How Laughter Transcends Suffering

Remembering to laugh and play is a key that protects us from anxiety, depression, and makes life inherently worth living

Laughter As A State Of Being

“Perhaps I know best why it is man alone who laughs; he alone suffers so deeply that he had to invent laughter.”
— Friedrich Nietzsche

In the face of the absurd suffering in the world, there are two major possible responses. You can be swallowed up by it, and lose your soul to nihilism, or, you can laugh at it.

Laughter as a state of being is a state of playfulness and creativity. It’s about responding to the present moment with awareness and intuition, which is naturally joyful, rather than accepting what you’ve been commanded to believe about the world by others. Or your own thoughts.

Who tells you to take things so seriously that it hurts? At first it was other people, the culture that raised you. But once its internalized, your own thoughts can torment you sometimes. Why do you that? It’s absurd.

You can respond to your own absurdity by bashing your head into the wall and screaming why all you want, but that is also absurd, and drags you deeper into the pattern of suffering. Laugh also at yourself.