Laughter is the Best Medicine

Health benefits of humor and laughter

Of course, it's fun to share a good laugh. But do you know that it can actually improve your health? It is true. Laughter is a strong medicine. It attracts people in a way that causes healthy physical and emotional changes in the body. Laughter strengthens the immune system, improves mood, reduces pain, and protects you from the harmful effects of stress. Children laugh hundreds of times a day, but when they become adults, life tends to be more serious and laughter occurs more often. But by exploring more opportunities for humor and laughter, you can improve your emotional health, strengthen your relationships, find greater happiness and even add years to your life.

Why is laughter the sweetest medicine for the mind and body?

Laughter is a powerful antidote to stress, pain, and conflict. There's nothing faster and more reliable to bring your body and mind back to balance than a good laugh. Humor lightens your burdens, arouses hope, connects you with others, keeps you focused, alerts you, and warns you. It also helps relieve anger and speed up forgiveness.+

The ability to laugh easily and often with a lot of power to heal and renew is an enormous resource to overcome problems, strengthen relationships and support physical and mental health. Best of all, this precious medicine is fun, free and easy to use.

Laughter is good for health

Laughter makes the whole body comfortable. A good, hearty laugh relieves body tension and stress, relaxing your muscles for 45 minutes.

Laughter improves the immune system. Laughter improves resistance to disease by reducing stress hormones and increasing immune cells and infection-fighting antibodies.

Laughter causes the release of endorphins, a natural chemical that is good for the body. Endorphins can promote overall health and temporarily relieve pain.

Laughter protects the heart. Laughter can improve blood vessel function and increase blood flow, preventing heart attack and other cardiovascular problems.

Laughter burns calories. That's why I don't intend to go to the gym, but if you laugh for 10-15 minutes a day, you can burn about 40 calories and lose 3-4 pounds a year.

Laughter lightens the burden of anger. Nothing spreads anger and conflict faster than a shared laugh. Looking at the fun side, you can think of the problem in perspective, and you can get out of the confrontation without suffering or resentment.

Laughter can even help you live longer. A Norwegian study found that people with a strong sense of humor survived longer than those who did not laugh. The difference was particularly noticeable for those fighting cancer.

Physical health benefits of laughter:

Boost immunity

Reduce stress hormones

Pain reduction

Relax your muscles.

Heart disease prevention

Mental health benefits of laughter:

It adds joy and richness to life.

It relieves anxiety and tension.

Relieve stress

Improve mood

Enhance elasticity

Social benefits of laughter:

Strengthening relationships

Attract others.

Improve teamwork

Help to resolve conflicts

Promotion of group bonding

Laughter is good for mental health.

Laughter makes you feel good. Even after the laugh subsides, a positive feeling remains. Humor helps maintain a positive and optimistic outlook through difficult situations, disappointments and losses.

In addition to a brief break from sadness and pain, laughter gives you the courage and strength to find new meanings and sources of hope. Even in the most difficult times, laughter or simply a smile can go a long way until you feel better. Laughter is actually contagious. When you hear a laugh, your head pounds, laughs, and brings joy.

The link between laughter and mental health

Laughter does not bother emotions. When you are smiling you cannot be anxious, angry or sad.

Laughter helps to relax and recharge. By reducing stress and increasing energy, you can stay focused and achieve more.

Laughter changes your perspective, you can see the situation in a more realistic and less dangerous situation. A humorous perspective creates a psychological distance and helps you avoid feeling overwhelmed and divided.

Laughter brings you closer to others. Can have a major impact on all aspects of mental and emotional health

Laughter brings people together and strengthens relationships.

There is a good reason why TV serial comedy uses laughter trajectories. Laughter is contagious. You're much more likely to laugh at people other than yourself. And the more laughter you bring into your life, the happier you and the people around you.

