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Do you find yourself feeling stressed regularly? We all deal with different levels of stress everyday, and some days are definitely worse than others. But often we don’t know how to manage our stress and end up turning to unhealthy forms of stress management, such as smoking, drinking and overeating to try to quell the overwhelming feelings that accompany stress.
We live in a world that is full of anxiety, fear, uncertainty and anger. And these negative feelings are contagious. It leaves some people feeling hopeless. But there is one thing that is more contagious than anxiety, fear and anger……laughter. We all know that laughing feels good. But many people don’t know about all of the other benefits that regular laughing can provide.
- Laughter is the ultimate stress reliever-laughter reduces both physical, mental and emotional stress and reduces stress hormones.
- A good giggle increases your immune system-laughing regularly helps to ward off colds and flu.
- Laughing releases endorphin, the “feel good” chemicals in the brain.
- Laughter improves your heart by increasing the blood flow and improving the functionality of the veins and arteries.
- Laughing improves your mood. Pumping out endorphins just makes you feel good!
- Laughter increases confidence.
- Laughing regularly reduces pain. Many people who experience pain say that their pain is diminished significantly for hours after laughing.
- Giggling helps to increase energy.
- Laughter helps to increase productivity. When you feel better, you get more done.
- Laughing burns calories. They call laughter “internal jogging”
- It can diffuse difficult situations quickly when you laugh.
- Laughter brings people together. People that share lots of hearty laughter create a strong social bond.
- Laughing can reduce cravings for unhealthy foods.
- Laughter can improve lung strength.
- Laughter can help you to experience joy in your life.
One of the most important things to know about laughter is that your brain cannot distinguish between genuine laughter and fake laughter. So even if you don’t feel like laughing, you can fake it. In about 10 minutes of faking it, your brain will release the same feel good endorphins that are released when you genuinely laugh. And once those endorphins have been released and you feel better, you will find yourself genuinely laughing more and more.
Photo credit: © Alexandrabel | Dreamstime.com
