Optimism and Good Humour

Personal and Corporate Advisor and multiawarded Mentor, Viola Edward, takes a look at good humour and its relationship with optimism and how together they can be used to expand what is possible.

In Hippocratic medicine, the human body contains four basic regulating energies called humours, these are associated with the four elements; Nature, Water, Air, Fire and Earth. If the combination of these four energies results in a pleasant mix, the person is said to be in a good mood. Unbalanced combinations of the same elements create bad moods, most commonly referred to as stress.

Beyond the images we may have about good and bad moods, we can broaden the formula, as outlined by the ancient Greeks, with an inclusive holistic view. Today, linked to our species, the concept of humour is associated with the senses, such as sight, sound or touch and certainly related to smiling, a wonderful human capacity.

As everything we are emanates from within, so does the smile. Nobody ‘puts a smile on our lips’. Others can provoke it, but it is from within us that it emerges. Good humour is a language that communicates using gestural complicity, the crossing of glances, the sounds of rhythms and volumes and the particular energetic intensities of each person in a transversality that includes all the senses.

Its best-known symptom is laughter, which we can observe as a healthy characteristic of the social nature of our being. For children, laughing is as important as eating for their organism. Laughter and good humour nourish each other. When laughter appears on a regular daily basis, humour improves and with it comes optimism.

Optimism is one of the outstanding features of good humour. Optimism, which I conceive as an attitude towards life, is a willingness to start afresh, to try again, to trust, re-analyse and then continue. On this pathway, optimism opens our access to self-knowledge and acceptance. Optimism is a rewarding and creative way of living together.

Given its social nature, humour is a quality that is shared, appreciated and enjoyed. We have all provoked or felt those touches of humour, that positive sentiment of laughing at oneself or at some annoying, everyday situation that can then dissipate like a fresh breeze. We can celebrate this nature with effective social and emotional intelligence, helping us to resolve problems in an optimistic way.

Out walking with the family or chatting with someone while waiting to be attended to,

greeting, thanking or sharing with friends, these are strategies which feed good humour. This energy in turn nourishes positive relationships with the people and the circumstances among which we live.

Humour is a current that draws drawing us towards a greater mental, emotional and intuitive openness. Humour facilitates our capacity to adapt to new experiences. Its great ally is creativity. The creation of humour is the ability to associate different and unexpected ideas, capable of ‘breaking the mould’ of perceived “logic” and producing a twist to the situation, whatever it may be.

In many creative companies, brainstorming is used to create wonderful solutions which are loaded with good humour. This and other strategies assume a conscious and intentional mindset to expand the possible, the optimistic vision that facilitates building positive interactions, minimising tensions and conflicts.

Resilience is another quality very much about humour. It has little to do with naivety or selfdeception; rather, it involves an attitude towards life which includes the confidence that things will work out. Resilience comes to the surface when one actively intervenes, finding humorous ways out of negative situations and building positive relationships.,

Good humour and smiling, in any of its intensities, releases endorphins making us feel happier and it is also considered a cardiovascular exercise because when we laugh, we bring more oxygen to the brain and body, which counteracts stress and bad humour.

It is such a shame that so many people have the habit to only connect with this joy of laughter, feeling lighter and making jokes after having a few drinks, while there is a naturally healthy, powerful and cost-free way always available to us through the awareness of breathing.

Conscious Connected Breathing, especially when we concentrate on relaxing into extended exhale entices the emergence of joy, lively positivity and that personal sense of good humour which we all naturally possess.

Let’s breathe for it…

Viola Edward, is a Personal and Corporate Advisor and multi-awarded Mentor. Humanitarian, pioneer of Breathwork and mental health fitness in the workplace since 1993, she is convinced that the practice of Conscious Breathing is at the core of every person’s wellbeing. Co-owner of GRIT Academy and Kayana Consulting, Author Breathing the Rhythm of Success and Who Makes the Bed?, co-author of ten more books. www.violaedward.com 15