Laughter is the Best Medicine

Laughter is the Best Medicine

More than just brightening up your day, sharing a good laugh can actually improve your health. The sound of laughter draws people together in ways that trigger healthy physical and emotional changes in the body. Laughter can reduce stress, anxiety, and depression, strengthen your immune system, and diminish pain. As children, we used to laugh hundreds of times a day, but as adults life tends to be more serious and laughter more infrequent. By seeking out more opportunities for humor and laughter, though, you can improve your emotional health, strengthen your relationships, find greater happiness—and even add years to your life.

What you can do

1. Share funny moments—even if they are embarrassing—with friends
2. Host a game night for friends
3. When you hear laughter, move towards it
4. Seek out playful people who laugh easily
5. Learn to laugh at yourself

Why is laughter the sweetest medicine for mind and body?

Nothing balances your nervous system faster than communicating face-to-face with another person. Add laughter to that communication and you have a powerful antidote to stress, anxiety, pain, and conflict. Humor lightens your burdens, inspires hopes, connects you to others, and keeps you grounded, focused, and alert. It also helps you to release anger and be more forgiving.

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.

Laughter burns calories. OK, so it’s no replacement for going to the gym, but one study found that laughing for 10 to 15 minutes a day can burn about 40 calories—which could be enough to lose three or four pounds over the course of a year.

Laughter lightens anger’s heavy load. Nothing diffuses anger and conflict faster than a shared laugh. Looking at the funny side can put problems into perspective and enable you to move on from confrontations without holding onto bitterness or resentment.

Laughter may even help you to live longer. A study in Norway found that people with a strong sense of humor outlived those who don't laugh as much. The difference was particularly notable for those battling cancer.

The benefits of laughter

Physical Health Benefits

Boosts immunity

Lowers stress hormones

Decreases pain

Relaxes your muscles, burns calories

Prevents heart disease

Mental Health Benefits

Adds joy and zest to life

Eases anxiety and tension

Relieves stress

Improves mood and mental functioning

Enhances resilience, improves self-esteem

Helps overcome anger and resentment

Social Benefits

Strengthens relationships

Attracts others to us, reduces loneliness

Enhances teamwork

Helps defuse conflict

Promotes group bonding

Laughter helps you stay emotionally healthy

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 and diffuse conflict.

Laughter draws you closer to others, and increasing social engagement can have a profound effect on all aspects of your mental and emotional health.

The social benefits of humor and laughter

There’s a good reason why TV sitcoms use laugh tracks: laughter is contagious. You’re many times more likely to laugh around other people than when you’re alone. And the more laughter you bring into your own life, the happier others around you will feel.

Sharing humor is half the fun—in fact, most laughter doesn’t come from hearing jokes, but rather simply from spending time with friends and family. And it’s this social aspect that plays such an important role in the health benefits of laughter. You can’t enjoy a laugh with other people unless you take the time to really engage with them. When you care about someone enough to switch off your phone and really connect face to face, you’re engaging in a process that rebalances the nervous system and puts the brakes on defensive stress responses like “fight or flight.” And if you share a laugh as well, you’ll both feel happier, more positive, and more relaxed—even if you’re unable to alter the stressful situation itself.

Laughing and relationships

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 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 resentments, 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 laughter into your life

Want more laughter in your life? Get a pet…

Most of us have experienced the joy of playing with a furry friend, and pets are a rewarding way to bring more laughter and joy into your life. But did you know that having a pet is good for your mental and physical health? Studies show that pets can protect you depression, stress, and even heart disease.

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 and like laughter, it’s contagious. When you look at someone or see something even mildly pleasing, practice smiling. Instead of looking down at your phone, look up and smile at people you pass in the street, the person serving you a morning coffee, or the co-workers you share an elevator with. Notice the effect this has on others.

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. Even if you don’t consider yourself a lighthearted, humorous person, you can still seek out people who like to laugh and make others laugh. Every comedian appreciates an audience.

Bring humor into conversations. Ask people, “What’s the funniest thing that happened to you today? This week? In your life?”

