Laughter - Best Medicine

Laughter is the Best Medicine
 
It's fun to share a good laugh, but did you know it can actually improve your health?

Learn how to harness the powerful benefits of laughter and humor.

It's no joke! 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. Humor lightens your burdens, inspires hope, connects you to others, and keeps you grounded, focused, and alert. It also helps you release anger and forgive sooner.

A good laugh has great short-term effects. When you start to laugh, it doesn't just lighten your load mentally, it actually induces physical changes in your body. It's also good for you over the long term.

Here is a good list of why laughter is good for your health:

• Laughter can relax the whole body
  A good, hearty laugh relieves physical tension and stress, leaving your muscles relaxed for up to 45 minutes after.
• Laughter can boost the immune system
  Laughter decreases stress hormones and increases immune cells and infection-fighting antibodies, thus improving your resistance to disease.
• Laughter can trigger the release of endorphins
  These are the body's natural feel-good chemicals. Endorphins promote an overall sense of well-being and can even temporarily relieve pain.
• Laughter can protect the heart
  Laughter improves the function of blood vessels and increases blood flow, which can help protect you against a heart attack and other cardiovascular problems.
• Laughter can burn calories
  Well, ok, so it's no substitute for going to the gym, but one study found that laughing for 10 to 15 minutes a day can burn approximately 40 calories, which could be enough to lose three or four pounds over the course of a year.
• Laughter can lighten anger’s heavy load
  Nothing diffuses anger and conflict faster than a shared laugh. Looking at the funny side can put problems into perspective and enable you to move on from confrontations without holding onto bitterness or resentment.
• Laughter may even help you to live longer
  A study in Norway found that people with a strong sense of humor outlived those who don’t laugh as much. The difference was particularly notable for those battling

How to bring more laughter into your life
Laughter is your birthright, a natural part of life that is innate and inborn. Babies begin smiling during the first weeks of life and laugh out loud within months of being born. Even if you did not 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 exercising, and build from there. Eventually, you'll want to incorporate humor and laughter into the fabric of your life, finding it naturally in everything.

Here some good ways you could try to start:

• Smile
  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 on others.
• Count your blessings
  Literally make a list. The simple act of considering the positive aspects of your life will distance you from negative thoughts that block humor and laughter. When you're in a state of sadness, you have further to travel to reach 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. When you hear laughter, seek it out and ask, "What's funny?"
• 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.
• Bring humor into conversations
  Ask people, "What's the funniest thing that happened to you today? This week? In your life?"

 
And here a great list to create opportunities to laugh

• Watch a funny movie, TV show, or go on YouTube
• Invite friends or co-workers out to a comedy club
• Read the funny pages
• Seek out funny people
• Share a good joke or a funny story
• Check out your bookstore's humor section
• Host game night with friends & family
• Play with a pet
• Go to a "laughter yoga" class
• Goof around with children
• Do something silly
• Make time for fun activities (e.g. bowling, miniature golfing, karaoke)

 
No go out and laugh, have fun, life is not that serious.

Sources:

• HelpGuide article
  
• Mayo Clinic article