Reducing Stress With Laughter

Is there too much stress in your life?  Is everything piling up and weighing you down?  Perhaps you’ve tried various remedies, but nothing seems to work.  Why not try a proven natural therapy that has been used for generations to relieve stress and make you feel better? What is this miracle cure?  It’s laughter.  Laughter eases tension and helps you relax.  Taking time to laugh every day means feeling better and less stressed in no time.

So how does laughter work to reduce stress exactly?  First, laughter works to relieve stress physically.  When we laugh, stress hormones in our blood, like cortisol, are actually reduced.  Laughter also gives us a mini workout, (especially in the abs!) which improves out health and releases hormones that make us feel happier.  Lastly, when we laugh, it boosts the immune system.  The stronger our immunity, the more prepared we are to combat illness.

Laughter helps us emotionally release stress as well.  Our bodies are designed to release excess emotions physically through acts such as laughing and crying.  When we laugh, it releases some of our negative emotions.  It can also change our thoughts that contribute to anxiety.  Laughter helps us think more positively, worry less, and be less stressed.  It can make us forget about our negative thoughts and feel better.

If you’re laughing with friends or loved ones, you are also promoting social bonding.  This promotes supportive relationships that can make us feel more supported and less burdened, so we feel less stressed out about our situation.

So what do you do if life just isn’t that funny?  What if you just can’t find anything to laugh at?  You fake it.  That’s right, fake laughing.  Consider one study: participants were asked to watch a movie and either not laugh at anything or laugh at the jokes whether they thought they were funny or not.  After the movie, participants filled out a survey on how much they liked the movie.  Believe it or not the people who laughed rated the movie as significantly better and funnier.  Laughing, forced or not, improves the way you view the world and helps to fight stress from your everyday life.

In addition to stress relief, laughing has also been show to help you eat less, boost your immune system, increase your pain threshold, and even help you heal faster.  So don’t delay.  Whether it means going to a funny movie or laughing for no good reason at all, start laughing your way to a less stressful life today.