By Alison Greiner

Laughter may indeed be the best medicine.

While, watching a funny television show or movie, attending a live comedy act or reading a funny book can have an immediate impact on your mood, doctors and health care professionals are all finding that laughing also provides immediate health benefits. On average, children laugh 400 times per day; adults, on the other hand, laugh only 15 times per day. With all the health benefits laughter offers, we adults better get laughing!

Laughter:
• Lowers blood pressure
• Reduces the stress hormone, cortisol, which can weaken the immune response
• Boosts immune function
• Releases endorphins, the brain’s natural painkiller
• Increases the body’s ability to use oxygen
• Provides good cardiac conditioning
• Increases creativity
• Helps promote a positive outlook

Laugh therapy
Hospitals across the United States are incorporating laughter therapy programs into their therapeutic regimes. “Clown doctors,” humorous videos and cartoons are all used in hospitals to make children laugh, relax and have fun, helping them cope with emotions they may be experiencing, such as fear, anxiety, loneliness and boredom.

A U.S. study, called Rx Laughter, explored the pain-relieving power of laughter. Twenty-one children aged 8 to 14 were asked to hold their hand in cold water. The study found they tolerated the temperature better while watching funny videos. Those who laughed most remembered less pain and hormone tests on their saliva showed stress levels lowered after laughter.

A part of life
For most people, laughter is a natural life occurrence. Some people in India, however, take laughing to the next step. There, laughing clubs gather early in the morning for the sole purpose of having a good, belly-busting chortle. These laughing clubs are as popular as Rotary Clubs are in the U.S.

Laughter conquers all
Norman Cousins is often referred to as the man who laughed his way to health. In 1964 Cousins published Anatomy of an Illness which told of his battle against ankylosing spondylitis, a degenerative disease that causes the breakdown of collagen, the fibrous tissue that binds together the body’s cells. Given a 1 in 500 chance of recovery, Cousins was a few months away from death when he checked himself out of the hospital and moved into a hotel room. He began taking high doses of vitamin C and laughter. He found that fifteen minutes of hard laughter produced two hours of pain-free sleep. Slowly, Cousins regained control over his limbs and went back to work.

The laughter remedy
1. Find your funny bone and work with it! What makes you laugh? Do Ross, Chandler and Joey get you laughing? Maybe reading a funny cartoon or telling “knock, knock” jokes with your five year old gets you laughing. Our sense of humor changes as our maturity and perception of life changes. Whatever your sense of humor, be sure not to tell or laugh at a joke that is at the expense of someone else.

2. Surround yourself with funny people. You are a direct reflection of the people you spend the most time with, so if you want to be funny and have fun, spend time with funny people.

3. Get creative. Laughter doesn’t always happen naturally; sometimes it has to be created. Have fun with your family—place a joke under your kids’ pillows or in their lunch bags or write a joke on the mirror while they are showering. Tell appropriate jokes in the work place. You can even share humor with strangers on the bus, on the street, even through the window during rush hour traffic. There are many joke books, props and other funny material to assist you since we are not all natural-born comedians.

4. Find humor in everyday life and learn to laugh at yourself. As Og Mandino says in The Greatest Salesman in the World, “I will smile and my digestion will improve, I will chuckle and my burdens will be lightened, I will laugh and my life will be lengthened, for this is the great secret of long life and now it is mine”.

Laughter is one of our Truestar Daily Success Habits, follow your SPTS Daily checklist and you will be happy and laughing all the way! Use these laughter skills and techniques to cope with stress. Don’t take this day too seriously. How important are today’s stresses in the grand plan of life?

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