Laughter is free, fun, and good for your health. Here are some of the things laughter can do for you, and some ways to bring more joy into your life.

Benefits of Laughter

1. Boost your immune system. Research on the connection between laughter and physical health is still ongoing, but some benefits are clear. Laughing helps to fight stress and may enhance your immune response. This may make you more resistant to colds and other illnesses.
2. Diminish pain. Laughing is an effective way to decrease pain. Many individuals living with chronic pain report that humor helps make their experiences more bearable. Some hospitals even offer laughter therapy to complement conventional treatments for cancer and other conditions.
3. Get a little workout. Every time you chuckle, you boost your heart rate and increase your circulation, which burns more calories than just sitting still. You still need to exercise, but every little bit helps.
   

4. Improve your mood. Hilarity has a powerful effect on your emotional state. A good laugh instantly relaxes your whole body. Plus, those good feelings last, and may make you feel more positive for hours afterward.
   
5. Enhance resilience. Learning to see the humor in difficult events is an excellent coping mechanism. Having a flexible outlook will help you bounce back faster from disappointments.
   
6. Strengthen relationships. Taking pleasure in each other’s company draws people closer together. Laughing together helps us to connect, share happy memories, and appreciate the good things around us.
   
7. Spread joy to others. Laughing is almost as contagious as yawning. You’re bound to have a good effect on those around you if you use humor appropriately. Smiling and laughing also make you appear more approachable so you’ll get plenty of opportunities to cheer up others.
   

Ways to Laugh More in Your Daily Life

1. Smile.

It’s easier to break out laughing when you’re already smiling. Make a habit of relaxing your face into a subtle smile. You’ll boost your mood and start to notice more things to smile about naturally.

1. Watch funny movies and other media. It’s always good to learn from the experts. Watch great comedy films, read cartoons, or visit a comedy club.
   
2. Look for the humor in ordinary situations. Cultivate a jovial outlook. Observe your surroundings so that you notice the unexpected and incongruous events of daily life. Practice exaggerating a typical conversation so that it becomes funny.
   
3. Take yourself less seriously. You can be conscientious and light-hearted. Learn to poke fun at yourself and your idiosyncrasies. Keep minor setbacks in perspective.
4. Practice being silly. If you have children or pets, join in their games or make up silly stories to tell them. Put a whimsical decoration like a funny calendar or wind-up toy in your office or study to amuse you.
   
5. Share laughter with the people around you. Seek out people whom you find funny. Take a break at work to join in with people who are obviously having a good time. Tell your spouse a funny story from your day when you get home.
   
6. Apply humor to challenging situations. Humor is even more important on tough days. You can recognize a serious situation and act responsibly while considering how your circumstances might appear funny in the future or if it was happening in a movie.
   

Improve your quality of life by laughing more. Laughter is good for your health and easy to share with everyone around you.

 photo credit: Weird Beard

Let’s take a look at what happens inside your body, mind and spirit when you laugh.

Laughter’s Effect on Your Body

Endorphins are released throughout your body, stimulating muscles, nerves, organs and tissues when you laugh. Studies show these endorphins give relief to chronic pain, help to relieve stress and promote functioning of the immune system. Laughter literally helps heal your body.

Laughter and Your Mind

Happy thoughts lead to a more positive outlook on life. When you’re hanging out with friends and having good conversation that produces smiles and laughter, your mind’s producing happy thoughts.

On the other hand, if you’re always around people who never smile and always find something to complain about, you’ll lean toward a more negative outlook on life.

Strengthening Your Inner Being

Laughing causes your inner being to be emotionally and physically strengthened. When you laugh or even smile, your inner being is stimulated in an affirmative way, producing a more positive outlook on life. This helps your body produce more self-healing endorphins, which actually helps your body remain healthy and running optimally!

Boosting Your Spirits

Laughter causes a lift in your spirits, helping you feel uplifted. Laughter not only helps you personally, it’s also very contagious and infectious, which helps those around you feel less stress and anxious.

Don’t you just love it when you hear a baby or toddler laugh? What happens to you? You can’t help but laugh too! Laughter begins to develop in humans as early as 3 months of age and a baby’s laughter is one of the most contagious of all human sounds.

Laughter and Your Relationships

When two people share a funny story or a silly situation arises between two people, there’s a unique bonding that is created. Something special is formed between the two that only they can relate with. It’s an inside joke that is special to those who’ve shared in the moment.

When two people spend a lot of time together in laughter, a stronger, more ever-lasting relationship develops.

In a marriage, studies show couples that laugh together stay together much longer, if not for life. Think about a truly happy couple you know. Sure, every family has their issues and marriage takes work, but chances are they spend a lot of time laughing together. This doesn’t happen by accident either. It can be created and fostered!

When you choose to embrace laughter, you’ll be able to get through many more rough spots in life and come out a happier and healthier person.

Life can be tough, so why not choose to make it more joyous? You can if you choose to.

Always try to find joy in every situation and laugh as often as possible each and every day. Also, by spending more time around positive people, who love life and love to laugh, you’ll be amazed at how you begin to feel on the inside and out!