Sunday, December 18, 2005

Laughter is the best medicine

A great stress reliever is laughter. Medical research has shown us that smiling and laughing cause physiological changes in your body. It reduces cortisol, a chemical that indicates stress in the body, and an increase in mood elevating endorphins. Laughter can even improve circulation, stimulate the nervous system, heighten the immune system, and make the heart stronger.

Your body's safety valve: Laughing releases the tension and can help us keep things in perspective. Laughter is one of the body's safety valves, a counter balance to tension. So if you are really stressed out try to do something fun. Hang out with some up beat friends, watch your favorite funny movie or show. If you are stressed, don't watch something that will end up causing you more stress. Something light and funny will do the trick.

Kids laugh 400 times per day while adults are around 15 per day. As adults we might take ourselves to seriously. That is why is is important to find ways to get laughter back into you life. If you have kids hang out with them and act like a kid. I really like to wrestle with my kids and my nieces and nephews. Wrestling is crazy and makes a lot of noise and laughter and plus you get a good workout when you are wrestling with 6 kids.

Looking for ways to get more laughter into your life here is a list:

  1. Change radio programs in the morning. Switch to the funny station.
  2. Practice laughing just be a little crazy with your self. Even if you do a fake laugh it helps you feel better.
  3. Did you ever go to a party and you see someone who is not laughing at the jokes or not enjoying themselves. Did you ever try to get them to snap out of it. It is important to laugh with other people when they laugh. Pull yourself up and out of the slump.
  4. Chin up wear a smile. Try using the smile that makes people think you are the cat that ate the canary. They will walk by you and start to crack up themselves. Even though nothing is funny everyone will feel better.
  5. Swith to the lighter TV programs or movies.
  6. Do at least one silly, non-conforming thing a day. If you have a funny thing that happened to you during the day don't be embarassed about it. Make hay from it and tell everyone about it.

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