Laughter can’t cure all ailments, but it can be good medicine! When you laugh, your intake of oxygen increases, and your heart, muscles and lungs are stimulated. Not only that, but feel-good brain chemicals, like dopamine and endorphins are released. After a good hearty laugh, stress and tension are soothed, leaving you feeling more relaxed, both emotionally and physically.
Stress relief is an amazing benefit of laughter, but the benefits don’t stop there. The endorphins that are released with laughter loosen up the arteries, which relaxes them, allowing blood to flow more freely, which results in reduced blood pressure. Endorphins also provide a type of natural pain relief. Certainly, health conditions need to be treated seriously by you and your medical provider but having a sense of humor can be helpful for dealing with chronic pain and illness. We can tell you from treating thousands of patients that laughter can really help lighten the enormous emotional load that illness brings upon a family. Laughter raises serotonin levels, a brain chemical that helps to fight depression.
Laughing is contagious, so surround yourself with upbeat people who encourage you to smile and make you laugh! Likewise, being surrounded by people who are routinely pessimistic and do not share your sense of humor could wear on you, including your ability to laugh. Since folks are a lot more likely to laugh when they are with others, why not invite a friend to go to a comedy performance or a funny movie? Or, check out the comedy section in the library or a bookstore and then share it. At home, hang comic strips or funny family pictures in a place that will remind you and your family to chuckle. Enjoy the natural stress relieving effects of laughter!