Creating opportunities to laugh

• Watch a funny movie, TV show, or YouTube video
• Invite friends or co-workers to go to a comedy club

• Read the funny pages
• Seek out funny people
• Share a good joke or a funny story
• Check out your bookstore’s humor section
• Host game night with friends
• Play with a pet
• Go to a “laughter yoga” class
• Goof around with children
• Do something silly
• Make time for fun activities (e.g. bowling, miniature golfing, karaoke)

Simulated laughter

As proponents in “laugh therapy” and “laugh yoga” have discovered, it’s possible to laugh without experiencing a funny event—and simulated laughter can be just as good for you as the real thing. It can even make exercise more fun and more productive. A Georgia State University study found that incorporating bouts of simulated laughter into an exercise program helped improve older adults’ mental health as well as their aerobic endurance. Plus, hearing others laugh, even for no apparent reason, can often trigger genuine laughter.

To add simulated laughter into your own life, search for laugh yoga or laugh therapy groups. Or you can start simply by laughing at other people’s jokes, even if you don’t find them funny. It will make both you and the other person feel good, draw you closer together, and who knows, may even lead to some spontaneous laughter.

Develop your sense of humor

An essential ingredient for developing your sense of humor is to learn to not take yourself too seriously and laugh at your own mistakes and foibles. As much as we’d like to believe otherwise, we all do foolish things from time to time. Instead of feeling embarrassed or defensive, embrace your imperfections. While some events in life are clearly sad and not opportunities for laughter, most 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. So choose to laugh whenever you can.

How to Develop Your Sense of Humor
Laugh at yourself. Share your embarrassing moments. The best way to take yourself less seriously is to talk about times when you took yourselftoo 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. When something negative happens, try to find a way to make it a humorous anecdote that will make others laugh.
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.
Remember funny things that happen.If something amusing happens or you hear a joke or funny story you really like, write it down or tell it to someone else to help you remember it.
Don’t dwell on the negative. Try toavoid negative people, those who are unable to see the humor in any situation, and don’t dwell on news stories, entertainment, or conversations that make you sad or unhappy. 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 and unhealthy.
Find your inner child. Pay attention to children and try to emulate them—after all, they are the experts on playing, taking life lightly, and laughing at ordinary things.
Deal with your stress. One great technique to relieving stress in the moment  is to draw upon a favorite memory that always makes you smile—something your kids did, for example, or something funny a friend told you. While stress can be a major impediment to humor and laughter, laughter can also be a great stress reliever.
Don’t go a day without laughing. Think of it like exercise or breakfast and make a conscious effort to find something each day that makes you laugh. Set aside 10 to 15 minutes and do something that amuses you. The more you get used to laughing each day, the less effort you’ll have to make.

Using humor and laughter to overcome challenges and enhance your life

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.

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.

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 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 opportunities for laughing with friends, coworkers, acquaintances, and loved ones will occur to you daily. Laughter takes you to a higher place where you can view the world from a more relaxed, positive, and joyful perspective.

Resources and references

General information about health and humor

Articles on Health and Humor – Psychologist and humor-training specialist Paul McGhee offers a series of articles on humor, laughter, and health. (Laughter Remedy)

Laughter as medicine

Laughter is the "Best Medicine" for Your Heart – Describes a study that found that laughter helps prevent heart disease. (University of Maryland Medical Center)

Laughter Therapy – Guide to the healing power of laughter, including the research supporting laughter therapy. (Cancer Treatment Centers of America)

Laugh lots, live longer – Details Norwegian study that found having a strong sense of humor may extend life expectancy. (Scientific American Mind) 

Laughter-Based Exercise Program for Older Adults has Health Benefits – Research that shows the health benefits of simulated laughter. (Georgia State University)

No joke: Study finds laughing can burn calories – Outlines a small study that found laughing raises energy expenditure and increases heart rate enough to burn a small amount of calories. (Vanderbilt University Medical Center)T

The social benefits of laughter

The Benefits of Laughter – Article on the social benefits of laughter and the important role it plays in the relationships between people. (Psychology Today)

The Science of Laughter – Psychologist and laughter researcher Robert Provine, Ph.D., explains the power of laughter, humor, and play as social tools. (Psychology Today)

Bringing more laughter into your life

Humor in the Workplace – Series of articles on using humor in the workplace to reduce job stress, improve morale, boost productivity and creativity, and improve communication. (Laughter Remedy)

What other readers are saying

“I love this article on laughter. It is so thorough. Super good job.” ~ Canada

Lee Sok Lian , HAPPINESS COACH ON SUN ISLAND SHANGHAI

Lee Sok Lian , HAPPINESS COACH ON SUN ISLAND SHANGHAI,

Lee Sok Lian holds a BA (Hons) in English literature from the National University of Singapore, and though she worked as a copywriter for four years in her late twenties, she has been an English teacher—her first love and true calling—for most of her life.

