Laughter is the Best
Medicine
Humor is
infectious. The sound of roaring laughter is far more contagious than any
cough, sniffle, or sneeze. When laughter is shared, it binds people together
and increases happiness and intimacy. Laughter also triggers healthy physical
changes in the body. Humor and laughter strengthen your immune system, boost
your energy, diminish pain, and protect you from the damaging effects of
stress. Best of all, this priceless medicine is fun, free, and easy to use.
Laughter is a powerful antidote to stress, pain, and conflict.
Nothing works faster or more dependably to bring your mind and body back into
balance than a good laugh. Humor lightens your burdens, inspires hopes,
connects you to others, and keeps you grounded, focused, and alert.
With so much power to heal and renew, the
ability to laugh easily and frequently is a tremendous resource for surmounting
problems, enhancing your relationships, and supporting both physical and
emotional health.
Laughter is good for your health
§
Laughter relaxes the whole body. A good, hearty
laugh relieves physical tension and stress, leaving your muscles relaxed for up
to 45 minutes after.
§
Laughter boosts the immune system. Laughter decreases
stress hormones and increases immune cells and infection-fighting antibodies,
thus improving your resistance to disease.
§
Laughter triggers the release of endorphins, the body’s natural
feel-good chemicals. Endorphins promote an overall sense of well-being and can
even temporarily relieve pain.
§
Laughter protects the heart. Laughter improves the
function of blood vessels and increases blood flow, which can help protect you
against a heart attack and other cardiovascular problems.
The
Benefits of Laughter
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Physical Health Benefits:
§
Boosts immunity
§
Lowers stress hormones
§
Decreases pain
§
Relaxes your muscles
§
Prevents heart disease
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Mental Health Benefits:
§
Adds joy and zest to life
§
Eases anxiety and fear
§
Relieves stress
§
Improves mood
§
Enhances resilience
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Social Benefits:
§
Strengthens relationships
§
Attracts others to us
§
Enhances teamwork
§
Helps defuse conflict
§
Promotes group bonding
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Laughter makes you feel
good. And the good feeling that you get when you laugh remains with you even
after the laughter subsides. Humor helps you keep a positive, optimistic
outlook through difficult situations, disappointments, and loss.
More than just a respite from sadness and
pain, laughter gives you the courage and strength to find new sources of
meaning and hope. Even in the most difficult of times, a laugh–or even simply a
smile–can go a long way toward making you feel better. And laughter really is contagious—just
hearing laughter primes your brain and readies you to smile and join in the
fun.
The link between laughter and mental health
§
Laughter dissolves
distressing emotions. You can’t feel anxious, angry, or sad when you’re laughing.
§
Laughter helps you relax and recharge. It reduces stress
and increases energy, enabling you to stay focused and accomplish more.
§
Humor shifts perspective, allowing you to see
situations in a more realistic, less threatening light. A humorous perspective
creates psychological distance, which can help you avoid feeling overwhelmed.
Humor and playful communication strengthen
our relationships by triggering positive feelings and fostering emotional
connection. When we laugh with one another, a positive bond is created. This
bond acts as a strong buffer against stress, disagreements, and disappointment.
Laughing with others is more
powerful than laughing alone
Shared laughter
is one of the most effective tools for keeping relationships fresh and
exciting. All emotional sharing builds strong and lasting relationship bonds, but
sharing laughter and play also adds joy, vitality, and resilience. And humor is
a powerful and effective way to heal resentments, disagreements, and hurts.
Laughter unites people during difficult times.
Incorporating more humor and play into
your daily interactions can improve the quality of your love relationships— as
well as your connections with co-workers, family members, and friends. Using
humor and laughter in relationships allows you to:
§
Be more spontaneous. Humor gets you out of your head and
away from your troubles.
§
Let go of defensiveness. Laughter helps you
forget judgments, criticisms, and doubts.
§
Release inhibitions. Your fear of holding back and
holding on are set aside.
§
Express your true feelings. Deeply felt
emotions are allowed to rise to the surface.
Bringing more humor and laughter into your life
Laughter is your birthright, a
natural part of life that is innate and inborn. Infants begin smiling during
the first weeks of life and laugh out loud within months of being born. Even if
you did not grow up in a household where laughter was a common sound, you can
learn to laugh at any stage of life.
Begin by setting aside special times to
seek out humor and laughter, as you might with working out, and build from
there. Eventually, you’ll want to incorporate humor and laughter into the
fabric of your life, finding it naturally in everything you do.
Here are some ways to start:
§
Smile. Smiling is the beginning of
laughter. Like laughter, it’s contagious. Pioneers in “laugh therapy,” find
it’s possible to laugh without even experiencing a funny event. The same holds
for smiling. When you look at someone or see something even mildly pleasing,
practice smiling.
§
Count your blessings. Literally make a
list. The simple act of considering the good things in your life will distance
you from negative thoughts that are a barrier to humor and laughter. When
you’re in a state of sadness, you have further to travel to get to humor and
laughter.
