Why are you laughing? are you really happy or are you in a state of fear? Laughing has different meanings. Not all people laugh because they are happy or something. Laughter is very deceptive so you better be good in distinguishing laughs. Laughter has different tones, laughter has different levels of strength. You can use laugh for your advantage, it is very powerful if you use it in a right way. Laugh can control a situation, laugh can dictate the flow.
1. Laugh of happiness or excitement. This is probably the most enjoyable laugh. No feeling of fear, it is a laugh that is purely genuine and authentic. You laugh because you are loving the moment. You laugh because there is a funny thing that happens. You are relaxed and no tension can be felt inside of your body. This laugh gives you good emotions and it also lowers your blood pressure. If you want to lessen your stress then you better practice exercising this kind of laugh more often. You can even laugh at your own, even if there is no one around. Just watch funny movie clips or try to remember funny things that happened in the past.
2. Laugh of submission. In this case you laugh but it is not because you are happy, you laugh because you are scared and you are just agreeing with the alpha person dominating the situation. For example if a strong personality is cracking jokes, even if it doesn't sound funny to you... you will also laugh because you are scared to get noticed and be labelled as a kill joy type of person. If someone is somehow bullying you and making you look like a clown, you will also laugh because you are afraid that you might get hit or something. You will just laugh and accept the situation because you are afraid of trouble. Your are submitting, you are just pretending that you are liking it but deep inside you are just afraid and you don't want to be in a bad spot. It is like "ok go ahead and do everything to me, I will just laugh so you won't hit me harder, I will agree in everything that you say". This laugh is also known as the coward laugh.
3. Laugh of courage. Being ok with what is going on, you laugh even if the situation is really hard. This happens with people who are experiencing a great adversity. They laugh even if they are suffering because they knew if they stick on to the situation, they will still thrive in the end and become successful. Look at a boxer who is in deep trouble, even if his opponent is hitting him really hard consecutively... he still manage to laugh, it is like nothing for him. It is like wiping a dust. He knew that his situation will change later if he didn't give up, which usually is likely to happen. So laugh even if you are facing a difficult situation and tell yourself that everything will be alright if you fight back and never give up.
4. Laugh of attention seeker. This is usually done by people who lacks appreciation and attention. He will just laugh even if nothing is funny, he will laugh very loud and he will make sure that everyone around him will hear his laugh. He will laugh in a very corny and useless jokes, he will laugh even if he doesn't know what is going on. He will laugh just to standout, he literally thinks that he is impressing people. What he don't know is some people were already annoyed at him.
5. Laugh of defense. This is a scared laugh too. People who does this were always in a defensive mode. They laugh because they are just pretending that they are brave but what they really feel is fear and nothing lesser than that. For example a guy who is in a stare down with his opponent before their scheduled fight. He will just laugh because he was stunned by his opponent, he makes a fake laugh to defend his ego and show to his opponent that he is not scared. This laugh is somehow tricky, only the person who does this knows what he really feel.
6. Laugh of insulting people. This is a very disrespectful laugh and usually it can really make a person being insulted explode or really get angry. You can do this if you want to destroy the strategy of your opponent or put your enemy down even more. An insulting laugh usually creates a fight so always be ready if you do this. Be ready to defend yourself and make sure you can still laugh in the end despite of the trouble that you created. And if you are the one being laughed at, just ignore it because people who does this kind of laugh were also not very confident, they just do it because they want to get into their opponent's head, they were just celebrating the little momentum that they are having for the moment.
7. Laugh of awareness. When you caught someone not doing right and you want to give that a person a second chance then you do the laugh of awareness. For example a boss caught one of his worker sleeping while working, he will just laugh for the first time and will not say anything. But that laugh serves as a warning that the worker must do his job well and not take it as a go signal to continue sleeping. It is a laugh that has a hidden meaning. The one who does it may be preparing a punishment or something.
8. Evil laugh. This is a very scary laugh, someone who does this might be planning something bad that will create havoc. Sometimes the person who does this also smells victory and somehow he is being arrogant. But some people also does this for the sake of making other people laugh too, it is just for comedy purposes. This is a very strong laugh and can catch a lot of attention from people who hears it.
9. Laugh of appreciation. You can use this laugh to appreciate someone who takes a big risk and eventually put on a good show. You can use this to appreciate someone who is doing his best and somehow making a little bit of progress. This laugh is very positive and can somehow motivate someone. If you see someone laughing at you even if you are struggling, he might be telling you that it is ok and you are doing a good job. He also might be telling you to keep going because you are doing the right thing.
A simple laugh is very powerful, it can give signals even if no word is being said. It depends on how the laugh is being delivered and what kind of tone the laugh has. You can use it to your advantage, you can use it in any situation. The key here is just always feel good when you are laughing.
