Laughing Through it

Laughing Through It: Why Humor Is an Underrated Stress Tool

I'll be honest — some days feel like they're daring me to lose it. The printer jams five minutes before a meeting, I hit every red light on the way to something important, I spill something on my clothes. None of those life moments are going away. But I've noticed that how I meet those moments changes everything about how the rest of the day goes. And the tool that helps me most is humor.

This isn't about pretending everything's fine because clearly, everything is not fine. This is about training yourself to notice the absurdity or the humor in those difficult moments, so stress doesn't win.

Why It Actually Works

A good sense of humor isn't just a nice personality trait — it changes your relationship with stress. When you can find the funny angle in a hard day, you tend to bounce back faster, feel less alone in the frustration, and carry less tension in your body. There's real physiology behind it too: laughing eases muscle tension and lowers stress hormones. It's one of the few things that works on your mind and your body at the same time.

A Few Ways to Build the Habit

• Start with the face you're already making. Even a fake smile nudges your brain toward feeling better — and it has a way of turning real if you hold it a few seconds. Try it and see if you don’t laugh authentically simply because you are trying to smile. Better yet, put a mirror in front of you!
• Zoom out. In the middle of a stressful moment, everything feels huge. I was running late to a presentation years ago and I dramatically, and with a lot of flair, fell down my stairs. The lovely woman who was cleaning my house came running over, afraid of what she would find. What she found was me sitting at the bottom of the stairs laughing about the absurdity of the situation. She asked me if I was hurt - I told her the only thing that hurt was my pride. We both got a good laugh.
• Push it past ridiculous. If something's already absurd, exaggerate it further until it’s funny. Stuck in a long line? Imagine you're still there in thirty years, grandkids stopping by with lunch.
• Borrow a friend's perspective. A friend who can hear about your terrible day and immediately find the funny angle is doing something real for your nervous system — not just being entertaining. Not only am I married to this friend, I am blessed to have 3 children who are also this type of friend.
• Funny TV is underrated. One thing that has worked for me time and again, when I am in a proverbial pressure cooker with stress, is watching a funny tv show. Everybody Loves Raymond is one of my personal favorites. . I don’t think I have ever watched an episode that doesn’t make me laugh. Try it, what do you have to lose?

None of this erases the hard parts of a day—especially when you are carrying the heavy, exhausting weight of navigating a child's addiction and the constant uncertainty it brings. But a little humor, practiced on purpose, is one of the more reliable ways to lift that acute stress, catch your breath, and keep the hard parts from writing the whole story.