Get your giggle on! The health benefits of laughter. Are you getting enough?

Get your giggle on! The health benefits of laughter. Are you getting enough?

Get ready to get your giggle on!
  • Lowers blood pressure.
  • Reduces stress hormone levels.
  • Works your abs. …
  • Improves cardiac health
  • Boosts T-cells.
  • Triggers the release of endorphins.
  • Produces a general sense of well-being.

Aim to laugh 30 times a day! According to The Joy Diet, this will increase your happiness! It is working for me already.

How:

  • Get in touch with your funny bone. What kind of comedy makes you laugh – look for sources in books, videos, TV, and movies
  • Write a list of all your funny friends – have them on your speed dial
  • Laugh with kids and look at things through their eyes once in a while. Currently, my kid is killing me with this – “How Old Is”…  Questions. Example: Is dance older than music? Then we had a discussion about what came first. I find these questions highly amusing.
  • Laugh for no reason at all
  • Laugh at yourself – even your mistakes – perhaps old mistakes work best

 

 Want to laugh with me? Join me on August 21st where we will be getting together for laughs and lovely connections. REGISTER NOW. 


From Psychology Today 
The average four-year-old laughs 300 times a day. The average 40-year-old? Only four.

When I first read that statistic, on a blog called Ageing Healthily, Happily, and Youthfully, I found the 300 number a bit high. But then I thought about my five-year-old nephew, Bob. The other day I was sitting on a doorstep with his brother Joe perched on my lap, warming up after a run through the sprinkler. I asked Joe, “Do you know where Bob is? Is he in the sandbox?” (He was out of sight around the corner.)

There was a silent pause, then an explosion of laughter behind and around me, as Bob popped into view, grinning and beaming, his whole body filled with delight. “You thought I was in the sandbox!” he exclaimed, giggling, “but I was right behind you!”

Why that was so hilarious only a five-year-old really knows, but it made me laugh too, just experiencing the delight of his joie de vivre. So we three—Bob and I, with Joe chiming in—laughed and laughed and laughed.

I suppose it could be just an urban legend that four- to six-year-olds laugh 300 times a day; I tried to verify the numbers but found no actual research citations. And other blogs on the topic have cited 15-20 as the average number of daily laughs for adults. No matter, really; the point is that children laugh way more than adults do.

And that ought to tell us something.

Laughter Enlivens Us

Norman Cousins famously chronicled the effects of his self-prescribed “laughing cure” in his book Anatomy of an Illness as Perceived by the Patient (W.W. Norton, 1979, 2001, 2005). Cousins, who suffered from inflammatory arthritis, claimed that 10 minutes of hearty guffawing while watching Marx Brothers movies brought him two hours of pain-free sleep—and that both inflammation and pain were significantly reduced. Research since then has shown that laughter reduces levels of stresshormones such as cortisol, epinephrine, and dopamine; increases health-enhancing hormones (such as endorphins), neurotransmitters, and infection-fighting antibodies; and improves blood flow to the heart—all resulting in greater relaxation and resistance to disease, as well as improved mood and positive outlook.

Laughter Changes Us

… and in the loveliest ways. When we lighten up we feel more positive and optimistic, more hopeful and engaged. We’re friendlier, more resourceful, more attractive, more radiantly alive.

Raising Our Laugh Quota

The day after I read the blog on laughing, I decided to up my “laugh quota.” Hardly had I made that intention than I participated in a conference call in which two other people spontaneously broke into extended laughter. Experiencing a sense of unity and connection with them, it occurred to me that, hey, if we’re all One (an insight the Possibility Paradigm tends to lead to) then maybe I can count other people’s laughter as filling part of my own laugh quota.

Think about it: If others around you are laughing, you’re absorbing their upbeat vibes. It’s kind of like second-hand smoke (but better): You get almost the same effect. And of course, since laughing is contagious, someone else’s laughter tends to trigger yours, giving you extra laugh points toward your quota. And I count long laughs as multiple points, because as of now, that seems to me about the only way to get to 300 per day. (Perhaps I’ll grow out of this limited-possibility mindset?)

Meeting the Quota

Here’s an example: On my own, I would have probably just chuckled a little at Bob’s surprise appearance from behind me. Count = 1 laugh. But Bob’s laughter continued for at least 25 or 30 points worth, I’d say. So, according to my quota counting system, I would add an extra 30 points to my tab, because We Are One, remember? Moreover, since Bob’s long, exuberant laughter triggered the same response in me, I laughed and laughed along with him–which gives me an additional 30 laugh points, not just the one chuckle point I would have gotten on my own. Out of that joint laugh experience, I now have 60 points. And since Joe laughed delightedly too, that’s another 30 points. So in just one laugh episode—with my own long hearty laugh, enjoyed with two additional laughers also riffing in blissful Oneness—I get a full (though unscientific) 90 points toward my daily quota! Counting like this, I think to myself: I can do this.

How About You?

What if, just for today, you were to throw in at least a few extra laughs? Maybe even a couple of really happy long ones, so hale and hearty that it gets someone else to start laughing, too. (Tip: Try it around a four- to six-year-old.

What would you feel like if you laughed like a 5-year-old today, and tomorrow, and the next? What would we all feel like? What would the world be like if laughter became, once again, our natural state?

[clickToTweet tweet=”‘You don’t stop laughing because you grow old, you grow old because you stop laughing.’—Michael Pritchard” quote=”‘You don’t stop laughing because you grow old, you grow old because you stop laughing.’—Michael Pritchard”]

About The Author

Leigh Mitchell

Leigh Mitchell is an educator and Co-Founder of Bee Happy Mindfulness and the Founder of Bee Happy HR, Hire Her Career Board and Women in Biz Network. Leigh hosts a podcast called the Bee Happy Podcast for Change Makers and is also a Marketing & PR Instructor at York University. Statistics Canada recognized Leigh as an EDI Expert in Gender Diversity and the Bee Happy HR Blog received accolades for ranking number 13 out of the Top 60 Canadian HR & Diversity Blogs awarded by FeedSpot. To learn more visit beehappyhr.com and beehappymindfulness.com and connect with Leigh Mitchell on Linkedin to take mindful action together! Bee Happy Mindfulness Programs integrate social-emotional skills into education and workplaces using secular and mindful-based practices including customized programs with the Blue Jays Care Foundation, YMCA, PDSB and TDSB. Leigh has worked with brands such as Microsoft Canada, SAGE, TELUS, TD Canada Trust, Staples Canada, and Chevrolet Canada throughout her career. Leigh has been featured in the CBC News, The Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, Canadian Living, Wall Street Journal, and has spoken at numerous industry events. 

Leave a reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

COMPLIMENTARY MENTORSHIP FOR YOUR CAREER, MARKETING AND BUSINESS

Hear Her. Help Her. Hire Her.

Pin It on Pinterest