Had a tough day, week or year? Laughter is the best medicine to help get beyond whatever the day’s headaches brought on. The benefits of laughter are tremendous and after a particularly bad month, we decided to look into it for ourselves to see what were the actual benefits that each of us can gain from adding a bit more laughter into our day!
We were amazed at the research on laughter as well as the social benefits of laughter that we learned.
1Laughter is the Best Medicine: Health Benefits –
Physical Health Benefits
Life can get overwhelming and crazy at times. Easing those stressors and increasing the joy or positives in life is critical to getting the most out of your life as well as maintaining your best health. One of the best ways to improve your health that doesn’t cost money is laughter, yes….laughing just like you used to do! And like most little kids do so easily and so well.
- Boosts Immunity – Looking to decrease your stress levels and build up your immunity and resistance to disease? Find something to laugh over.
- Lowers stress hormones & Decreases Pain – And laughter will boost those endorphins that make you feel good. Your endorphins help promote a feeling of well being and even lower pain levels.
- Relaxes your muscles – Your body and muscles can relax for up to 45 minutes after a good, hearty laugh.
Prevents Heart Disease – Help Your Heart
Got heart issues? Have a history of heart health problems in your family? Then start laughing! Laughing helps your blood vessels to expand and contract as well as helping you to relax. All of this then allows smooth blood flow throughout your body and organs. Spend your days tense and blood vessels contract which means restrictive blood flow throughout your body and organs. And if that wasn’t enough – laughter is going to help you lower your blood pressure and that lower blood pressure is one of the best ways to protect yourself from strokes or heart attacks. Get the heart health message of laughter?
Skip the Ab Workout at the Gym!
Ever been laughing so hard that you grab your abs and wrap your arms around yourself? Well, it’s understandable. Good belly laughs can cause your stomach muscles to expand and contract. And yes, that expansion and contraction is much like some of the exercises and workout that you would do at the gym. So the end result is a workout for your abs and also exercising your shoulders and opening your diaphragm which increases your relaxation and even burns a few extra calories!
If you want, you can even try laughter yoga as your form of laughter therapy! There’s thousands that rave about the benefits they’ve found from this.
