Time to Take Advantage of the 'Best Medicine'
It’s time to make your health a laughing matter. Yep, you got it right. Laughter is the best medicine and you can start taking advantage of its benefits today. It’s hard to completely list all that can be gained by adding a little humor to your life, but here are a few ways that scratch the surface.
#1 Physical Health
Can’t believe that you can get a workout by laughing it up? Well, you’re missing out on one of the easiest and most enjoyable forms of exercise. Laughter can work out the back, abdominal, facial, and leg muscles. The burst of energy that laughter provides can be just as beneficial as time spent on a rowing machine. It won’t provide a complete workout, but this is a great way to get started.
In addition, the immune system is strengthened, the heart is made healthier, blood pressure is lowered, circulation is improved, and pain levels are lowered. And these are just a few of the benefits. Research shows that laughter can also assist cells that fight diseases.
#2 Mental Health
A healthy mind is just as important as a healthy body, and it will affect the body either way. Use laughter to improve your mental health, as it can enhance memory, alertness, and creativity. Humor and laughter also assist in learning.?
#3 Emotional Health
In addition to staying physically fit and mentally stable, keeping your emotions in order is also vital. Stress and other damaging emotions can negatively affect mood and consequently, health.
Laughter can help release endorphins, the body’s “feel good” hormones, while reducing cortisol, adrenaline, and epinephrine, stress hormones. This further improves cardiovascular health as stress adds strain to the heart.
Laughter helps socially, strengthening relationships and improving people skills. Good, meaningful companionship is always a positive thing, not just for health, but for life. Laughter can be one way in which these relationships are reinforced.
The benefits of laughter can hardly be covered in a 500-word article. The list could go on and on in the ways that it improves not only health but also life in general. The question is, how do you add more humor to your life?
First of all, you have to be willing to do it. You have to be willing to loosen up a little and not take life and yourself too seriously. Sometimes is requires taking a break from a stressful situation. Sometimes it means taking time that you don’t have to watch a quick, five minute video or a short comedy show.
The point is, laughter is as important to your health as a prescription drug or daily exercise. It’s a big part of enjoying life and poking a little humor at the struggles that surround it. It doesn’t have to constant or immature. A little goes a long way.
However, if you find that you simply cannot find humor in anything, remember, the joke’s on you.
