How to develop a sense of humor: 6 tips

Tips to start seeing life from a humorous perspective.

A sense of humor is one of the most positive and appreciated psychological characteristics in general. After all, those who have a highly developed sense of humor are able to find reasons to laugh in almost any context, simply because of the ease with which they see the humorous side of life. Fortunately, it is also something that can be acquired throughout life.

In this article, we will focus on the topic of how to develop a sense of humor and apply it in our way of seeing life..

How to develop a sense of humor?

The ease with which we come to develop a sense of humor depends in part on the context in which we grow up. If extreme poverty and other forms of misery reign around us, it is more difficult, although not impossible or infrequent.

Knowing this is important because otherwise we may come to blame ourselves for not smiling constantly at the events we observe. events that we observe. Our mental processes do not depend only on ourselves, but are linked to the stimuli we receive.

That said, here are a few tips to develop a sense of humor applying small changes to our habits and philosophy of life.

1. Get used to adopting a detached perspective

It may sound paradoxical, but in order to develop a sense of humor, it is necessary to take a previous step in which we distance ourselves from ourselves, adopt a neutral (or relatively neutral) perspective, and observe what is happening around us as if it were not part of the reality in which we live.

What's the point of that? Well, that to know how to find humor in the most varied situations is partly to know how to break reality into parts is, in part, knowing how to break reality down into parts in order to draw connections between ideas in a way that breaks down the schema.

If we omit this analytical vision of reality, it is more difficult to lose the fear of not blindly following social conventions and perform some act or comment that leads to expose oneself to the risk of appearing eccentric. Which brings us to the following advice.

2. Learn not to be afraid of what people will say.

Anyone who displays a good sense of humor takes the risk of not being funny and coming across as a strange person or as someone who says things that make no sense. It is inevitable, for example, to meet people who will not understand a reference necessary to understand an improvised joke.. To achieve this, it does not hurt to work on maintaining good self-esteem and good social skills.

Having a sense of humor and keeping it to oneself is fine, but it is better, and develops faster, if it leads us to relate to others in a different way, externalizing it.

3. Learn to laugh at yourself

This is possibly the most important rule to enhance the sense of humor. Knowing how to joke about yourself is fundamental, because it shows commitment and consistency with a philosophy of life based on the idea that practically nothing is solemn enough not to laugh about it in certain circumstances.

4. Culturize yourself

This is an aspect that many people overlook, but the quality of our sense of humor can benefit greatly if we make a habit of reading and learning about different fields. Why? Because it is much easier to create funny and interesting connections between concepts that seemingly are very far from each other. from each other.

It is worth remembering that one of the pillars of humor is to break expectations, to go beyond what is considered normal and come back having created associations that we would not expect at first but that we can understand instantly. That is why culture allows us to navigate in a sea of knowledge in which, if you know enough, it is possible to create jokes and funny comments from the most varied ideas.

5. Don't learn jokes

This is the seemingly easy path that some people choose believing that it will allow them to access a sense of humor through memorization. But there is no sense of humor that is based on memorizing things: by definition, this quality is based on spontaneity and spontaneity. is based on spontaneity and the way we react to our context in real time.

It is clear that learning a few jokes does no harm to anyone and can serve to have a few laughs, but it is important not to confuse this with a sense of humor, although the latter will probably influence our ability to tell one.

On the other hand, linking a sense of humor to jokes can lead us to just the opposite, to encourage a way of understanding what is funny based on the "technical" application of jokes, something that is very rigid and can become boring for everyone.

6. Learn to differentiate when it is appropriate to use it and when it is not.

There are situations in which joking is not appropriate.. Not because the situation itself does not have a funny component for us (if it didn't, we wouldn't have thought of a funny comment in the first place), but basically so as not to hurt other people who are having a hard time or for whom it is important that the moment is solemn. It is important to respect their will and let them have those spaces free of comments that would be inappropriate for them.