Laughter and Love: A Match Made in Heaven
Two of the greatest pleasures of life, love and laughter, may be the finest ingredients for happiness. They also go hand in hand to build happy and healthy relationships.
Love and romance
It’s no secret that love blossoms when laughter is present. A study found that the amount of shared laughter on the first date was a good predictor of a developing longer-term relationship. Research has also shown us that couples who laugh together tend to stay together. Laughter promotes intimacy and creates a sense of unity through shared positive experiences. Even when we laugh because of things going wrong, we remember these moments of calamity more vividly when we’ve been able to laugh at our misfortunes. This sort of laughter is supportive and affiliative, enriching our relationships, romantic and otherwise.
Love and friendship
On Valentine’s Day this year, why don’t we expand our horizons about love and look at the Action for Happiness Calendar for February which encourages us to foster friendships. As with any relationship, friendships require nurturing to develop and grow. A shared history is certainly powerful, but on its own will not sustain a close friendship unless we pay attention to keeping in touch. A colleague impressed me greatly during the pandemic by making sure that every day she contacted someone she knew who was living on their own, just to say hello and let them know that she was thinking of them.
Love 2.0
In the field of positive psychology, a famous researcher, Barbara Fredrickson has studied positive emotions over a long period. In 2013 she wrote a book about love which challenged the perception of love being largely romantic or familial and suggested that micro-moments of connection were important in bringing more love into our lives. The book (Love 2.0) is an easy and uplifting read and contains tips about how to bring more love into our daily lives.
Love and appreciation
One aspect of love that is sometimes overlooked, is that we need to keep ourselves open to the expression of love from others. To really feel cherished, we need to be able to accept love. As with compliments, it is sometimes easy to shrug off a display of affection instead of gracefully accepting it. We could even, in this Valentine's month, try savouring such expressions, magnifying them, and really appreciating them. Let’s give it a try.
Anna
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Fredrickson, B. Love 2.0 2013