you had found upsetting in the past. If this is the case, then you are most likely healed and over what happened.

If you were able to view your life like a movie or play, you could see the natural flow of events go from happy to sad, easy to hard, everything in between and back again. It is a somewhat predictable cycle, though the circumstances do change and may surprise you.

William Shakespeare was criticized for putting humor in some of his plays when people felt the situation called for more of a serious mood. It came across as insensitive or inappropriate. Was it really? Or was it just skipping ahead a bit because from a higher perspective he knew that it was all just an illusion of the same cycles playing out? He figured he may as well have fun with what was happening if he was able to.

Joan Rivers once said, “Everything is funny.” While she created a lot of amazing success in her life, she was not spared the heart wrenching devastation many face in the course of a lifetime.

While I did not always enjoy her style of humor, I have a great appreciation for her intelligence and wisdom. She knew that the value of humor went well beyond the entertainment industry. It is a profound tool that can be used to come back from the depths of sorrow.

There are some things that by no stretch of the imagination are funny. But what if there was a way to see divine humor in more of our circumstances? If you could find that within yourself, you could easily jump up to the empowerment position of the experience.

Laughter and humor have the ability to lift heaviness and fear. Being super serious is not solving any of your problems more quickly. Even a smile has the power to physiologically shift our mood and outlook.

I once took a Yoga class where the instructor had us sit there and smile for a minute or so. I felt it really helped me to feel lighter!

I also make a point to be as friendly to others as possible. I feel it is good karma.

I smile at others and when I do, many times they smile back. Smiling is contagious.

I think a lot of people think they need a good reason to smile. I disagree. I think we should find any reason! Humor and laughing is one of the top gifts life has to offer.

Many times when I’m feeling blah, I think of my cute little dog Ritz. This always puts a smile on my face and produces an inner chuckle. Is there someone or something that always makes you laugh or smile?

When you are faced with an issue, ask yourself; Can I find humor in this? If the answer is ‘no’, then feel what you are feeling and continue having the experience the way it is showing up. If the answer is ‘yes’, get a good chuckle going and jump on up to the empowerment position.