Ho, ho, ho. Ha, ha, ha. I was fascinated to hear and see people exercising while making these laughing sounds as I went for a morning walk in Bangalore. I never joined the class although I did try some of the movements at home. Performing laughter can be quite entertaining but are there any benefits?
First, why do we laugh? Sophie Scott has an answer for us:
Benefits of Laughter
They say laughter is the best medicine. It’s true that there are many benefits to laughter, including getting a workout.
In 1995, Dr. Madan Kataria found that laughter yoga has health benefits. Simulating laughter turned out to be as effective as actual laughter! Even if laughter yoga does not appeal to you, laughing in your day-to-day life has other benefits. These include:
- Stress relief
- Health benefits including healthy respiration, boosting immunity, healthy blood function
- Greater attractiveness and approachability
You can find more on these benefits on articles from Lifehack, Association for Applied and Therapeutic Humor, Forbes.
How to Laugh More
To generate more laughter in your life, consider:
- what makes you laugh?
- Who are the people in whose company you laugh the most?
Once you answer these two questions, you can figure out which activities and people you can connect with for adding laughter to your life. Even if laughing out loud seems a facial stretch too far, you can access many benefits with a smile (including being more attractive and welcoming).
If you want more opportunities to laugh, here are some suggestions:
- Watch comedies
- Look for opportunities to laugh
- Try laughter yoga
- Laugh at yourself when you do something silly or unexpected
- Engage with other people who you find funny and who find you funny
My favorite way to laugh is joking around with friends. I have some friends who don’t take things too seriously. They remind me to laugh and be playful. I also enjoy it when I come across ridiculous memes or videos or when one of my sisters or friends shares them. I’ve found that ridiculous events in movies or short clips make me laugh out loud (I’m looking at you Fast and Furious 9).
Here’s to more joy and laughter in 2022.
Patient: Doctor, doctor! My son just swallowed a roll of film!
Doctor: Don’t worry. Hell be fine. Lets just wait and see what develops.
The daily prompt for January 7, for the Bloganuary challenge, was “What makes you laugh?” I’m using the prompts to get me posting on this blog (almost) every day and approach them flexibly. You can still join the challenge.
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Featured image credit: “The laughter of the snowy owl” by Nemodus photos is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
