Benefits of  Jokes, Fun and Enjoyment in our lives!

Just like anyone else, my daughters are my life. Both of them are young and now at 5 and 12 they seem to be quite smart for their age. I joke around, have fun with them and the combination of both creates a tremendous amount of energy, attachment and joy among all three of us.  

We understand that the essence of living lies in enjoying our lives, not just having expectations from others. Every small thing matters in my life, not to make a fuss about it but to get the thrill out of it. 

Sometime back, it so happened that we were sitting for dinner and my younger daughter didn't want to have dinner on the dining table. That moment was the time for our favorite television show. I take care that my children have their food on time.  So I knowingly got up, got all my plate together and sat down on the floor before the television. Although my daughter did not want to eat anything, she still sat there watching me do my act. We usually have homemade bread with vegetable curies and I mashed the bread with the curry of the day on my dinner plate. Normally we eat crumb by crumb and do not mash. So as I sat doing that, as my daughter watched. In a little while she came and sat next to me and said that she too wanted to eat in the same manner that I was eating. I think she found it interesting and out of the usual way we usually eat. So here there was another plate laid out by my wife and my daughter sat and ate her food with her own hands, enjoying it every bite. The fun here was in the manner that we all ate. Instead of spoons we used our hand and fingers to eat the mashed bread and curry. It was just lovely and so tasty eating out of our hands. We never knew that eating with spoons could never taste as good as eating with our own hands. God has created everything that we require and it is fun to use them. 

Similarly, when children cry, just show them something interesting and fun making. Divert their attention to something that is better than the issues that they are crying for, talk fun, do something out of the box and you will find that they will stop crying, forget about all their worries and pain, and start concentrating on what you are showing. What a tremendous joy to find your children having fun.

So when we create something interesting from a boring mandate, it pays. It is the principle of diversion which is so effective that you cannot make a mistake. So it goes for everyone. In life, you will not find a single instance when you find yourself in any trouble, small or big, and you still overcome it when someone shows you something which diverts your attention from it. Diversion in itself is fun and Jokes create the atmosphere of diverting peoples' thoughts to a make it a more jovial surrounding. 

In my younger days, we used to have different kinds of jokes like different heights, Knock Knock Jokes, Little Johnny, English Jokes, kids, Yo mama, non-vegetarian jokes, funny jokes and a host of others which we would all enjoy. So do I feel today? The new genre includes married jokes, animal jokes, man/women jokes, Rajnikant jokes, dirty jokes etc. Every person with whom I have shared a joke, has laughed and felt happy. That's what is required to feel the happiness inside. When you smile and laugh it creates an undercurrent of joy which will lift your spirits up.

At times, my younger daughter just throws up a repartee, a twisted cheek, a dance pose, a fashion style and we really enjoy watching her, not expecting here to behave like a grown up would. Her tantrums really speak the ideas that just turning and twisting in her brains and the entire family enjoys every step with her. This kind of fun is unparalleled. 

Let us find out what are the important types of fun:

Joking Around
Playing indoor and outdoor games
Enjoying at a party
Drinking
Gossiping
Working
Bathing
Vacation at sea beaches, mountains, hill stations
Jungle/forest camps
Summer/Winter camps
Enjoying at the race course
Dancing at the Discotheque

And lots more...

Whatever be the type of fun, the reason behind it is the same. The reason is to enjoy life in whatever form there is.  While fun in itself is fun, jokes lead to fun, fun leads to joy and it is a joy to joke around. They are interconnected, intertwined very minutely and one is the result of the other. Once woven together, they create happiness, laughter and a sense of merriment. Newton’s law wisely states “For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.” 

In India there is a concept of the laughing club. In fact it is there in various other countries as well. You may call it the laughing Yoga club. People gather in parks and the only reason to do so is to laugh out and laugh loudly not because they are making fun of someone, but to really enjoy laughing. Probably we have all lost out the reason to laugh in our lives, so we have introduced laughing in our day to day exercises. What a concept! It's true that the joy of laughing is tremendous and there is fun in it. But it is better to do it out of jokes, play, having fun rather than actually putting an emotion like laughing into a daily exercise. I would say the concept is good but it should be people narrating their self funny stories so that people can laugh from inside rather than just outside. There are obviously health benefits in having fun, laughing and creating joy.

Everyone has their own theories of living happily and I for sure think that having fun with jokes around would help create the joy in everyone's life! Fun can be created in any environment. Do not get serious till you are driven to the wall. In fact the edge of the wall can also help think about fun topics which could in turn help drive stress away.