Why Laughter is the best medicine?

Have a look around you. People are dealing with emotions like worries, anxieties, stress, and other pessimism on a daily basis. Everyone knows that laughter is the best medicine still, they show stinginess on laughing. But why?

An onion can make people cry but there’s never been a vegetable that can make people laugh.

Will Rogers

Do you remember the last time when you laughed genuinely? Not just a formal but a real, authentic, and contagious laugh. It might have been just a few seconds ago, yesterday, the day before yesterday, last week, or maybe last month. After all, being gloomy most of the time has become a trend nowadays. We have a long list of pessimism that can make us sad, but to be happy, we brawl to find even a single reason. We actually laugh about 300 times as a child but only 30 times as an adult. But why?

There was a time when people used to be happy while seeing others happy but nowadays, things have completely changed. After all, it’s an era of competition. People these days are more concerned about sharing their stress, griefs, problems, adversities, etc. instead of sharing laughter and happiness. They can worry about stupid reasons but they don’t know how to make full use of all these little moments of life. After all, it’s only the little things that matter the most. So, we must always be ready to enjoy every moment of our lives as it has its own importance.

Also read: The Changing Seasons of our life.

Why is laughter good for you?

From the age of six weeks old, every single baby starts to smile and after two to three months every single baby starts to giggle. They giggle before they can even understand any language. Whenever you see a baby, there is an automatic smile on your face.

Have you ever noticed that when you meet your loved ones after a long time, you greet them with a smile?

Has anyone taught you to smile in the above-mentioned situations? Definitely not! But still, you do so because that’s natural. Our brain is designed in such a way that when we hear someone laughing, we laugh along. It’s hard to resist laughter when the whole room is laughing. That’s the reason it is said that a smile is contagious.

Laughter is such a joyful and spontaneous emotion. It allows us to be open to new perspectives and helps to discharge emotional tension. It works as a therapist for our body and mind. You can not find a medicine as inexpensive and as effective as that of a good laughter session. It is completely free, still, I don’t know why people find it so difficult to laugh often?

What were you doing the last time when you really had a good laugh? Do more of that and laugh more. It doesn’t matter whether you were laughing with your friends or laughing alone on seeing your old funny photos; whether you were watching some comedy shows or sharing memes online; all that matters is only your laughter.

How does laughter work?

When we are stressed, our brain releases stress chemicals like cortisol and adrenaline. They flood our body thus weakening our immune system. WHO says as much as 80% of diseases that exist in the world today are caused by stress. When we laugh, our bodies release a flood of chemicals and positive neurotransmitters that stimulates our brains, our immune system, and our nervous system. These chemicals or hormones like endorphins have the ability to reverse those stress hormones. In fact, when we laugh, our blood flow increases by about 50%. Not only this, but laughing also burns calories. That means if you were to laugh for 15 min a day every day of the year, you can lose up to five pounds. The harder you laugh, the more advantageous it is for your body.

Other health benefits of laughter

According to Dr. Madan Kataria, founder of laughter yoga school, if laughter cannot SOLVE your problems, it will definitely DISSOLVE your problems; so that you can think clearly what to do about them. Several studies suggest that a regular amount of laughter can raise your cholesterol and even lower your blood sugar. That’s one of the major reasons why many people have started practicing laughter therapy and laughter yoga.

What’s a Laughter therapy?

It is a therapy that teaches us how to use laughter to release stress or to get rid of any depressing thoughts. This simple therapy involves laughing out aloud repetitively in a group for about a minute along with deep breathing.

I have not seen anyone dying of laughter, but I know millions who are dying because they are not laughing.

Dr. Madan Kataria

Stanford University has done amazing studies by proving that two min of an immense belly laugh has the same cardiovascular phase as 10 min of exercise back in a gym. After a good laughter season, our blood pressure reduces and our muscles get relaxed. Our brains get oxygenated so we can think more clearly but best of all, we feel awesome.

Conclusion

As soap is to the body, so laughter is to the soul.

A Jewish Proverb

Laughter is like a reset button for your soul. We must understand that our emotional health is as important as physical health. When we feel good, we naturally tend to think good, be good, speak good and do good.

Now many people will say it’s crazy means you can’t walk around laughing at serious things, and that’s not what it is about. It’s not about laughing at our problems. It’s about laughing to help us get through them and we should use this every single day. We need to laugh at least 5 times a day because this is fruitful for our spiritual and emotional bodies. Laughter may not cure anything but it makes the unbearable a little more bearable.

A child doesn’t need any reason to laugh. They feel good so they laugh. There is something really genius about being childlike and finding 100 things in a day to laugh about. So, the next time you’re feeling down, try having a good and hearty laugh just like a child.

It’s about time we let go of our troubles and laugh more. You can’t solve your problems just by worrying but by laughing you can definitely face the problems in a positive way. So learn to laugh at yourself even for the silliest of reasons.

As long as you live, you have your laughter. So live your life by laughing every day.

Wish you happy reading with happier laughter!