The mood at the World Economic Forum last year (Davos, May 2022) was sombre – the horizon has darkened – another global recession is coming.
Kristalina Georgieva (Director of the International Monetary Fund) painted a gloomy outlook in her opening address of the Global Economic Outlook panel discussion. She was particularly concerned about food price shocks, access to affordable food, stalling actions on the climate crisis, and the slump in digital money assets. Georgieva ended her address by reminding us that the world has dealt with unthinkable crises before, yet we remained resilient. We must be able to bounce back again through building resilient people backed by education, health and social protection. But how do we become more resilient?
Because of my background in healthcare and education, I am particularly interested in training people using the concept of enhancing personal hardiness (coping effectively with life’s stresses and strains.) Hardiness, a construct of mental toughness, refers to our ability to maintain control of our life which allows us to view stressful situations as challenges rather than threats to our well-being. One of the positive character strengths that can improve our hardiness – the ability to bounce back – is humour.
When we laugh, we release a cocktail of hormones in our brains. These hormones make us feel happier (dopamine), more trusting (oxytocin), less stressed (lowered cortisol), and even euphoric (endorphins)! We can toast others with the same cocktail and change their and our brain chemistry. Humour helps people to bond, thus paving the way to trusting relationships. Humour enhances others’ perception of our status and intelligence, influences their behaviour and decisions, and makes our ideas more memorable.
Laughter helps us to overcome functional fixedness and see new connections and associations – the foundation of creativity – through playfulness. As Albert Einstein put it – “Creativity is intelligence having fun.” But our brain must overcome functional fixedness. This cognitive bias makes it hard for people to see situations in ways other than what is automatic or habitual. This bias includes a failure to imagine how to use an object in a novel way. We know children are not hampered by functional fixedness because they haven’t yet learned the adult world’s traditional rules. Creativity helps us to see the world differently.
We can improve our physical strength or toughness through disciplined training. Having a coach helps. How about enhancing our resilience or mental hardiness? The same rule applies – disciplined training and learning from others to harden ourselves. Humour builds strength we can draw upon to deal with adversity.
The world is in turmoil – an excellent opportunity for resilience training! We can use a good sense of humour to enhance a more positive view of self and the world; add a degree of richness and fullness to our life, and savour the joy of living – even in a challenging world.
Vince
Dr Vincent Chong is a retired Professor of Radiology at Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore.