Less than ten years ago, she was introduced to meditation and began taking courses in healing, Reiki, Quantum Touch, yoga, laughter yoga, hypnotherapy, intuitive counseling, relaxation techniques, and other meditation subjects, including a two-month stint at the Hypnotherapy Academy of America, where she learned from Tim Simmerman. That’s when her life took a surprising turn: instead of returning to Singapore, she was asked to transfer to Sun Island Shanghai to use her newfound healing skills in addition to her teaching skills.

Now, she is the resident meditation and laughter yoga teacher of Sun Island. She is also the editor of the English segment of The Mahota Quarterly and teaches conversational English as well as personal mastery classes.

Lee’s first book “If You Think The Water Is Cold”, available at Amazon.com, is based on the true story of a cancer survivor Tan Siew Khim, a Singaporean who, after facing her initial fears and conquering her reaction to “leave this world quietly,” decided that she wasn’t ready to quit this just yet. Siew Khim embraced the different forms of medicine and treatments available. When she was invited to Sun Island Shanghai to convalesce, Siew Khim discovered the power of wellness activities such as mindfulness meditation and laughter yoga. This is where she met—and inspired—her biographer, Lee Sok Lian.

IF YOU THINK THE WATER IS COLD

A Cancer Survivor's Story

by Lee Sok Lian, illustrated by Tan Siew Khim

KIRKUS REVIEW

In this memoir, a Singaporean woman addresses her cancer diagnosis with family support, Western and traditional Chinese medicine, and other means.
In January 2010, Tan Siew Khim, in her late 40s, discovered a lump in her right breast while taking a shower. Though single, Siew Khim was part of a large, close-knit ethnically Chinese family, which rallied to support her once she got up the courage to tell them. Her sisters first took her to a traditional Chinese medicine clinic, then older family members arranged for her treatment at a Singaporean government hospital, where she eventually received chemotherapy, surgery and radiotherapy. At a family-owned golf/holiday resort, Siew Khim learned the ancient Chinese techniques of physical exercise, breathing and meditation, as well as “yoga, laughter yoga, walking meditation, driving a buggy, photography, dancing, cycling, golf, English, and public speaking.” Two years after the initial diagnosis, she describes her recovery as “a personal choice to get well.” In her debut work, Lee’s thesis is that recovery is a choice: “Any cancer patient can—if he or she chooses to do so—learn to slow and even reverse cancer’s progression in the body.” While some readers may find their experiences or hopes resonate with Siew Khim’s, many more will find the arguments presented here both pernicious and insulting because they continually express the idea that cancer is the patient’s fault: “Instead of letting cancer triumph over her, she reclaimed her life”; “The perfect patient, and one possessed of an inordinately strong will, Siew Khim follows prescribed dietary guidelines”; by “changing her internal dialogue…[t]he cells in her body have started believing it too.” A list of references is supplied, but the ideas are presented uncritically; for example, poor diet and bad mental attitude don’t explain why world-class athletes (who must cultivate both diet and attitude) or infants contract cancer. Nor does Lee take into account the roles Siew Khim’s chemotherapy, surgery and radiation must have played.
While Siew Khim’s recovery is to be applauded, this book is poorly supported and full of magical thinking.

MY STORY --- TAN SIEW KHIM

BY TAN SIEW KHIM

My name is Tan Siew Khim. I am from Singapore. I am a cancer patient.

I first discovered that I had cancer in 2011. I had the operation in January 2011. My mother was ill at about the same time. She did not know that I was going for chemotherapy treatment at the hospital.

I visited my mother in hospital once. She was very ill then. We did not tell her about my condition. I wore a wig to cover my baldness. My mother did not know this.

On one of the visits, my mother said: “Qin, your new hairstyle is very nice.”

I did not say anything.

Mum’s condition was growing worse. When she passed away in hospital, I felt very sad because I could not be there. I was undergoing therapy at that time. The doctors thought I should stay away to avoid infection.

All my family members were there. Except for me.

During this time I lost my appetite. No matter what I ate, the food always tasted bland. I think my taste buds were not working. The doctor told me that I must eat. So I watched cooking programs on TV. And DVDs of cooking classes. The delicious food I saw on TV helped a little. I was able to eat a little. I gained a bit of weight. I knew I had to heed the doctor’s advice if I wanted to get well.

