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Why Laughing is so Important to Your Health
Someone
says they have a funny joke to tell you. As you listen to the set up of
the joke, a laugh begins to grow inside of you. As the punch line
approaches, your whole body is poised to bust out with a hearty laugh,
and then it happens. Not just one laugh, but several laughs bursting
forth, until your sides are almost painful from the pulling action that
laughing places on muscles in the body. Pain from laughing too much is
the only kind of pain that could be considered to be a good thing. A
really funny joke can stick with you for a long time, and provide you
with more laughs when it comes to mind. You can also share laughter and
the health benefits of laughter with others.
Laughing is
so important to your health and here are some reasons why. Having a good
sense of humor and finding the opportunity to laugh often, even when
facing difficult situations in your life has been proven to offer health
benefits such as resistance to illnesses and can even help those facing
the seriousness of cancer and cancer treatment to battle this
devastating disease better, even resulting in higher survival rates
because of it.
Laughing,
even the building stages of laughter, causes certain changes to occur in
the body. One of the changes that happens in the body due to the
building up of laughter, and laughter itself, is the bridging of the
immune system with other parts of the body. This bridge creates a strong
connection for the entire body to better combat successfully against
invading germs and bacteria that enter the body. This is how healthy
people are able to stay healthy and avoid the number of colds and other
illnesses that strike those with weaker immune systems and poorly
constructed bridges throughout the body.
The act of
laughing causes an instantaneous production of hormones such as
endorphins serotonin, and other hormones in the body that are associated
with feelings of contentment and happiness. Laughing can instantly
change your bad mood to good because of the increase of these hormones.
Laughing is infectious, if you doubt this, pay attention to the others
around you the next time you gather in a group, and watch their
reactions as funny things are said. As one person begins to laugh, the
stimulus of seeing and hearing someone laugh causes a laugh response,
naturally and without effort for the next person, who then continues the
passing of the stimulus produced by laughter, to the others in the
group. For this reason, laughter is very important to emotional health,
yours and for those around you.
Emotional
health allows you to face crisis moments in your life without becoming
overwhelmed by emotions such as shock, fear, sadness, anger, confusion,
and disbelief that are common in moments of crisis. This will enable you
to take whatever actions you need to in order to move safely through and
beyond a crisis.
Get
yourself a plentiful supply of funny books and videos and find the
opportunity to laugh, and laugh as often as you can, because laughing is
so important to your health. Share humorous anecdotes with friends and
coworkers for shared health benefits. Know that with the right outlook
you can find humor in almost every situation. Maybe not at the moment it
happens, but somewhere down the line. I know of a mother and daughter
who were able to find laughing moments, as the mother faced chemotherapy
treatments for breast cancer, and the daughter accompanied her. Laughing
enabled the mother to live longer than doctors had expected. Proving
that even in the worst of times, laughing is possible, and also has
positive health benefits.
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