Laughing Your Way to Better Health
Everyone enjoys a good laugh, but did you know it can actually improve your health? You’ve felt it brighten your day, calm your mind and lift your mood to whole new heights, all thanks to an inside joke at work, a hilarious comment from a kid, or a totally spontaneous mishap that makes you (and everyone around you) burst into peals of laughter. The kick it gives your mental health and emotions is awesome, but there’s something else we bet you haven’t considered yet: laughter’s physical benefits.It’s true: laughter is strong medicine. It draws people together in ways that trigger healthy physical and emotional changes in the body. Laughter strengthens your immune system, boosts mood, diminishes pain, and protects you from the damaging effects of stress. As children, we used to laugh hundreds of times a day, but as adults life tends to be more serious and laughter more infrequent. By seeking out more opportunities for humor and laughter, though, you can improve your emotional health, strengthen your relationships, find greater happiness—and even add years to your life!
Why is Laughter Good for Your Whole Body?
Physical Health
Boosts your immunity
Lowers stress hormones that are always surging in our bodies
Decreases pain
Relaxes your muscles
Prevents heart disease
Mental Health
Adds joy and pep to your life
Eases anxiety and tension
Relieves stress
Improves mood
Strengthens resilience
Social Health
Strengthens relationships with others
Makes us inviting to others
Enhances teamwork
Helps defuse conflict
Promotes group bonding
Laughter is a natural part of life that is innate and inborn. Infants begin smiling during the first weeks of life and laugh out loud within months of being born. Even if you didn’t grow up in a household where laughter was a common sound, you can learn to laugh at any stage of life. Begin by setting aside special times to seek out humor and laughter, as you might with working out, and build from there. Eventually, you’ll want to incorporate humor and laughter into the fabric of your life, finding it naturally in everything you do. Smiling is the beginning of laughter and like laughter, it’s contagious. When you look at someone or see something even mildly pleasing, practice smiling. Instead of looking down at your phone, look up and smile at people you pass in the street, the person serving you a morning coffee, or the co-workers you share an elevator with. Notice the effect this has on others. Make a list of what you’re thankful for. The simple act of considering the good things in your life will distance you from negative thoughts that are a barrier to humor and laughter. When you’re in a state of sadness, you have further to travel to get to humor and laughter. When you hear laughter, move toward it. Sometimes humor and laughter are private, a shared joke among a small group, but usually not. More often, people are very happy to share something funny because it gives them an opportunity to laugh again and feed off the humor you find in it. Spend time with fun, playful people. These are people who laugh easily–both at themselves and at life’s absurdities–and who routinely find the humor in everyday events. Their playful point of view and laughter are contagious. Even if you don’t consider yourself a lighthearted, humorous person, you can still seek out people who like to laugh and make others laugh. Every comedian appreciates an audience.
“The human race has only one really effective weapon and that is laughter.” ― Mark Twain
Sources:
http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/laughter
https://www.helpguide.org/articles/emotional-health/laughter-is-the-best-medicine.htm
http://www.livestrong.com/article/170399-effects-of-laughter-on-the-human-brain/
