Isabel Urrutia
Middle School Counselor
Did you know that laughter can improve your emotional health and boost your immune system? Well, it is true. Laughter can have physical, mental and social benefits. Mentally, laughter can easy anxiety and tension, it can relieve stress and improve your mood, as well as add zest and joy to your life. Physically, it relaxes muscles, decreases pain and strengthens your immune system. Socially, laughter promotes group bonding, helps defuse conflict and makes relationships stronger.
Have you ever seen clowns visiting hospitals to encourage patients, young and old, to laugh and smile? They do it because they know that patients in hospitals will become stronger and will heal faster through a stronger immune system, if they laugh, smile and develop a sense of humor. In fact, clowns can be a key part of laughter therapy, which uses different techniques to create laughter. Through the use of laughter therapy, patients reduce stress and anxiety and tolerate painful treatments. A study conducted at UCLA demonstrated that watching funny shows increased patients’ tolerance for pain, strengthened their immune system and helped them recover faster. Laughter has been called “internal jogging” because it produces all of the positive psychological and physiological effects of a good workout. The study reveals that laughter releases catecholamines into the system which in turn, produce endorphins. When endorphins are released into the bloodstream, we feel happy, relaxed and increase our stores of personal energy.
Research shows a strong connection between laughter and mental health. Simply put: laughter makes you feel good and those feelings stay with you even after the laughter episode is over. During difficult times, like the one we are facing at the moment, a laugh or a smile, can lift your spirits, give you courage and strength to find new sources of hope and meaning in your life. We need to create opportunities and events that will make us laugh more. Here are some examples: Have a game night with your family, watch a funny TV show or movie, read funny stories, play with your pet, do something silly and laugh at yourself, share a good joke or funny story, surround yourself with reminders to lighten up, and most importantly do not take yourself too seriously.
While some events in life are clearly sad and not opportunities for laughter, try to focus on the positive side of every event as much as possible, and choose laughter whenever you can. But what if you really have nothing to laugh about? Well, research shows that the brain does not know the difference between a simulated laugh or the real thing. Your brain will rip the benefits of a simulated laugh just as well. Thus, laugh and smile whenever you can. Laughter is contagious, if someone in your family unit shares a joke and one person laughs, everyone will join in the fun. As you incorporate more laughter into your life, your creativity will flourish and you will look at the world from a more joyful, positive, and relaxed perspective.
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