By: Shoshana Raff
in a creative rut?
laugh it off Most of us today have become far too serious. We’re better trained than ever but don’t seem to be having nearly as much fun. We’ve lost touch with the importance of fun in our personal and professional lives. Consider this paradox: human beings by nature are spontaneous and playful creatures (just watch young children at play); yet, the older we become the less appropriate it becomes for us to express our playfulness. We get “professionally” serious and then pay comedians (and now humor consultants) to do a job we were born to do – laugh and play. Our inability to play is quite a loss since the correct use of both play and humor can help us thrive in chaos, remain creative under pressure, work more effectively, play more enthusiastically, and stay healthier in the process.
much good. Laughter works just like a drug, releasing endorphins into your blood stream to immediately lower blood pressure, ease a nervous stomach and free up the mind for creative problem solving. Laughter also helps to strengthen our relationships, balance our sanity, enhance our businesses and our lives.
JCreate Magazine
To understand how to use humor to increase your creativity, lets first gain a deeper understanding of what humor is and is not. Having a sense of humor does not mean you are an exceptionally talented comedian, or only appropriate when you’re “off-duty.” A sense of humor is about relearning how to see the fun in everyday experiences. Humor is not only about telling jokes. In reality, research shows that only about 2% of the population is capable of remembering and telling jokes. For the 98% of us who can’t tell jokes (like me!) humor is a way of seeing, salving and solving the seri-
Not only does laughter feel great but it does so
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Humor is our temporary escape. A release. A relief. Understanding that, here are a few ways to use it to help you create.
ous issues of our lives. Humor and laughter co-exist in our lives together with sorrow and tears as a balance of sanity. Here is my favorite definition of humor, “Humor happens when two worlds collide. Something unexpected has to happen that jolts you up and out of the normal pattern
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and then you start laughing. Humor is the synapse between the regular and the surprising. Everytime we laugh, we are making a leap between two worlds” - Margie Brown, author of “The Theology of Clowning.” Humor is our temporary escape. A release. A relief. Understanding that, here are a few ways to use it to help you create. Humor can be used to develop flexible thinking. Humor is a brainteaser that can stir up new perspectives. Avner Ziv, a researcher in Israel suggests that participation in a humorous experience before a brainstorming session increases creativity and “divergent thinking.” Humor helps promote innovation by making it legitimate to think in illogical and imperfect ways. Humor, laughter and play help to balance your life through a metaphor of juggling where the act of juggling expands people’s perception of their capabilities. A study done at Cornell School of Management found that people who had just seen a funny movie had a “creative flexibility” greatly expanded over those who did