People often don’t realize how important laughter is for health. People who laugh more often, relieve tension faster and deal with nervousness. Laughter stimulates life energy, adds a willingness to act, helps relieve anger, and cope with stress. Laughter stimulates the brain, thanks to which you remember and associate facts better. There is even a field of research of laughter, and its effects on the body, from a psychological and physiological perspective called Gelotology (from the Greek γέλως gelos “laughter”).
It seems to be an easy, fast, and fun way to improve the quality of life.
And how to introduce and use good humor in non-formal education and youth work?
About the project “Fa-silly-tators”
In November 2019, 32 participants from 20 countries met in Vienna for a 7-day seminar – „Fa-silly-tators“ – organized by Service Civil International Österreich. By experiencing non-formal education methods the youth workers, trainers, facilitators, project coordinators, and educators reflected on the meaning of humor in their work. During this training, the participants learned and exchanged methods and best practices on how to use humor to empower youth with fewer opportunities and marginalized groups, how to do humor from a feminist/antiracist/queer/etc. lens, when to use humor, and how to deal with conflicts around it.
Do you think you could improve your work with some good humor?:) You can find and download the manual HERE.
