Vibrance - mindbody, fitness & laughter specialists

What's So Great About Laughter?
By Mindbody Specialist, Free Spirit and Life Lover, Kathy Popplewell

There has never been a better time to start laughing your way to better health, reduced stress and a greater sense of joy and purpose. Laughter can greatly improve creativity and productivity, enhance sleep, reduce pain and increase your tolerance to stress... Need more convincing? People who laugh more tend to have better relationships, reduced risk of illness and more success in the workplace. It's also a natural form of anti aging!

It is believed that the first human laughter may have been as a gesture of shared relief at the passing of danger. When we laugh, hormones are released in the body which lower stress response bringing us back to a state of equilibrium. You can literally laugh your negative emotions away as when you laugh, stress hormone is reduced.

Our natural stress response (fight or flight) activates when we feel threatened or are faced with challenging or frightening situations. When triggered stress hormone is released into the blood stream, blood pressure and heart rate increase, digestion is slowed down, blood is directed away from internal organs and rushed to muscles and skin. This gives us an adrenaline boost and extra energy to either fight and protect ourselves or run away from danger.

Laughter is a natural way to reduce certain stress hormones and neutralise the effects of the fight or flight response on the body. Recent research by Dr Lee S Berk of Loma Lind University, USA shows when we laugh, natural killer cells, disease fighting proteins, T-cells and B-cells all increase. This helps to protect us against infections, viruses and tumors.

Norman Cousins brought laughter into the forefront of medical science in 1979 when he published a book 'Anatomy of an Illness' about how he recovered from a debilitating and rare spinal disease using laughter as a primary form of his treatment. Norman Cousins discovered that 10 minutes of laughter could give him 2 hours of pain free sleep.

Ever heard someone laughing in the next room and started laughing because they are laughing or because they have a funny contagious laugh? Humans are 30 times more likely to laugh in a group environment than when on there own.

In 1995 Dr Madan Kataria, a medical doctor from India discovered that the brain can not tell the difference between real laughter and pretend laughter and that when you laughing in a group pretend laughter will often transform into real laughter with interaction and eye contact.

Laughter transforms negative stress into wellbeing
Laughter strengthens the immune system
Laughter is anti ageing
Laughter reduces depression and anxiety
Laughter develops confidence
Laughter improves our sense of humor
Laughter encourages creativity, imagination and problem solving
Laughter is an aerobic exercise equivalent to cardiovascular exercise
Laughter increases the body's natural painkillers
Laughter reduces stress related hormones
Laughter defuses anger, hurt and resentment by releasing it in a positive way

Children don't need a sense of humor or jokes to laugh, they are naturally joyful. Children can laugh 300 to 400 times a day, however as we mature we can become rather serious and even a bit stale especially as our society is primarily sold on negative media. The effect of this is reflected in the fact that the adult average laughs only 17 times a day. Learning to laugh like a child again will not only make life more fun, but give you enormous health benefits as well!

Scientific research shows that people are 30 times more likely to laugh in a group environment than when on their own as laughter, like yawning, is contagious. Women are more attracted to men who make them laugh and men are more attracted to women whom they can make laugh.

Laughter can be a full body workout! When you laugh your diaphragm, abdominal, respiratory, facial, leg and back muscles all get a workout, blood pressure is lowered and oxygenation of the blood increases. Dr William Fry of Standford University USA claims that 100 laughs (or one minute of laughter) is equal to 10 minutes on the rowing machine or 15 minutes on the exercise bike..

The quickest way to change how you feel is to change your physiology. Anthony Robbins often refers to a study done at UC Berkley which took a group of clinically depressed participants and had them stand tall, breathe fully and grin from ear to ear in front of a mirror for 20 minutes a day for 20 days. At the end of the study none of the participants were any longer depressed. When you change the position of your body, you change how you feel.

Laughter is a truly amazing natural and non invasive form of self healing, preventive medicine, stress management and anti aging. Do things that make you laugh and tickle your funny bone, start laughing for no reason and laugh at things that would normally stress you out and start adding more laughter into your life today!