Every year, the executives at Aurora, a hot internet start-up, go on an extravagant team-building retreat. This year’s retreat has to be flawless—the company's pending sale and huge payouts for the executives depend on perfect execution.
Olive is Aurora’s Director of Communications. Despite how superb she is, things are imploding. An executive is missing, everyone is fighting, trust between employees is practically nonexistent, a reporter is dogging the team’s every move, and Olive isn’t given the info she needs to do her job effectively. Added to this stress are problems in her personal life. Olive is newly divorced, her daughters are struggling with the change, her bank account balance is too low for her comfort, and she’s sleeping with an off-limits colleague.
In the face of all this stress, and sometimes at the tensest moments, Olive cracks jokes and laughs. This isn’t new for Olive. She has a history of being kicked out of somber events – like her grandmother’s funeral – for laughing.
Laughter is a typical response to humor. However, nervous laughter is also a well-known response to anxiety, embarrassment, tension, and embarrassment. Of note, nervous laughter is particularly widespread in children during uncomfortable moments. When people laugh in inappropriate situations, it frustrates both others and the laughers themselves, who usually feel quite the opposite of humor-filled but lack the tools to express their emotions in congruent, healthy, or productive ways.
Here are tips for preventing incongruous laughter:
Face Your Feelings: If laughter is a defense mechanism to avoid uncomfortable emotions, practice sitting with your feelings, allowing them to wash over you and retreat naturally.
Proactively Regulate Emotions: If laughter is a mechanism to keep your feelings within a window of emotional tolerance, use healthier coping skills like deep breathing, reading, walks, etc.
Respect Your Limits: Attempt to balance your stress levels so you have enough going to keep you engaged and not so much that you are overwhelmed. Maintain the mental and emotional space to behave congruently.
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