Laughter is good for your health.
Laughter relaxes the whole body. A good, hearty laugh
relieves physical tension and stress, leaving your muscles relaxed for up to 45
minutes after.
Laughter boosts the immune system. Laughter decreases stress
hormones and increases immune cells and infection-fighting antibodies, thus
improving your resistance to disease.
Laughter triggers the release of endorphins, the body’s
natural feel-good chemicals. Endorphins promote an overall sense of well-being
and can even temporarily relieve pain.
Laughter protects 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.
Link Between Laughter & Mental Health
Laughter dissolves distressing emotions. You can’t feel
anxious, angry, or sad when you’re laughing.
Laughter helps you relax and recharge. It reduces stress and
increases energy, enabling you to stay focused and accomplish more.
Humor shifts perspective, allowing you to see situations in
a more realistic, less threatening light. A humorous perspective creates
psychological distance, which can help you avoid feeling overwhelmed.
Using humor and laughter in relationships allows you to:
• Be more spontaneous. Humor gets you out of your head and
away from your troubles.
• Let go of defensiveness. Laughter helps you forget
judgments, criticisms, and doubts.
• Release inhibitions. Your fear of holding back and holding
on are set aside.
• Express your true feelings. Deeply felt emotions are allowed
to rise to the surface.
Smile. Smiling is the beginning of laughter. Like laughter,
it’s contagious. Pioneers in “laugh therapy,” find it’s possible to laugh
without even experiencing a funny event. The same holds for smiling. When you
look at someone or see something even mildly pleasing, practice smiling.
Count your blessings. Literally make a list. 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 in a state of sadness,
we 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. 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.
Bring humor into conversations. Ask people, “What’s the
funniest thing that happened to you today? This week? In your life?”
Creating opportunities to laugh
• Watch a funny movie or TV show.
• Go 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.
• 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).
Developing Your Sense of Humor
Take yourself less seriously. One essential characteristic that helps us laugh is not
taking ourselves too seriously. We’ve all known the classic tight-jawed
sourpuss who takes everything with deathly seriousness and never laughs at
anything. No fun there!
Some events are clearly sad and not occasions for laughter. But
most events in life don’t carry an overwhelming sense of either sadness or
delight. They fall into the gray zone of ordinary life–giving you the choice to
laugh or not.
Ways to help yourself see the lighter side of life:
• Laugh at yourself. Share your embarrassing moments. The best
way to take ourselves less seriously is talk about times when we took ourselves
too seriously.
• Attempt to laugh at situations rather than bemoan them. Look
for the humor in a bad situation, the irony and absurdity of life. This will
help improve your mood and the mood of those around you.
• Surround yourself with reminders to lighten up. Keep a toy
on your desk or in your car. Put up a funny poster in your office. Choose a
computer screensaver that makes you laugh. Frame photos of you and your family
or friends having fun.
• Keep things in perspective. Many things in life are beyond
our control—particularly the behavior of other people. While you might think
taking the weight of the world on your shoulders is admirable, in the long run
it’s unrealistic, unproductive, unhealthy, and even egotistical.
• Deal with your stress. Stress is a major impediment to humor
and laughter. Pay attention to children and emulate them. They are the
experts on playing, taking life lightly, and laughing.
Checklist for lightening up:
When you find yourself taken over by what seems to be a
horrible problem, ask these questions:
• Is it really worth getting upset over?
• Is it worth upsetting others?
• Is it that important?
• Is it that bad?
• Is the situation irreparable?
• Is it really your problem?
Taken from: http://helpguide.org/life/humor_laughter_health.htm