People who are stressed out can benefit from humor and laughter. Using humor as a coping mechanism allows us to not take life too seriously. Numerous studies on humor’s impact on stress have been conducted from the viewpoint of cognitive psychology. There are many different ways to use humor. Utilizing it as a component of a coaching session with your clients is one way. This chapter starts off by examining why happiness has had such a cloudy history in French culture. The French and Americans shared the same passion for happiness in the eighteenth century. Since they suddenly published about 200 treatises on the subject, they could actually have staked claim to being the world’s foremost authorities on it from a theoretical and literary standpoint. However, they learned—or learned again—many of the difficulties that happiness entails; as a result, their desire for it was tempered by spirited debates about its nature and a great deal of uncertainty regarding how it could be attained. The history of friendship is examined in this chapter to give readers a better understanding of how shifting social norms impacted the issue of how to be happy for the average man. It examines the expressions of happiness, especially dancing, and moves from them to the social connections they made. The topic of humor as it has evolved throughout the history of eating, drinking, and laughing is then discussed.
