Life
6 Habits Of Couples Who Laugh Together A Lot
Laughter will get you a long way. My mom used to tell me, when advising me as to what makes a good relationship, to date someone who made me laugh, because all the other stuff would eventually fade and if we couldn't laugh together, it wouldn't last. She told me that around the time my criteria for dating candidates was "hot", which is a phase we all go through in our late-teens/early-'20s, so it's not like I'm beating myself up about being briefly short-sighted about what qualities would make for a good partner. But along with someone being kind, reliable and trustworthy, being able to make me laugh is imperative in a relationship. You could have all the romance in the world, but where would you be if you weren't laughing so hard a little bit of pee comes out? Somewhere unbearably boring, I'm assuming.
Couples who laugh a lot are a certain breed: They might not always wind up being right for each other, but they've nailed the art of having fun as a pair. As someone who values laughter in a relationship highly, I've noticed, in my own relationship and the relationships of those arounds me, certain habits that I think create an environment conducive to love-sustaining LOLs. That said, if you don't have complimentary sense of humor, you probably aren't going to be able to create a false one, so being compatible in the first place is the foundation a couple needs to base laughter on. Here is a non-exhaustive list of habits that couples who laugh a lot engage in:
1. They're best friends
Couples who laugh a lot are generally besties. When you're best friends with someone, there's no pretense in your interactions; No one is trying too hard to come off a certain way, and you can spend hours doing literally nothing and still come up with "in" jokes. Treating someone like a best friend rather than an arms length romantic partner will promote your ability to laugh together.
2. They don't take themselves too seriously
This is the gospel truth: You have to be able to be a total weirdo with someone. If you're constantly trying to be your "best self", you're never going to laugh a lot. Knowing that you're a dork, and there are things about you that are funny, and worth laughing at, will allow you to let go and have a good time.
3. They know when not to take things personally
Meanwhile, also being aware that, if your partner laughs at you, it doesn't mean there's anything "wrong" with you is important. A lot of laughter comes from ribbing and teasing one another, and if you take tasteful, innocent joking personally, neither of you are ever going to have any fun.
4. They're not self-conscious around one another
You'll often hear people talk about how you can't really be in a healthy relationship until you're feeling secure and confident about yourself. You hear this a lot because it's painfully, annoyingly true. If you're insecure, you'll be self-conscious and then having fun and laughing together is almost impossible. Everything becomes a dance designed to validate your insecurities and make you feel good about yourself. Only with a strong sense of feeling generally good about yourself will you be confident enough to be silly and not self-conscious in your relationship—which is when the fun happens. Holding on to pretense and propriety does not a happy relationship make. If you're always up in your head and trying to maintain some kind of "image" around your significant other, you won't be able to laugh at anything, let alone be funny yourself.
5. They have real experiences together
Couples who laugh a lot aren't the types to limit their relationship activities to dinner and drinks. They sit on the couch watching movies, they travel, they go to shows—they live their lives together in a rich, dynamic, social way. There's nothing uptight or curated about the way couples who laugh share their experiences, which ties into being best friends and being able to hang out together in any situation.
6. They definitely fart together
I hate to say it, but if you want to laugh with your S.O., it's essential that you fart and do other gross bodily things around each other. Because guys, let's be real: farts are dead funny. A lot of the time in life, some of the most basic, human things are the funniest. Couples that laugh a lot know that, and they're willing to be their most basic, hilarious, human selves together.