When you have cancer, you lose interest in many things. In food. In life. In the things that you used to do.

You lose hope.

After Mum passed away, my uncle persuaded me to come to Sun Island. I followed his advice. I came to the island in March 2011. On the island, I learnt qigong and ba duan qin. I also learnt swimming, meditation, walking meditation, driving (buggies), yoga and laughter yoga. My health improved.

I am under the care of the Chinese doctors here. Recently I went to see the doctor in Shanghai. The results of the checkup are very good. My family and my friends are very happy for me. I am still taking the Chinese medicine every day. I know that I will overcome cancer. I am confident that the cancer will not return. I continue to live each day fully, doing exercises and laughing every day.

I know that it is important for me to stay positive. To have hope in the future.

I should also exercise and take in sufficient oxygen. The doctors have told me that when we take in enough oxygen the cancer will go away. I am confident that I will get well one day. I will be better and better.

I wish all of you the best of health! I hope that you will always be happy and healthy too!

- TAN SIEW KHIM

Pub Date: July 24th, 2014

ISBN: 978-1492345558

Page count: 108pp

Publisher: CreateSpace

Program: Kirkus Indie

Review Posted Online: Oct. 9th, 2014

Research Laughter is the Best Medicine

Laughter does three things well:-
1. Laughter creates joy. Anyone needed joy to live.

2. Laughter has the power to heal. Anyone needed to heal the body and the mind.

3. Laughter has the power to connect us, people. Laughter strengthens relationships.

I am going to invite you to stand with me. Laughter yoga is a series of exercises and intentional breathing that create fake laughter first, in order, to create authentic contagious laughter second. 

So we fake it until we make it. So, we're about to fake it.

Today, we gonna do three varieties, as we are doing these, we do have a transition .....

Very good, very good, Yay! do it again.
Very good, very good, Yeah! one more time.
Very good, very good, Yeah! 

All right , you're starting to feel childlike and playful. 

Our first laughter exercise, we're here to connect. We want to connect with one another. So today, we're gonna start with the waving laugh. You're gonna wave with one hand, wave with the other hand, maybe wave with both hands. Ready ? Waving laugh let's go. Waving hand and fake laughter, waving hands and faking laughter, very good , very good, yay! Very good, very good, yeah! 

All right. Our second laugh , I'd like to invite you to clasp your hands in front of you. We all have little secrets; good ones, bad ones, silly ones, sad ones. And in your clasped hands right now is your funniest secret ever. When you look in there, it cracks you up and you get the giggles.  But sometimes you want to show what's in there (your clasped hands) to one of your neighbours. Ready ? So, give yourself that little secret laughs. Ready? go...(fake laughing)...as you look into the funniest secret inside your clasped hands. Very good, very good, yay! Very good, very good , yeah! 

Our last laugh, get out your invisible cellphone, you just got a funny call, just got a funny text, you just received a hilarious video. I want you to take that call and laugh. And if you think it is that funny, share that funny call or that funny text with your neighbour. Ready ?  Go, cellphone laughter . Very good, very good, yay! Very good, very good , yeah! 
Check in again. How do you feel now? What just happened in our bodies?

Well, I mentioned laughter yoga creates joy. Why is that we just in three short exercises started releasing endorphins in in our body. Endorphins that is the good stuff that gives us the runner high and makes us feel good. And we just did that without running. Brilliant! right? When we release that endorphins like that, all of a sudden, we become creative, we become connected the people around us.

And when you're joyful and happy people want more of it and more of you. And you want more of it. 

I am shouting out positive good things versus fussy things. So, just think about how having more endorphins in your life would make you a better human.

Second of all, laughter has the power to heal. Why is that when we laugh, we are releasing stress and boosting our immune system. So, you've heard it before "laughter is the nest medicine." 
Well, don't wait till you get cancer, in order to figure out that you want to take care of your body. So laugh! I'd much rather do laughter yoga than sit at a doctor's office or I'd take some medicine, I don't know about you.

And third, laughter has the ability to connect us, to strengthen our relationships. I was not very good at showing my raw vulnerable childlike playful side. So, learning how to laugh and share the laughs with others actually turns me into a human being, makes me feel safer and more comfortable with being raw and vulnerable. And maybe even showing that side of me that I was afraid to show before. 

