Laughter IS the Best Medicine

This last week I came across a statistic that caught my attention.

“In the 1950s people laughed an average of 18 minutes a day. Today we average between 4-6 minutes a day.”

There is so much to think about when it comes to this statistic, but I thought I would just say that we need to reverse the trend and start taking steps to increase the amount of laughter we have in our lives. Did you know that laughter is an incredibly important part of a healthy and fulfilling life? Here is just a short list of the benefits of laughter:

• Laughter can boost your immune system by up to 40%.

• Laughter can physically reduce pain in the body.

• Laughter literally protects your heart – laughter improves the function of blood vessels and increases blood flow, which helps the heart function better.

• Mental Health Benefits: adds joy and zest to life, eases anxiety and fear, relieves stress, improves mood, enhances resilience.

• Social Benefits: strengthens relationships, attracts others to us, enhances teamwork, helps defuse conflict, promotes group bonding.

Now, if it has been awhile since you have laughed, believe it or not you can go to websites that will show you how to actually laugh. The website “How Stuff Works” has videos on how to laugh. My hope is that you are not at the point where you must do research on how to laugh.

With all of its benefits, I would encourage you this weekend to purposefully find ways to increase the amount of laughter in your home. Read a funny book (Calvin and Hobbes or the Far Side would be my recommendations), watch a funny TV show or movie with your family or friends, ask someone if they know a good joke and then listen to it, play a game that you know will create laughter (charades, Pictionary, etc.).

I thought I would try to get you started on your laughing weekend with something that made me laugh a lot when I saw it the other day.