They say laughter is the best medicine, and science agrees. Find out why laughter is so good for us, and how to bring more laughter into your life.
When was the last time that you laughed, I mean really really laughed? A laugh that was so deep down in your gut that it radiated throughout your entire body and cleaned all the spiritual gunk out of your soul? You need to be laughing like that all the time. Laughter can make you forget pain, heartache, sorrow, and fear. It doesn't take all of your problems away, but it certainly makes them bearable. Even if you feel like you laugh a lot, you could laugh more. Join SpiritualBlossom to find out why laughter is so healing, it has been called “the best medicine”. Find out what laughter truly is, and what science says the benefits of laughter are. Find out what happens if you don't laugh enough, and ten simple tips to bring more laughter into your life. Even if you feel like you laugh enough, you should try to laugh more, and we will tell you how.
What is Laughter?
“A day without laughter is a day wasted.”- Charlie Chaplin
Medically speaking, laughter is a sound we make in reaction to a pleasant emotion. It's rhythmic audible contractions of our diaphragm. It is an expression of positive emotions. Joy, happiness, or even relief can be expressed with laughter. Sometimes surprise, confusion, or shock can elicit laughter also. People laugh in all cultures and all parts of the world. Laughter is pretty much a primitive instinct and babies as early as sixteen days old have been known to laugh. People who are born deaf and blind still have the ability to laugh. This is why laughter is called a universal language.
Some people believe that other primates such as orangutans and chimpanzees also laugh based on similar sounds that they make to human laughter. Laughter is related to activation of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex which is a part of our frontal lobe that processes risk and fear. It helps us to regulate emotions and produces those wonderful things called endorphins. They increase our sense of well-being and block the feelings of pain. Another section of our brain called the limbic system helps with that too. It also helps with emotions and also our long-term memory. You may be more likely to remember events if they made you laugh. Laughter is believed to be an important social function. It helps us to communicate with other people and promotes a sense of belonging. If we're laughing along with people, we're bonding with them.
Laughing with other people creates a sense of kinship. You both get the joke and understand what you're laughing about. If you're laughing about the same things with somebody, it helps you to connect with them. It can relax tension, especially in stressful situations and lighten the mood. Laughter also releases positive things like endorphins, and when you make somebody laugh, you make this happen for them, so they have a positive experience because of you. It makes them feel closer to you. How funny are you? Some healthy self-awareness will reveal it. Find out more here: Unlocking the Power of Personal-Awareness
The Benefits of Laughter
“ Research has shown that laughing for two minutes is just as healthy as a 20 minute jog. Now I’m sitting in the park laughing at all the joggers.”- Anonymous
Laughing doesn't just help you to bond with other people. It improves your entire life. It does this by improving your mental health and your physical health. Your mental health gets better because it helps you to reduce stress which improves your mood and it actually helps to sharpen your mind which means it makes you smarter. Physically lowered stress levels are brought on by laughter which boosts your immune system, improves your cardiovascular health, helps to relieve pain, and even helps to keep you thinner. Read on to find out how.
Mental Health
Laughter benefits your mental health in multiple ways. It helps you to laugh at negative situations instead of being upset by them, which greatly reduces stress. That helps to improve your mood which improves your outlook and makes everything better. It actually helps you to concentrate on tasks at hand and can make you seem smarter.
Stress Reduction
There are things in your body that are activated that makes stress worse that laughter basically disengages. Cortisol is the number one stress hormone in the body which triggers the fight or flight response. Laughter actually lowers cortisol levels. It reduces adrenaline also which is another part of the fight or flight response. Too much adrenaline too often can trigger chronic anxiety problems which makes your blood pressure spike and can lead to chronic health issues. Chronic stress can damage your cardiovascular health, which shaves years off your life. This also makes the years that you are alive unhealthier, so you suffer greatly. So laugh as much as you can to reduce stress. Hypnosis can also help to reduce stress. Learn all about the power of hypnosis here: The Power of Being Hypnotized
Mood Improvement
Your mood improves drastically when you're having a good laugh. You shift from thinking about things that upset you to thinking about things that make you happy. Of course there are going to be upsetting things in life, and none of us can change that. However, taking a break to laugh will make you emotionally feel better about everything. This mood improvement will give you a more positive outlook and give you the attitude that things are going to be alright. When you feel more hopeful, you will feel more enthusiastic. When you feel more enthusiastic it will be easier to feel motivated to get up and create positive changes!
Mental Sharpening
Being stressed and upset makes it difficult for you to focus, which means that you can't problem solve well, perform as well at work, or make informed decisions. Laughter will help relax your mind to the point then you can start to focus on what's important again. What is important is your long term goals that matter to you and your loved ones, not things that stress or frustrate you. If you can see the humor in an upsetting situation, it can relax you for a moment and help you to refocus so that you can find a way to make things better. It can also help you to relax better to sleep at night, and when you are well rested you can think a lot more clearly. One powerful thing you can do with your mind is to move energy. Find out how to do that here: Energetic Magic- Conducting the Lifeforce
Physical Health
Laughter doesn't just improve your mental health, but your physical health too. Your mind is part of your body, and when your stress is lowered, there are countless physical benefits. Laughter boosts your immune system which helps to heal your whole body, and laughter also helps with the health of your heart. It helps with pain relief, and believe it or not it will help to keep you thinner.