I've just learned how to channel my drive and enthusiasm differently. And I can promise you that that's the kind of positive  feedbacks that makes you are changing the world one laughs at a time. So, if you'd like to laugh for the joy of it in your life. If you'd like to be happier and healthier and if you'd like to have strengthened relationships, guess what you get to do. You get to stand one more time and we're gonna give the world, the universe a whole bunch of positive energy with one last loud very good YAY! 
Are you ready? LET'S DO IT! VERY GOOD, VERY GOOD, YEAH!  

Reasons Why Laughter Really Is the Best For WellBeing

 We've heard all about a vicious cycle, but what about a positive cycle? That’s how we’d define the impact that laughter has on your wellbeing. You see, when you laugh, a plethora of mind and body benefits are triggered, and the feel-good factors they provoke are likely to loop back and make you laugh more often. You probably don’t give it much thought while giggling at the same  Friends  joke you’ve heard 20 times over (thanks Happy Chats), but there are reasons they say “laughter is the best medicine.” 

Life can be stressful these days, and sometimes in all the busyness and overwhelm we forget to actually enjoy ourselves and laugh. So, to give us all a little reminder that laughter and joy really are important, we reached out to a psychologist who studies happiness to learn about some of the top benefits of a good, hearty chuckle.  

1. It Reduces Stress and Anxiety.

Not into yoga, meditation, tai chi, or breathwork but still looking for some much-needed calm? Try watching the next viral funny cat video or whatever tickles your particular funny bone. After all, it turns out that laughter can be a potent stress buster. Research demonstrates that laughter not only releases a hefty dose of those feel-good chemicals called endorphins, but it also lowers stress hormone (cortisol) levels, promoting a feeling of calm. No wonder laughter yoga has become an interest thing—talk about a double dose of serenity. 

2. Learning Is Easier.

If you want someone to remember something you're telling them, just make them laugh. Humor can reduce your anxiety and make you feel less frazzled, leaving you in a better state to concentrate and absorb new information.

3. It Lowers Your Blood Pressure.

There is ample research to suggest that genuine laughter—but not forced laughter—reduces blood pressure, anxiety, and stress, and actually helps to oxygenate the blood. While researchers say "mirthful laughter" can cause an initial spike in blood pressure, the rise is followed by a decrease that takes blood pressure below its normal resting level.

4. You're Less Likely to Get Sick.

We're not telling you to ditch your daily multivitamin, but if you're looking to bolster your immune system further, laughing might just do the trick. Research indicates that giggling can increase the number of infection-fighting antibodies in your body, giving you an extra layer of protection from the cold-season germs at the office. We'll try anything, frankly…

5. Laughter Relieves Pain.

Hold the ibuprofen. Research has found that laughter can decrease the intensity of pain you feel. Laughter—particularly in a social context—can also increase your pain threshold, thanks to the analgesic effect of the endorphins. Indeed, these feel-good hormones have opiate effects that increase your sense of wellbeing and better equip you to handle pain. 

6. Your Workout Gets an Upgrade.

You might wonder how much laughter can really affect your workout. As it turns out, quite a lot. Physically, laughter strengthens your diaphragm, abdominals, and lungs, all of which can improve your cardiovascular fitness. A laugh during the workout will produce endorphins on top of those you’re releasing from the sweat session itself, increasing your pain threshold and reducing fatigue so you can push that much harder and longer through a rigorous workout. Throw in the fact that laughter improves your mood, thus upping your enthusiasm in the gym, and it’s easy to see why hitting the treadmill at your happiest trumps dragging yourself through the motions with the weight of the world on your shoulders. 

7. It Strengthens Relationships.

While we can get these benefits when alone, laughing with others brings extra perks: in a social situation, shared laughter creates social connections and a sense of closeness. This is a no-brainer. Everyone loves being around somebody who makes them laugh, so it's hardly a surprise to discover that laughter is great for your relationship. It all ties back, again, to endorphins: when you're laughing together, endorphins are released into your brain, creating an overall sense of happiness, contentment, and wellbeing with your partner or friends.

8. Laughing Improves Your Ability to Handle Future Stress.

That’s right: not only does a belly-grasping laugh reduce stress in the moment, but research has found that laughter can even help buffer the intensity of stress symptoms you’ll experience during future challenges. In other words, the more you laugh now, the less negatively affected you'll be by obstacles that you'll face in the coming months. It almost sounds like frequent laughter can act like a partial medicine against life’s inevitable hardships. Sign us up.

