"Your body cannot heal without play. Your mind cannot heal without laughter. Your soul cannot heal without joy." - Catherine Rippenger Fenwick
The Emotional Side Effects of Laughter
Laughter helps you relax and recharge, reduce stress, increase energy, and help dissolve distressing emotions. Ever notice you don’t feel anxious, angry, or sad when you’re laughing? It's not possible to experience these emotions when laughing.
And the best part? Laughter requires no instructions, it's free, it's fun, and it’s priceless. Just like MasterCard :)
Shared laughter is even more powerful than laughing alone, it creates a positive bond that can strengthen relationships by triggering positive feelings. That bond then acts as a buffer against emotions such as stress, disagreements, and disappointment during difficult times. Humor also keeps relationships fresh and exciting, and is a powerful way to heal resentments and disagreements.
Incorporating more laughter and play can improve the quality of your life, especially for your love relationships. Go to a comedy club, share a funny story, goof around with children or even go to laughter yoga. Laughter gets you out of your head and away from your troubles, helps you forget judgments, criticisms, and doubts giving you a more enjoyable life.
Health Side Effects of Laughter
Blood pressure: People who laugh on a regular basis tend to have a lower standing blood pressure. Blood pressure increases after a good laugh, but then it decreases to levels below normal.
Stress related hormones: Epinephrine, cortisol, dopamine, and growth hormone are neuro-endocrine hormones associated with stress, these are all reduced after a healthy laugh.
Immunity: According to clinical studies by Lee Berk at Loma Linda University laughter strengthens the immune system by increasing infection-fighting antibodies. Reference: American Journal of the Medical Sciences, vol.298 no.6, 1989.
Brain function: Laughter enhances learning by stimulating both sides of the brain, which keeps the brain alert and allows for better retention of information.
Pain management: In 1987, Texas Tech psychologist Rosemary Cogan used the discomfort of a pressure cuff to test the medical benefits of laughter on pain management. Participants who watched a 20-minute routine from comedian Lily Tomlin could tolerate a tighter cuff than those that watched an informational tape or none at all. It seems that laughter allows someone to “forget” about pains (to a degree) such as aches and arthritis. Reference: Journal of Behavioral Medicine. 10:139-144.
Respiration: Like “deep-breathing” laughter empties your lungs of more air than it takes in creating a cleansing effect, and sends more oxygen-enriched blood and nutrients throughout the body.
Heart health: According to a study by the University of Maryland Medical Center laughter helps blood flow by creating a 30% - 50% expansion of blood vessels. These blood vessels are your front line in determining the health of your arteries. When constricted blood pressure rises and inflammation induces damage, setting the stage for plaque accumulation. Also, it was found that people without heart disease are 40% more likely to laugh than those with heart disease (tested in a variety of situations).
A great workout: William Fry, MD, Professor of Psychiatry at Stanford University believes that one minute of laughter is equal to ten minutes on the rowing machine. Equivalent to “internal jogging” laughter can provide an abdominal, facial, and back muscle conditioning effect, great for people that cannot perform physical exercise.
Studies also show that an atmosphere of humor results in better patient care and shorter hospital stays.
Other Interesting Laughter Facts
We start laughing as babies at about the age of 4 months, as children we laugh an average of 300 times a day, and then it decreases to an average of 17 times a day as an adult. It seems we laugh less as we age, because adults between the ages of 18 to 34 report laughing the most.
There’s also a difference in how we laugh, according to men it’s a chuckle most of the time, whereas for women it’s more of the giggling type of laugh most of the time.
Most of the laughter we experience comes from spending time with friends, co-workers and family, in groups, not from hearing jokes. Maybe this is because laughter can be contagious.
Laughter can also make you more attractive to the opposite sex, and it’s speculated that it might help inhibit the fight or flight response, making it a behavioral sign of trust. In other words, make that potential mate laugh and they’ll be less likely to run away :)
Because the sound of laughter is so common and familiar some researchers believe it may have helped our ancestors bond. In fact, the sound can even be recognized if played backwards.
For some funny jokes visit:
http://www.laughfactory.com/jokes
May you day be filled with health giving laughter.