Sharing humor is fun in half. In fact, most laughter comes from not joking and rather rather simply spending time with friends and family. It is this social aspect that plays an important role in the health benefits of laughter. You can't enjoy laughing with others unless you really have time to engage them. If you turn off your phone, face to face, and care for someone you can connect to, you can balance your nervous system and brake defensive stress reactions like "fighting or flying". Not only will you laugh, but you will feel happier, more positive, and more comfortable even if you can't change a stressful situation.

How to laugh together and strengthen your relationship

Shared laughter is one of the most effective tools for maintaining a fresh and interesting relationship. All emotional sharing forms a strong and lasting relationship, but sharing laughter adds joy, vitality and resilience. Humor is a powerful and effective way to heal anger, inconsistencies and wounds. Laughter unites people in difficult times.

Humor and cheerful communication strengthens our relationship by creating positive feelings and promoting emotional connections. When we laugh at each other, positive bonds are formed. This bond serves as a strong buffer against stress, disagreement, and disappointment. Humor and laughter enable the following relationships:

Act more spontaneously. Humor takes you out of your head and frees you from trouble.

Release your defense. Laughter helps to forget anger, judgment, criticism, doubt.

Inhibition of release. The fear of stepping back is pushed to the side.

Express true feelings. Feelings deeply can go up to the surface.

Use humor to resolve disagreements and tensions.

Laughter is a particularly powerful tool for managing conflict and reducing tension when emotions rise. Regardless of your romantic partner, friends and family, and colleagues, you can use humor to alleviate disagreements, reduce the stress level of everyone, and communicate in a way that doesn't break relationships.

How to bring more laughter into your life

Laughter is your natural right, a natural part of your innate natural life. Infants begin to smile for the first week of life and laugh out loud after months of birth. You can learn to laugh at every stage of your life, even if you don't grow up at home, where laughter is the normal sound.

Set aside a special time to find humor and laughter, start as you do when exercising and start by building there. In the end, you will want to integrate humor and laughter into the structure of your life and discover everything naturally.

Here are some ways you can get started:

smile. Laughter is the beginning of laughter and is as contagious as laughter. Practice by laughing and seeing someone or lightly pleased. Instead of looking down on your phone, you look up to a person crossing the street, a person serving breakfast coffee, or a colleague sharing an elevator, smiling. Notice the impact on others.

Bless you. Make a list literally. Simple actions that take into account the positive aspects of life will keep you away from negative thoughts that block humor and laughter. When in sorrow, you have to travel further to get humor and laughter.

When you hear a laugh, it moves there. Sometimes humor and laughter are private and I joke in small groups, but usually it isn't. People are often very happy when sharing something interesting because they often give you the opportunity to laugh and give you a sense of humor. If you hear a laugh, find it. "It's fun?"

Spend time with fun and entertaining people. These are people who routinely find humor in everyday life and those who can easily laugh in their lives and absurdities of life. Their playful point of view and laughter are contagious. Even if you don't think of yourself as light and humorous, you can find people who laugh and make others laugh. Every comedian appreciates the audience.

Bring humor into conversation. Ask people. "What is the most fun thing that happened to you today? This week? In your life?"

A mock laugh

If so, you may or may not actually believe, "What if I can't find something interesting?" And a simulated laugh can be as beneficial as the real thing. You can make exercise more fun and productive. A study by Georgia State University found that incorporating simulated laugh sounds into exercise programs can help improve mental health and aerobic endurance in older people. What's more, listening to others can often cause a real laugh, even if there is no apparent reason.+

To add a simulated laugh to your life, search for a group of laughter yoga or laughter treatments. Or you might laugh at other people's jokes and have fun finding them. Both you and others will feel good, will lead you closer, and someone you know can even lead you to a spontaneous laugh.+

Creating opportunities to laugh;

Watch funny movies, TV shows, or YouTube videos

Invite friends or colleagues to comedy clubs.

Interesting page reading

Find funny people.

Sharing good jokes or funny stories

Check out the humor section of the bookstore.

Spend a game night with your friends.

Play with pets

Go to the "Laugh Yoga" class.

