Laughter is the most available and free medicine you can get around. Laughter brings people together and boosts their immune system in positive ways. Young ones tend to laugh more but as adulthood knocks in, life becomes tough and the frequency of laughter decreases. Seeking solutions that will enhance laughter is a way to improve your happiness. Researchers say that laughter adds you more years to your lifespan. In this article, we are going to discuss the various benefits of laughter and how you can add more laughter to your daily life as well as how you can improve your sense of humor.
Benefits of laughter
Laughter benefits you physically, mentally and socially. It enables you to feel good even in your toughest seasons and makes you feel better. The following are some benefits of laughter:
Laughter reduces stress: With adulthood comes a lot of stress and responsibilities that makes people forget to have a hearty laugh. Laughter reduces stress that comes with certain situations in life by lowering the cortisol or stress hormone in your blood. Less cortisol results to less stress thus it is advisable to have a good laugh once in a while.
Laughter protects the heart: Laughter id good for your heart because, as you laugh your vessels open wide enhancing easier flow of blood. The blood transports more oxygen to the body and lowers your blood pressure. Laughter makes work easier for the heart and keeps it healthy along with other recommended solutions such as exercising and proper dieting.
Laughter reduces aggression: In tense situations and while in moods such as anger and aggression arises, laughter is the best medicine. Humor that can cause laughter is appropriate at this moment in order to cool the situation and prevent it from getting out of hand.
Laughter boosts the immune system: Laughter increases antibodies which enable your body to fight against diseases and infections. Antibodies reduce the likeliness of illnesses like colds. Laughing improves the quality of your life and helps you overcome illnesses.
Laughter improves your social life: Laughter enables you to feel comfortable around people when sharing funny moments. You are more likely to open up to people about your personal life when you’re joking around and laughing. Researchers have proven that it is much easier to laugh when you are round people than without company. Therefore, it is advisable to have frequent meet ups with friends for more laughter.
Laughter eases difficult situations: In the midst of difficult situations, a slight moment of laughter makes you forget about your pain. Laughter rejuvenates your strength to face tough times and relieves the feelings of fear and anger thus facing such painful moments with confidence. Laughter eases your mind to enable you find effective solutions faster to any problem you may have.
Laughter stimulates release of happy hormones: Apart from easing our minds, laughter encourages the release of hormones that increase your happiness. Adrenaline enables you to be more alert and open minded, dopamine boosts your mood while serotonin enables you to be calm and relieves pain, thus making laughter a natural pain reliever.
Laughter improves your breathing: Laughter regulates your breathing allowing a good flow of oxygen to the lungs. Breathing in and out makes your lungs to expand in order for muscles to relax. The increased rate of oxygen distribution assists in growth of healthy cells and enables various body organs to function efficiently.
Laughter prevents insomnia: Watching funny clips and meeting friends to share funny moments combats the feeling of annoyance after a long and stressful day. Cerebral cortex frees electrical impulses which hinder the entrance of negative ideas a few seconds after initiation of laughter.
Laughter stimulates digestion: While laughing, face muscles are not the only ones which workout, stomach muscles also get to work out. There are a lot of muscles in the stomach and as you laugh, they contract producing a generous number of gastric juices which aid in digestion.
Tips to adding laughter in your daily life
Adding a touch of laughter to your day is easier than you may think. There are several ways you can add laughter as discussed below:
Watch funny clips: Consider sparing some time to watch something funny be it stand-up comedy, your favorite show or funny skits. You can watch comedy videos on your favorite spot but if you do not have time, you can watch short commercials.
Smile: Make a tendency of smiling at people more often. It may not be friends but strangers as well as you walk on the street. Smiling leads to laughter and is contagious just as laughter. Smile at your workmates, people in the elevator with you or that waiter serving you your morning coffee.
Focus on the positives in your life: Concentrating on the positive thing in your life will detach you from the negative mindset that might be hindering laughter. While sad, you have to explore different worlds of humor in order to lighten up your mood. Find a group of people to share jokes with when you are sad because you will obviously find a reason to laugh again.
Spend time and chat with friends: Surround yourself with people who find humor in everyday activities. Their laughter and silly jokes are contagious even if you are not the light hearted kind of person. Comedians appreciate an audience that laughs out at their jokes. Look for people who love laughing and making other people laugh as well.
Get a pet. Having a furry friend can bring back the joy in your life. Chasing them around and playing with them while watching the silly things they do can make you laugh.
Ways to develop your sense of humor
One important aspect of developing laughter is learning to make fun out of your weaknesses and mistakes. Do not take life too seriously but instead learn to accept your flaws and imperfections. Here are a few ways to develop your humor:
Laugh at situations: Instead of moaning in bad situations, learn to look for humor in them. Try as much as you can to make fun of this situations to reveal the peculiarity of life.
Try laughing at yourself: Talking about your most awkward moments with friends and making fun out of them will develop your humor. Take life less seriously and make fun of the time you were extremely serious with life.
Remember funny occurrences that happened in the past: In case you hear something funny, it is good to keep it in mind so you can share it with other people to lighten your mood and theirs as well. Reminding yourself of a funny joke you heard somewhere is also a helpful tactic.
Avoid negative thoughts: Try as much as possible to avoid negative thoughts and news that will make you feel sad. Having regular negative thoughts can affect your health negatively, it is advisable to clear them and stay positive.
Find a way to deal with your stress: Check your stress levels more often by recalling your favorite moments that make you smile. Recall jokes from friends, funny films or funny thing you did as a kid.
Try being around children: Children have a way of enjoying life and laughing at literally all circumstances. Try to be around them and imitate what they are doing.
Conclusion
Laughter is the best medicine because it makes you view life in a positive and relaxed way. When you take your problems too seriously, it creates a barrier for you to think of better solutions. Transforming your problems into play items enables you to find solutions faster and you get a chance to learn more from them. Joking around with people creates a stronger bond and enables you to connect with them efficiently. Set aside some time to enjoy humor and once you get used to it, laughter will be your daily dose and it will come naturally. Laughter is a great contributor when it comes to conflicts because it eases stress and enables couples to talk things through and mend their relationship. We hope this article has provided you with the essential steps you need to take to lighten up your mood and bring laughter to your life.
FAQs
1. What is the importance of laughing and smiling?
Laughing and smiling causes your immune system to function perfectly. The feeling you get while laughing causes a chemical reaction in the brain where neuropeptides are released. These proteins are the ones that boosts immunity and enables the body to fight illnesses. Humor boosts your immunity and it is highly recommended to laugh more often in your daily life.
2. How do you know someone is genuinely smiling?
A genuine smile is characterized by: lowered eyelids, elevated cheeks and raised mouth corners. It is also known as Duchenne smile and you can easily tell when it is natural.
3. How does smiling affect your face?
Smiling being one of the most essential expressions affects your face in ways such as: it makes you look younger; it assists in toning the facial muscles and it improves complexion by increasing the blood flow to your face.
4. What is the magic behind a smile?
Smiling helps you to change the mood and lighten it. A smile brings happiness to you and to others as well as changing their mood.