How does humor heal?

Humor is one of the strangest medicines we have. It doesn’t cure the wound, but it loosens the muscles around it so we can breathe again. It doesn’t erase grief, but it gives grief a place to sit that isn’t quite so sharp. Humor is the tiny crack in the wall where light gets in — not enough to blind us, but enough to remind us that we’re still here.

I’ve come to believe that humor heals because it interrupts suffering. Not by denying it, not by minimizing it, but by breaking its hypnotic hold. Pain can be consuming; it wants all our attention. A single laugh — even a small, surprised one — is a moment of reclaimed agency. It’s the psyche saying, I can still move. I can still respond. I can still choose something other than despair.

Humor also reconnects us to each other. When we laugh with someone, we’re acknowledging shared humanity. We’re saying, You see it too. You feel it too. In moments of crisis, that shared recognition is a lifeline. It’s why families tell absurd stories at hospital bedsides. It’s why people in the hardest seasons of life often develop the sharpest wit. Humor becomes a bridge across fear.

And then there’s the body. Laughter literally shifts our physiology — loosens the diaphragm, oxygenates the blood, releases tension we didn’t know we were carrying. It’s a reset button we can press without asking permission.

But the deepest healing humor offers is this: it restores perspective. Pain narrows the world. Humor widens it again. It reminds us that the story is bigger than the moment we’re stuck in. It lets us hold sorrow in one hand and absurdity in the other, without betraying either.

Humor doesn’t trivialize suffering. It humanizes it. It gives us a way to stay alive inside experiences that could otherwise flatten us. It’s not a distraction; it’s a companion. A small, mischievous one who whispers, You’re still you. Even now.

And sometimes, that’s enough to keep going.

image and some content/research AI-generated


post inspired by Humor, the Wonder Drug by Ken Mogren

Book Description


Following the success of his two Spunky Grandmas books, Ken Mogren is back with another collection of humorous sonnets, plus a smattering of clever limericks, about comical human behavior and the world we live in. Once again, Joella Goyette has contributed creative, cartoonish drawings that introduce the themes of each of the book’s 17 chapters. Like the previous works,

Humor, the Wonder Drug, provides laughs, chuckles, and smiles that lift spirits and brighten days.


Endorsement

Ken Mogren has written an engaging book of humorous verse that will entertain and amuse readers. As a dermatologist, I have found humor helps healing and puts patients at ease. Ken’s work is clever and fun to read. - Frank Bures, M.D.and creator of the newspaper column, “Health and Humor.”

“Laughter is the most inexpensive and most effective wonder drug.
Laughter is a universal medicine.”
Bertrand Russell, British philosopher 1872-1970 




For more posts about Ken and his books, click HERE.

 





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