Play with children

Do something stupid.

Make time for fun activities (eg bowling, mini golf, karaoke).

How to develop a sense of humor

An essential element of developing a sense of humor is to ridicule your mistakes and weaknesses without taking yourself too seriously. As much as we want to believe differently, we all do silly things sometimes. Instead of embarrassing or defending, embrace imperfections. While some events in life are clearly sad and not a chance for laughter, most do not have an overwhelming sense of sadness. Or joy. They fall into the gray area of ​​ordinary life and decide whether to laugh or not. Always choose a smile when you can do that.

How to cultivate your sense of humor

Smile. Share an embarrassing moment. The best way to take yourself less seriously is to talk about the time you took yourself. Too serious.

Try to laugh at the situation rather than laugh at them. Finding humor in bad situations reveals the irony and stupidity of life. If something negative happens, try making it into a humorous anecdote that others can laugh at.

Take a look around yourself with notifications that can be brightened. Put toys on your desk or car. Put a funny poster in the office. Choose a computer screensaver that will make you laugh. Take pictures of you and your family or friends who are fun

Remember the funny things that happened. If something funny happens or you hear a joke or an interesting story, write it down or talk to someone so you can remember it.

Don't be negative. Avoiding negative people and getting sad or unhappy without news or entertainment or conversation. Many things in life are beyond your control-especially the behavior of others. You might think it's worth the weight of the world on your shoulders, but in the long run it's unreal and unhealthy.

Find your inner child. Pay attention to children and try to imitate them. After all, they are experts who play, take life lightly and laugh at ordinary things.

Cope with stress. Stress can be a major hindrance to humor and laughter, so it's important to maintain your stress level. One of the best ways to relieve stress at the moment is to always smile and draw your favorite memories. For example, something your child did or something funny a friend said.

Do not spend a day without laughing. Think of it like exercise or breakfast and find something every day to make a conscious effort to make you laugh. Prepare 10 to 15 minutes and do something fun. The more you get used to laughing every day, the less effort you have to make.

Use humor to overcome challenges and improve your life.

The ability to laugh, play, have fun, not only make life more enjoyable, but also help solve problems, communicate with others, and think creatively. People who combine humor and everyday life find themselves renewing all their relationships with themselves.

Life brings challenges to gaining your power or to show your imagination. When you are "problem" and take yourself too seriously, thinking outside the box and finding new solutions can be difficult. However, if you play with problems, you can often turn them into creative learning opportunities.+

Playing with problems comes naturally to children. They pose problems to the game when confused or frightened, giving them control and opportunity to experiment with new solutions. Playfully interacting with others helps to maintain this creative ability.

Here are two examples of people who have daily problems and cared for people around them through laughter and play.

Roy, a semi-retired businessman, was finally excited to have time to devote himself to his favorite sport, golf. However, the more he played, the less pleasure he had. Although his game improved significantly, he was angry with himself for all the mistakes. Roy wisely realized that his golfing friends had influenced his attitude and stopped playing with people who took the game too seriously. When he played with friends who focused more on fun than scores, he was less critical of himself. Now it's as enjoyable as Roy imagined. He did not work harder and scored more. And the brighter prospects gained in the game with his colleagues spread to other parts of his life.

I worked in the design of a greeting card in a woman's house, but she seemed to love it, but now it becomes a routine. Two young girls who love drawing and painting lived next door. Eventually, Jane invited the girls to play with all the art supplies. At first she just watched, but as time went by she joined. Laughing, coloring and playing with the little girls changed Jane's life. Not only did she end her loneliness and boredom, but she also helped her work flourish by instilling her imagination. Best of all, it brought Jane back to playfulness in her relationship with her husband.

As laughter, humor and play are integrated into life, creativity thrives and new opportunities arise every day to laugh with friends, co-workers, acquaintances and loved ones. Laughter takes you to a high place where you can see the world from a comfortable, positive and enjoyable perspective.