How Humor Can Transform Stress

Last month, I was in California for business. I had to drive into San Francisco during rush hour for a meeting. I found myself in bumper-to-bumper traffic at a standstill for 15 minutes, directly under a humongous bridge. As I gazed up at the steel structure and tapped my fingers impatiently on the steering wheel, cursing out loud, I burst into tears. They weren't tears of frustration. I was flummoxed (gosh, I love that word!). 

I was under the Bay Bridge. 

Through the tears, I flashed back to 1991. My brother lived in San Francisco and I was in the city for the first time on another business trip. My father (who lives in Connecticut) flew out to the city for an adventure with his kids. It was a big deal. My parents are not travelers. 

On the day after we arrived at my brother’s apartment, in a sleazy loft in the Mission district, my dad and I set out to see the sights of San Francisco. My brother had to work, so dad and I were on our own. These were the days before smartphones and GPS so we wandered aimlessly until we found the Golden Gate Bridge. What a sight it was! We found a café and ordered two cold beers and sat at an outdoor table sipping them while admiring that feat of engineering, a California icon, the Golden Gate Bridge.

Later that evening, when we met up with my brother for dinner, we told him of our adventure – of how we found the bridge and how beautiful it was. We described in great detail (my dad and I fancy ourselves great observers and writers) the scene at the small café near the bridge and how we sat there for a few hours marveling at the structure. 

“You idiots!” my brother laughed as he spewed his own beer out his nose. “That’s the Bay Bridge you just described.” 

Yep. My father and I, two well-educated adults, sat for hours gazing at the Bay Bridge and discussing its beauty so eloquently, all the while thinking we were looking at the Golden Gate Bridge. 

My dad, 26 years later, is in a nursing home, with dementia. Sometimes he remembers the Golden Gate Bridge story. Sometimes he doesn’t. 

Flash forward to the traffic scene under the Bay Bridge in 2017. As the memory materializes like the Golden Gate bridge in the California mist, I am no longer stressed out. I am sad and I am happy simultaneously, but oddly, I am no longer flummoxed. 

I laugh and I cry. I thank God for the Bay Bridge and San Francisco traffic.

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Ann Zuccardy is a two-time TEDx and keynote speaker who studies and speaks on how humor impacts learning and brain health. She is a member of the Association for Applied and Therapeutic Humor and a certified laughter yoga leader. Follow Ann's healthy, happy brain tips on Twitter .

For more information on laughter yoga can help you and your fellow employees become better innovators, communicators, and create less stressed workplace, contact Ann. at [email protected].