9. Laughing Can Provide a New Perspective.

You know how some people use self-deprecating humor or try to laugh at tough situations that aren’t funny at all? Turns out, this defense mechanism may actually have some legs to stand on. Laughter can also get us ‘unstuck,’ opening our minds to creating solutions to problems, and lending some perspective to a tough situation. So, if you’re faced with one stressor on top of another, or find yourself having to slog through an upsetting or challenging time, try inserting some humor—find a little aspect to laugh at—to provide some levity and perspective that may allow you to potentially see a way out of the problem—or at least feel emotionally equipped and resilient enough to handle it.

10. Laughter Burns Calories.

Research has found that because laughing increases your heart rate, you burn about 10% more calories during a bout of giggles than you do at rest. So, while it won’t torch nearly as many calories as a hard HIIT workout or lifting weights, perhaps we can all feel a little less guilty the next time we skip the gym in favor of some funny-and-chill time. Just make sure what you’re binging is more along the lines of Schitt’s Creek than The Crown, and really let those deep belly laughs ,out!

How to Make Yourself Laugh:

The good news is, just so [long as] the laughter is genuine, it doesn’t really matter why you are laughing. Laughing at a stand-up comedian or a satirical news article seems just as beneficial as laughing at anyone doing something silly.  You’ll reap the benefits of the physiological act of laughing as long as you’re actually laughing.

Not in the mood for laughter? That's okay. In fact, it's possible to laugh on command. Give your body the right clues and fake laughter will quickly feel real. Here's how you do it: Smile. Put your hand on your stomach. Breathe in quickly through your nose, and then let your breath out through your mouth on 'huh,' 'huh,' huh,' feeling your stomach pumping inwards on each sound as you go faster and faster. Then let your real laughter take over. If your laughter feels "fake" at first, practice sticking with it until, maybe, the absurdity of the situation starts to spark genuine laughter.

It really is as easy as that.

We Are Going To Fake It Till We Make It

 laughter yoga is forcing oneself to laugh, and the silly, forced laughter becomes real laughter that gets blood flowing and endorphins released into the body 

Cliock Here Only To Laugh At Any Thing In Your Life ...for no reason at all ...

20 Ways to Laugh

By Mark Nichol

Go ahead and try this (if you’re alone, that is): Explore all the varieties of laughter you can produce, and label each one. There’s an often-distinct word or phrase for each type. Here are 20 ways to laugh, and some related expressions.

1. (Be) in stitches: to laugh
2. Belly-laugh: to laugh in a deep, hearty manner, as if from the abdomen or in such a way that one’s abdomen moves from the exertion
3. Break up: to laugh as if helplessly
4. Cachinnate: to laugh loudly and/or obnoxiously
5. Cackle: to laugh harshly or sharply
6. Chortle: to chuckle or to otherwise laugh to express satisfaction or triumph
7. Chuckle: to laugh mildly and/or quietly
8. Crack up: see “break up”
9. Crow: to laugh derisively or gloatingly
10. Giggle: to laugh with short, repetitive sounds
11. Guffaw: to laugh boisterously and/or loudly
12. Hee-haw: a synonym for guffaw
13. Horselaugh: To laugh in a way suggestive of or in imitation of a horse’s neighing or whinnying
14. Jeer: to laugh disrespectfully or mockingly
15. Scoff: to laugh derisively or dismissively
16. Snicker: to partially suppress a laugh, as if to conceal one’s mirth
17. Snigger: an alteration of snicker, with the additional connotation of mischief
18. Split (one’s) sides: to laugh convulsively, as if continuing to do so will cause one’s body to rupture
19. Titter: to laugh in an affected manner, or nervously; also a synonym of snicker and snigger
20. Twitter: a synonym of giggle or titter, but also means to chatter or to tremble as if agitated

One can howl, roar, scream, shriek, snort, or whoop with laughter. One can also be said to burst (or bust) out laughing, to convulse with laughter, to die laughing, and to be helpless with laughter, as well as to roll in the aisles (as if unable to keep from falling into the aisle while seated at a humorous performance). Other idioms include “laugh your head off” and “laugh yourself silly.” Can you think of any more words or idioms?/

The Role Of Laughter  Anthony McCarten outlines the importance of humor and laughter in today's world.