Laughter
Laughter is an important activity in combating ageing. A happy person looks younger and is more active. Our general attitude to life will directly affect every cell in our body. It will have a direct effect on every aspect of our lives. Make laughter a more significant part of your life, and try to make other people around you laugh. Laughter is a true gift.
What does the research reveal about laughing –
Laughter reduces the level of stress hormones like cortisol, epinephrine and adrenaline. When these hormones reach chronic levels, they are destructive and will increase anxiety, pain, and irritability. Speed up the ageing process, and slow down healing and repair. At the same time, laughter will increase health-enhancing hormones like endorphins and neurotransmitters. This generally means that you will feel better, look better, be in a better mood, and this speeds up healing and repair and slows down ageing. Also, you will be a person other people want to be around.
Anti-bodies and a more robust immune system
Laughter increases the number of antibody-producing cells and enhances the effectiveness of T-cells. All this means a more robust immune system that is a pleasant way of protecting ourselves from the viruses and ‘bugs’ that d us all the time. The safety valve – I am sure there have been times when you didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Though both provide physical and emotional release, it’s more fun to laugh. A good ‘belly laugh’ exercises the diaphragm, contracts the abs and even works out the shoulders, leaving muscles more relaxed afterwards. This means fewer aches and pains in the neck and shoulder areas that are so common today. When a person is in pain, it is draining and makes one look older. Laughter even provides a good workout for the heart – a ‘hearty laugh’.
Connecting with others
Laughter connects us with others, it is a very friendly thing to do, and it’s wonderfully contagious. Bring more laughter into your life; you can help others around you to laugh also, so everyone’s a winner. By elevating the mood of those around you, you can reduce their stress levels and perhaps improve the quality of the social interaction you experience with them, reducing your stress level even more!
Removes negative focus
Laughter moves the focus away from anger, worry, guilt, stress and negative emotions. Studies show our response to stressful events can be altered by whether we view something as a ‘threat’ or a ‘challenge’. Humour can give us a more light-hearted perspective and help us view events as ‘challenges’, making them less threatening so we can deal with them more effectively. If we feel better, we can deal with situations much better.
What happened?
I wonder how and why we lose the ability to laugh so much. A recent study showed preschool-aged children laugh up to 400 times a day!!!! That is enviable. Wouldn’t you love some of that? How many times a day do you laugh now you are a sensible ‘grown-up’? Especially if you are in pain, you probably think there is not much to laugh about. You do need to break this vicious cycle.
Make a conscious effort to
1) Watch comedies or comedians – you will have laughter on tap.
2) Socialize more; laughing is contagious. Dump the miserable friends. Have friends over for a meal, a funny movie or a friendly card game for a laugh.
3) Try to find the funny side of situations that frustrate you. Often these situations, when retold to friends later, are amusing, so try to see this entertaining story in your mind at the time.
4) Pretend at first until laughter becomes second nature. Really, practice laughing and certainly smile more. It works.
5) Spend more time with your children or grandchildren; they say the funniest things and ask amusing questions.
Laughter Decreases Stress Hormones
Other research indicates a general decrease in stress hormones that constrict blood vessels and suppress immune activity. Many adverse effects were shown to decrease in the study group exposed to humour. For example, epinephrine levels were lower in both the anticipation of humour and after exposure to humour. Epinephrine levels remained down throughout the experiment. In addition, dopamine levels were also lower. Dopamine is involved in the “fight or flight response” and is associated with elevated blood pressure.
Positive
Laughing is aerobic, providing a workout for the diaphragm and increasing the body’s ability to use oxygen. Laughter undoubtedly brings about positive emotions that can enhance our quality of life in so many ways. Yet most of us would rather have a moan than a good laugh! So remember, you need more smiles, more laughter, and much more of a positive outlook in general. Not only will you be a better person to be with, but you will also have a much-improved quality of life.
Everyone’s a winner!
