How Laughter Will Make You a Better Freelancer

There’s this cartoon of a guy being interviewed for a job. The interviewer asks him, “What were you doing in 2020? And the guy answers, “Looking for toilet paper.” I saw this cartoon near the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, when things we were used to buying whenever we wanted them, like toilet paper, were becoming scarce. And I erupted in laughter. Then I shared the cartoon, which I saw in a LinkedIn post, with my network so that more people could have a good laugh.

In these surreal times, as we cope with living in lockdown and living with uncertainty, we all need a good dose of laughter. We don’t know when the coronavirus pandemic will end, or what will happen to our lives and our freelance businesses when is does end. And now, we also have to worry about the impact of the COVID-19 recession on our businesses.

Laughter: The Fun, Easy Way to Feel Better Fast

Stress is spreading faster than coronavirus.

Fortunately, there’s a fun, easy way to feel better fast. “When it comes to relieving stress, more giggles and guffaws are just what the doctor ordered,” says Mayo Clinic in Stress relief from laughter? It’s no joke.

When we laugh, we heal physically and emotionally. Many studies show this.

Also, laughter boosts our resilience and our confidence. In good times and bad, freelancers need resilience and confidence to succeed. Resilience helps us face adversity and bounce back when things go wrong. Confidence, a belief in yourself and your ability to succeed, also helps you deal with stress and meet challenges head on.

Build your resilience and your confidence

How to Boost Your Resilience During the COVID-19 Recession

7 Ways to Boost Your Confidence as a Freelancer

How Laughter Works

“Laughter can trigger the brain’s emotional reward center, delivering a heaping dose of feel-good dopamine and mood-lifting serotonin. It can even increase the release of endorphins, the pain-relieving chemicals our brain releases in response to such things as exercise, food and sex,” says Paula Felps in This Is Your Brain on Humor.

When you laugh, your body changes too. The level of stress hormones goes down, and this can stimulate your heart, lungs, and muscles.

Other benefits of laughter, say Mayo Clinic and Happify Daily, include:

Better mood
Less stress
Better immunity
Less hunger
Lower blood pressure
Lower bad cholesterol and higher good cholesterol.

Laughter even has some of the same benefits as meditating. Both help you focus and think more clearly. That’s good news for me, since slowing down enough to meditate is really hard for me.

Even just smiling can lift your mood.