Laugh Every Day
A day without laughter escapes through our fingers, lost to us forever. This might sound like a dentist’s ad campaign, but scientists have proven that the cerebral cortex releases electric impulses a second after we begin to laugh. When we laugh, the brain broadcasts a signal that causes endorphin secretion. That, in turn, produces a feeling of internal well-being and comfort, in addition to relieving pain and helping balance our vitality.
Laughter is a natural relaxant and could be considered a type of meditation. When we laugh, we enter into a place where neither the mind nor time exists. The mind lives on expectations, and laughter goes beyond that. Laughter, like meditation, allows us to flow into a timeless state in which we can disconnect and forget all of our headaches.
Laughter is so therapeutic that it has its own branch in psychology: laughter therapy. This is a strategy focused on using laughter to produce certain emotional states. Although it can’t officially be considered a type of therapy because it doesn’t cure illness on its own, it does help counteract negative effects of anxiety, for example. It can also reduce the intensity of negative emotions like sadness.
As the years pass, you are less inclined to cry about nonesense and more inclined to laugh about it.
Benefits of Laughter Therapy
Laughter therapy helps defuse life situations and develop an optimistic and competitive attitude. People who participate in laughter therapy learn to see themselves, their environment, and their possibilities in a better light. That’s why situations that make us “laugh like crazy” are so irresistible.
According to this technique, we are supposed to laugh for at least one minute, three times a day. It may seem like very little, but it is enough to notice changes in your quality of life. This is because laughter is a great preventative measure to avoid undesired emotional states. Laughter therapy allows us to release stress (lower our cortisol level) and have a better attitude when facing problems in our lives.
Many studies have proven that laughter is beneficial for health, it helps improve our immunity, and it aids psychological balance. Do you need more reasons to try laughter therapy? What are you waiting for?
There are people who make us laugh even though they don’t mean to. They can do this because their presence makes us happy, and so any little thing can make us laugh. Just seeing them and being with them and listening to them is enough. Even if they aren’t saying anything special or they are just stringing together nonesense and jokes, they can still make us laugh.
-Javier Marias-
Laughter distances us from depression
One of the best ways to fight depression is with your sense of humor. It is much easier to get away from negative thoughts and emotions if we interpret them through the positive filter of humor. Remember that the way we interpret the facts has a lot more to do with our mood than the facts themselves.
So, laughter therapy is a beneficial and effective technique that complements therapy to treat depression. When we laugh, we feel happier, calmer, and more relaxed and comfortable. In addition, as we said before, on a chemical level laughter generates endorphins, which make us feel better. As Pablo Neruda said, sincere laughter is a mirror of our inner-selves. Therefore, living life with humor is an excellent way to take care of our health.
“There’s nothing like the deep breaths we take after laughing a lot. There’s nothing in the world like a stomach that hurts for a good reason”