Week 27– The Importance of Laughter in Your Life

 

You’ve probably heard the old adage: “Laughter is the best medicine”. In this blog let’s examine laughter in three categories, which will prove the importance of laughter in our life.  First, laughter helps with health benefits.  Second, laughter helps in handling adversities, frustrations, and keeping life in balance. Third, laughter helps you never be poor, which is one of nature’s greatest gifts.

According to California’s  Loma Linda University, laughter has numerous benefits.  Laughter is a natural pain killer.  The act of laughing produces endorphins, known as “happy” brain chemicals that act as a natural pain killer. It soothes stress, reduces anxiety, and eases chronic pain.  Laughter strengthens your heart by giving your cardiovascular  system a workout. Laughing, walking, running and cycling strengthens the heart muscle by accelerating your heart rate.  Laughter prevents diseases, as discovered by a Harvard study.  The research discovered that the more you laugh and approach life positively, the less chronic disease will develop.  Laughter can tone up your Abs.  When you laugh hard or do a belly laugh, the act of laughing causes your stomach muscles to contract and then relax.  It is kind of like when you do Ab crunches.  Laughing can boost your immunity system by activating your body’s T cells (or immune system cells), which fights off germs, flu bugs, and other illnesses.  Professor Province at the University of Maryland suggests that when you feel a sniffle, sore throat, or other cold symptoms coming on, go see a comedy to trigger your laughter to boost your immunities.  Laughter also helps to decrease blood pressure, and has been linked to lowering the risk of heart attacks along with strokes.  Laughter helps those who suffer from depression as it helps to improve their over-all outlook on life.

Second, laughter helps in handling adversities, frustration and keeping life in balance.  When humor seems to depart from the environment we are in, then laugh at a joke, read a comic strip that’s funny or repeat these four words that O.G. Madino suggests  us to do in scroll 7: “This too shall pass”.  If the situation that frustrates or hurts me shall pass, then why should I allow it to upset me so much? You can console yourself knowing that it will pass and you can laugh at it.

The last category is the idea that you can’t be poor as long as you are laughing.  You might ask, how is this possible?  As O.G. Madino shared in scroll 7, this is possible by realizing that only with laughter and happiness can you truly become a success.  Only with laughter and happiness can you enjoy the fruits of your labor.

As you can see, laughter is so important in our lives.  It is the sunshine of our being, it is a relief to a stressful day, and it is a simple cure for all types of health issues.  As Stella & Blake expressed it quite well in their quote- “Laugh my friend, for laughter ignites a fire within the pit of your belly and awakens your being”. So have a good laugh, remembering that laughter brings success and happiness. I shall be happy. I shall laugh.