Finding The Positive Effects of Laughter in Your Life

Let's talk about the positive effects of laughter. It is amazing how much a baby can laugh. Some of the most popular YouTube video's are of babies and children laughing. As children we laugh much more than adults. Unfortunately, as adults we don't laugh as much. Did we lose that ability or do we simply start taking life to seriously?

I am sure studies have been done on laughter. I did find a comment that children laugh 400 times daily compare to an adult only laughing 15 times. I can see how some bosses would lower an adults laughing.

Laughter is important for both mental and physical health.

Norman Cousins proved this to the world back in the 1960's.
After becoming ill Mr Cousins read a book called: The Stress of Life. He concluded that since negative emotions were bad for your health, then positive emotions would be good for his health.

Mr Cousins hired a nurse to read him funny stories. He also had her play funny movies from the Marx brothers and Laurel and Hardy. The positive effects of laughter started to work for him. He found that 10 minutes of hearty belly laughs could give him 2 hours of pain free sleep.

Soon he was off his painkillers, sleeping pills and medicines.

The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) published a 1989 article entitled "Laugh If This Is a Joke." which agreed that laughter therapy could improve the quality of life for patients with chronic illnesses. Laughter therapy can give relief or improvement of the symptoms of disease.

None of this is new except to many of us. It was recorded in Proverbs 17:22, written thousands of years ago when it was stated "A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones."

A natural stress reliever, laughter is a healthy form of exercise for the body and the soul.

Here are a couple of my favorite quotes on laughter:

"Blessed are they who can laugh at themselves, for they shall never cease to be amused." -- Unknown

"A sense of humor is good for you. Have you ever heard of a laughing hyena with heartburn?" -- Bob Hope

"Laughter is higher than all pain." -- Elbert G. Hubbard

Take these steps towards using and cultivating the power of laughter in your life.

o Don't take a job where people aren't having fun.

Make it a point to have fun at work and make work fun for others.

o Hang out with silly kids for a while to see if you can catch it.

o Don't take yourself too seriously, no one else is.

o Make your spouse and children laugh and laugh along with them.

o Brighten another's day with a clean funny joke.

Go ahead and laugh from deep in the belly, it's fun.

o Tell a funny story on yourself.