§
When you hear laughter, move toward it. Sometimes humor and
laughter are private, a shared joke among a small group, but usually not. More
often, people are very happy to share something funny because it gives them an
opportunity to laugh again and feed off the humor you find in it. When you hear
laughter, seek it out and ask, “What’s funny?”
§
Spend time with fun, playful people. These are people
who laugh easily–both at themselves and at life’s absurdities–and who routinely
find the humor in everyday events. Their playful point of view and laughter are
contagious.
§
Bring humor into conversations. Ask people, “What’s the
funniest thing that happened to you today? This week? In your life?”
One essential characteristic that helps us
laugh is not taking ourselves too seriously. We’ve all known the classic
tight-jawed sourpuss who takes everything with deathly seriousness and never
laughs at anything. No fun there!
Some events are clearly sad and not
occasions for laughter. But most events in life don’t carry an overwhelming
sense of either sadness or delight. They fall into the gray
zone of ordinary life–giving you the choice to laugh or not.
Ways to help yourself see the lighter side of life:
§
Laugh at yourself. Share your embarrassing moments. The
best way to take yourself less seriously is to talk about times when you took
yourself too seriously.
§
Attempt to laugh at situations rather than bemoan
them. Look for the humor in a bad situation, and uncover the irony and
absurdity of life. This will help improve your mood and the mood of those
around you.
§
Surround yourself with reminders to lighten up. Keep a toy on your
desk or in your car. Put up a funny poster in your office. Choose a computer
screensaver that makes you laugh. Frame photos of you and your family or
friends having fun.
§
Keep things in perspective. Many things in life are
beyond your control—particularly the behavior of other people. While you might
think taking the weight of the world on your shoulders is admirable, in the
long run it’s unrealistic, unproductive, unhealthy, and even egotistical.
§
Pay attention to children and emulate them. They are the
experts on playing, taking life lightly, and laughing.
Checklist for
lightening up
When you find yourself
taken over by what seems to be a horrible problem, ask these questions:
§ Is it really worth
getting upset over?
§ Is it worth upsetting
others?
§ Is it that important?
§ Is it that bad?
§ Is the situation
irreparable?
§
Is it really your problem?
The ability to laugh, play, and
have fun with others not only makes life more enjoyable but also helps you
solve problems, connect with others, and be more creative. People who
incorporate humor and play into their daily lives find that it renews them and all
of their relationships.
Life brings challenges that can either get
the best of you or become playthings for your imagination. When you “become the
problem” and take yourself too seriously, it can be hard to think outside the
box and find new solutions. But when you play with the problem, you can often
transform it into an opportunity for creative learning.
Playing with problems seems to come
naturally to children. When they are confused or afraid, they make their
problems into a game, giving them a sense of control and an opportunity to
experiment with new solutions. Interacting with others in playful ways helps
you retain this creative ability.
Here are two examples of people who took
everyday problems and turned them around through laughter and play:
Roy, a semi-retired businessman, was excited to finally have time to devote to
golf, his favorite sport. But the more he played, the less he enjoyed himself.
Although his game had improved dramatically, he got angry with himself over
every mistake. Roy wisely realized that his golfing buddies affected his
attitude, so he stopped playing with people who took the game too seriously.
When he played with friends who focused more on having fun than on their
scores, he was less critical of himself. Now golfing was as enjoyable as Roy
hoped it would be. He scored better without working harder. And the brighter
outlook he was getting from his companions and the game spread to other parts
of his life, including his work.
Jane worked at home
designing greeting cards, a job she used to love but now felt had become
routine. Two little girls who loved to draw and paint lived next door.
Eventually, Jane invited the girls in to play with all the art supplies she
had. At first, she just watched, but in time she joined in. Laughing, coloring,
and playing pretend with the little girls transformed Jane’s life. Not only did
playing with them end her loneliness and mild boredom, it sparked her
imagination and helped her artwork flourish. Best of all, it rekindled the
playfulness and spark in Jane’s relationship with her husband.
As laughter, humor, and play become an
integrated part of your life, your creativity will flourish and new discoveries
for playing with friends, coworkers, acquaintances, and loved ones will occur
to you daily. Humor takes you to a higher place where you can view the world
from a more relaxed, positive, creative, joyful, and balanced perspective.
Discussion of
Sentence :
1.
Laughter makes you feel good.
This sentence include to simple present
tense.
Simple present expresses daily habits or usual
activities. The simple present also expresses general statements of fact. This
sentence include to general statement of fact.
Simple
present tense S + V1 ± O
Laughter + makes + you
feel good
2.
Shared laughter is one of the most
effective tools for keeping relationships fresh and exciting.
This sentence include to present continuous
tense.
present continuous tense expresses the on
going activities and indicates future action.
Shared laughter + is + one
of the most effective tools for keeping relationships fresh and exciting.
3.
Humor takes you to a higher place where you can view
the world from a more relaxed, positive, creative, joyful, and balanced
perspective.
This sentence include to simple present tense.
Simple present expresses daily habits and also expresses
general statements of fact. This sentence include to general statement of fact.
Humor + takes + you
+ to a higher place where you
can view the world from a more relaxed, positive, creative, joyful, and
balanced perspective.
