Laughter, as a universal language, awakens reward responses in the brain, comparable to the pleasure of a favorite food. Good humor has influence on various aspects of life and its practical applications.
You can think of the joke as the minimum unit of good humor. Generally, it is a short story that ends in a punchline. Its simplest structure is an initial situation, which can be everyday or extraordinary, and a closing, which resolves the initial situation, generally in an incongruous way. The latter is very important, because the initial situation generates expectations that the auction does not respect, giving an unexpected response. The punch line has to surprise us to be funny.
Laughter is spontaneous and contagious, and acts as a social bond, especially evident in babies as a form of connection. Throughout life, good mood builds relationships, improves performance, and reduces anxiety. Humor is the path of creative thinking par excellence, because it is the only natural way by which the mind builds a “side path” of association and unusual metaphors, which avoids and surpasses the censorship of logic.
The intellectual exercise of humor triggers a pleasant emotion, which runs through the mind from side to side and emerges as a smile.
Humor not only activates the brain’s reward system, releasing dopamine, but it also decreases stress hormones. Its ability to influence decision-making and improve conflict resolution highlights its importance in human behavior.
Humor as a stimulus for creativity provides solutions using laughter therapy. The human being is capable of imagining, dreaming and visualizing transformation.
Creativity is the process of using intelligence, imagination and skills to develop a new product, object, process or thought. The ability to create analogies, in jokes, riddles and imaginary situations allows decision makers to apply ideas from one context to another. Intrinsic motivation in work tasks consists of the desire to engage in something because it is interesting, absorbing, exciting, satisfying and challenging. Added to this is a culture that favors the exchange of ideas, their fair evaluation, adequate recognition and remuneration, the economic, material and information resources necessary for the work, the freedom to decide which project is chosen, how it is It achieves effective communication and supports teamwork and fosters trust among group members.
Good humor is revealed as a valuable tool in the academic and work environment, by attracting attention, reducing anxiety and encouraging participation. In addition, it has benefits for mental health, by reducing cortisol and epinephrine.
Traditional pedagogy privileges the teacher’s word, verbal presentation, copying of texts and repetition to the detriment of understanding, research, debate, creation and problem solving. Knowledge is imposed and received, it is rarely constructed. Rarely do classrooms become communities of learning, of dialogue, of confrontation, where the discussion of new ideas is stimulated and one learns to think, to reason, to argue, to listen, to produce.
Planning is usually inflexible; it does not seek to develop attitudes and competencies to promote creativity, flexibility, the ability to adapt and the ability to learn to learn.
The path of change is the dialectical method with its characteristics of action-reflection-action, in which, starting from experience, it is questioned and permanently reworked.
Laughter therapy, with elements such as mathematical challenges, comics and contests, emerges as a comprehensive strategy. Its implementation in professional environments, structured or informally, can improve creativity and the work environment.
The importance of facing facts with a balanced perspective and the role of positive attitudes in stress management and decision making. Freeing your mind from unnecessary thoughts and emotions and seeing things from new and unexpected points of view is possible in a fun and relaxed work environment.
To study the facts, we must evaluate them within a context: not see them as the center of the world, but rather related to a series of circumstances that surround them. This provides the psychological pleasure of acquiring mental power to cope with them. By distancing yourself from them, you maintain a balanced view.
A person with a good mood can face conflictive situations with peace of mind so that tension does not prevent them from making the right decision, because where there is room for humor, there is no room for stress, they are incompatible. Laughter can stimulate creativity, as the person is relaxed and ideas flow freely.
Freud’s perspective on humor as a safe release of repressed impulses, linked to surprise and cognitive revelation.
VII. Creativity and Humor: The role of humor in stimulating creativity highlights the importance of a relaxed work environment. It is the relationship between laughter, relaxation and the free generation of ideas.
Detailed presentation of a program that combines mind stretchers, laughter therapy and other elements of humor in the workplace.
A Creativity Stimulation Program through Humor aims to stimulate creativity in the members of an organization with mind stretchers and the application of laughter therapy as a basic strategy, as well as other elements of humor in the work environment.
It must have a project development leader and a human talent manager with support from the IT department. Among the mind stretchers, mental gymnastics exercises, lateral thinking, and riddles are carried out daily via the intranet. There are weekly one-hour laughter therapy sessions, facilitated by the same human capital management.
Other elements of the program are the billboard with jokes, comics, contests, among others. The audit of the program is carried out to evaluate its impact and effectiveness with statistics related to the performance achieved.
It is necessary to promote lateral thinking in education and confirm its crucial role in crisis situations. Many ideas emerged as artificial intelligence took over the most routine and repetitive tasks. Lateral thinkers are fantastic in crises.
Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple, was very creative, but he said: ““I can’t take credit for the ideas I have because they just come to me.”
There was no work involved in generating his ideas. Education should promote them. Children do not know how the world works and are not subject to restrictive bonds. But schools want kids to shut up and concentrate, which is the opposite of what creativity demands. Children are the best creators because they are not subject to the ties that restrict adults.
Surprise is determined in jokes, riddles and lateral thinking. The relationship between laughter and creative euphoria is the same as when Archimedes discovered his famous principle.
The jokes lead the development of the story in an unusual direction, and that is, lateral thinking. In fact, many jokes are posed in the riddles “How is…?”, “What is the height of…?”, “Why…?”, “What did he say…?”, and even We wait for the narrator to surprise us with an unexpected outcome. The challenges promote reasoning by requiring the application of concepts and principles in varied contexts, and increase the ability to approach problems in a creative, analytical and systematic way, thus developing problem-solving skills that transcend the mathematical realm. Additionally, when faced with challenges, persistence and patience are encouraged, as resolution often requires time and sustained effort.
The science of good humor is revealed as an essential component in human life, with applications ranging from improving mental health to stimulating creativity in professional and educational environments. Consciously integrating humor into our lives can be key to a fuller and more satisfying existence.