Less Stress
Stress hormones have already been explored with the mental health benefits of laughter, but there's one thing we did not explore. That is exactly how laughing changes your outlook on stress. A stressful situation can go from feeling like the end of the world to becoming something that you get a kick out of with your friends when you tell them about it. Changing the way that you look at upsetting things and surrendering control and just laughing will take the pressure off and help you to enjoy life more. So, next time something terrible happens, try to find some humor in it and you'll feel better. One Zodiac sign that loves to laugh is Sagittarius and you can read about them here: Sagittarius Traits and Love Compatibility
Immune Boosting
Since your stress hormones are being reduced, your immune system is not being attacked by those. Antibodies and T cells which kill disease are increased when you feel good. Laughter helps provide that. It also stimulates blood flow, which helps move all those good things through the entire body. Laughter in this way will add years to your life because it helps you to fight off what could be life threatening diseases.
Heart Health
Between lowering stress, boosting the immune system, and helping with circulation, laughter does great things for your cardiovascular system. It helps to lower your blood pressure, which will help reduce the risk of strokes and heart attacks. It helps to strengthen your heart muscle and new research indicates that it might even reduce inflammation of the arteries. It also helps to boost your social connection to other people. When you have good social connections to people, it makes you happier. Happy life, happy heart. Read about how to learn to be happy, even when times are tough here: Being Happy, Even in Dark Times
Pain Relief
Believe it or not, laughter even helps with pain relief. It will relax you, which automatically helps to relax tense muscles. A lot of pain comes from muscle tension. Stress reduces those pain killing mood enhancing endorphins which bind to receptors in your brain. You need those to reduce your perception of pain. That can also redirect your mind from upsetting things, helping you to focus on things besides emotional pain. It won't magically make injuries go away, but it will help you to forget about the physical pain at least temporarily.
Slimming
You can't compare laughter to a serious workout, but it burns more calories than not laughing. You can burn up to 40 calories with 15 minutes of good laughter. If you are someone who laughs with your whole body and gestures heartily, you might actually burn even more calories than people who don't. The mood enhancing abilities of laughter can also help discourage emotional eating, which means you're not going to pack on extra calories to begin with. The only thing that you have to lose with a good laugh is some weight. Literally. One thing that can increase your calorie intake is good chocolate, but it’s not just for eating- it’s sacred. Find out more about the sacred uses of chocolate here: The Food of the Gods/Its Meaning and Lore
What if We Don’t Laugh Enough?
“ You don’t stop laughing because you grow old. You grow old because you stop laughing.”- Michael Pritchard
Laughter creates good things, and if we don't laugh enough, we're going to lack those. Our immune system can become weakened without it, and we might have cardiovascular issues from stress. Our mood can suffer, and we can become highly negative, focusing only on the upsetting things that we wish weren't going on. We can be so stressed that we have a hard time focusing, and that will make it difficult for us to function at work, or even problem solve in our own personal lives. You can become progressively more dismal if you don't laugh enough, and you can take yourself so seriously that you can burn yourself out at work or with your hobbies.
How to Laugh More
“ Learn to laugh at your problems, cause everybody else does. “- Jared Leto
Some people think they have to wait until they have fulfilled all their responsibilities to “find time” to laugh. All you have to do is find humor in everyday life. Learning to laugh more is a habit. Read on to see ten easy ways to make it a habit to laugh more.
1) Do Something that sounds outrageous. What is the most daring thing you can think of that you have never tried? Coloring your hair a bright color? Bungee jumping? Paintball war? Whitewater rafting? Try it. You will be pleasantly surprised how much fun you have and how much you laugh.
2) Foster animals. Puppies, kittens, or any animal will bring a smile to your face. Their antics when they play will surprise you and keep you laughing.
3) Stop taking yourself so seriously. Don’t be afraid to laugh at your mistakes, flaws, and bad habits. We are imperfect and only human. Laugh at yourself instead of being embarrassed.
4) Smile at strangers. Say funny things to them. You will make new friends to laugh with.
5) Spend time with people who love to laugh. They will make you laugh right along with them.
6) Learn some new jokes. Read them online, in library books, or from people you know. Share them with other people to make them laugh too.
7) Watch funny videos. Cat videos, videos of children playing, or practical joke videos between best friends will keep you in stitches. Avoid negative news online. Focus on the funny things instead.
8) Remember the funniest moments in your life and share stories about them with other people. You will find yourself laughing about it over and over again.
9) Do something silly. Roll down a hill, spin until you are dizzy, or splash in puddles in the rain. There is never a bad time to have some fun- and it is not pointless at all.
10) Find humor in negative situations. If there are toxic customers who verbally attack you at your job, instead of feeling stressed, laugh about their behavior with your co-workers, for example. If you trip while walking down the sidewalk, laugh about it instead of being embarrassed. Why be upset when you can laugh?
Laughter doesn’t replace lifesaving medical care doctors provide, but it's the best medicine that your body can produce for itself. There are countless health benefits like improved mood, better cardiovascular health, and enhanced social connections that laughing enough brings. Easy ways that you can bring more laughter into your life include doing something that seems outrageous, spending time with animals, or finding humor in upsetting situations. Life can be tough, but if you can laugh, it’s more bearable. So laugh long and often.
Would you like some insight on how to find humor in a difficult situation? Leave it to us. Reach out for reading today.
About the Author: Lady Saoirse has studied magic and lore for most of her life but started walking her own Magical Path after being spiritually reborn in the desert. Today she is a High Priestess for The Temple of the Goddess, she is a psychic advisor and spiritual counselor, she shares her gifts as a Psychic and Content Writer for Mysticsense and SpiritualBlossom, and she writes for PaganPages.Org emag.
