Laughing makes you healthy

Laughter is used in hospitals to heal people?

Do you remember Patch Adams, he was a Doctor in America that ‘discovered’ or at the time maybe only ‘believed’ that laughter was good for you.  In the North East of England there are actual ClownDoctors who visit childrens hospitals bringing much needed humour to the healing process.  Years ago there used to be a magazine that had jokes pages in it called “Laughter is the best medicine”.  So it has been known for a long time that laughter is good for your physically and emotionally even if mainstream medicine is reluctant to admit it.   Now we have evidence that laughter is actually good for you physically too.  When those electrical impulses power through the brain they set in motion a sequence of events that gives our body a good work out.

Laughter

• improves circulation to the brain the internal organs and the tissues of the body
• reduces blood pressure
• strengthens the immune system
• wards of respiratory complaints
• increases endorphin release into the body thereby helping to ward off pain
• encourages the body to relax.

Have you ever noticed too that a good laugh can sometimes turn into a good cry.

Laughing

• wards off depression
• ncourages muscles to release tensions and relax
• a belly laugh is the equivalent of internal jogging and stimulates the heart to beat faster and therefore helps to protect against heart disease.
• because it exercises the lungs laughing can also help to improve stamina.

Guy who cured himself of disease?

Courtsey Wikipedia

There is a story that has been turned into a film about the editor of the Saturday Review -  Norman Cousins called ‘Anatomy of an illness’ .  Cousins was found to have Ankylosing Spondylitus – a disease of the connective tissues in the body.  He was given only a few months to live when he took the decision, against his Doctor’s advice to move our of the hospital and into a hotel room where he underwent a kind of home crafted therapy of high doses of vitamin C and equally high doses of laughter.  Slowly he regained the use of his limbs.  He did a similar thing after suffering a heart attack in December 1980.   Cousins is obviously a man with extraordinary insight since he sensed that both his mind and his spirit each had a role to play in making his body well again.  A forward thinking man Cousins gave lectures in which he stated that “….very serious illness can be caused by ideas, by emotions, and by attitudes.

Have you ever thought you might take yourself too seriously?

Perhaps we take ourselves a bit too seriously.  As a teenager I remember a fellow worker used to say to me “don’t worry about life, because you will never get out of it alive”.  I always found the humour in this statement quite useful and appropriate at times when things seemed to be getting painfully serious.  Although if you have ever read the Illusions The Reluctant Messiah you will be familiar with this quote “Laughing on the way to your execution is not generally understood by less-advanced life-forms, and they’ll call you crazy.”
- Richard Bach, Illusions

Do we laugh less because we are getting older, or do we get older because we laugh less?

It’s reported that children laugh as many as 300 to 400 times per day before they are teenagers and teenagers laugh twice as much as adults do.  Have you ever wondered why that is?  I it because we reach a level of cynicism by the time we are in our 50′s  humour just gets replaced with sarcasm. I would say having a sense of humour requires a certain child like view point on life.  Perhaps it is something we should all try to develop. It certainly appears that those people who can carry on  laughing at them selves and at life into their later years look happier and healthy and they probably are physically healthier too.

How do you create more laughter in your life?

There are a variety of ways to create more opportunities to laugh.  Watching a comedy film or programme can give some people a humour relief from life.  Others like things like laughter groups  or laughter yoga.  Just moving your body around in a good way can result in laughter.  Learning to dance is a wonderfully uplifting activity and bound to create a fair bit of laughter if you get the steps wrong.  If dancing isn’t your thing just taking a brisk walk can raise your spirits and lead to a good laugh.  A pet is often a source of amusement if you have the time and money to get one.

Laughter comes in different sizes?

There is all kinds of laughter, there’s the chortle, the titter, the twitter, the guffaw,  the belly laugh, the bellow the cackle, the tee-hee and the snicker and probably a few that I havn’t mentioned here.  Laughter is the deepest, ;urest and oldest form of communication. It is the manifestation of a thought or feeling.  Laughter acts like a release valve allowing the pressure in the body to manifest itself through physical expression.

Would you like a good laugh now?

Ask yourself this question, when was the last time you had a really good laugh?  You know the kind I mean.  The kind that makes your face and stomach muscles ache and make the tears run down your face.  Where were you, what were you doing, what was being said or done, who were you with?  Spend a few moments relaxing with your eyes closed and imagine as vividly as you can that you are right back there again, having the same experience all over again.  Did you laugh?  Why not let us know by writing a comment.