ArtsAutosBooksBusinessEducationEntertainmentFamilyFashionFoodGamesGenderHealthHolidaysHomeHubPagesPersonal FinancePetsPoliticsReligionSportsTechnologyTravel

Benefits of Laughter for Stress

Updated on March 3, 2017
sholland10 profile image

Susan believes there is nothing more irritating than "interruptions" in sweet life. Using fact and humor, she loves sharing advice.

Source

Sad? Angry? Depressed? In a toxic relationship? In a dead-end relationship? Stressed out? Feeling ill? Feeling anxiety? Recovering from surgery? Dealing with too many details? Tired or worn out?

At one time or another we have experienced a myriad of these emotions and feelings, sometimes several at once. During these emotional ups and downs, we often neglect the notion that there might be a temporary cure for these physically and mentally debilitating feelings: Laughter.

Laughter creates euphoric feelings producing a temporary relief from stress. Stress can tear down the body's defenses. Even some relief from stress hormones can have a tremendous positive impact. At times, it may not be appropriate to laugh, but we might not be able to help it. Our bodies crave the positive effects of the chemical and physical reactions of laughter when we are going through a difficult time. Laughter therapy can heal the mind and body.

Source

The Benefits of Laughter are Chemical

Laughter releases endorphins that help us get through negative feelings. Endorphins act as a natural opiate in the body. When endorphins are released, they fight stress hormones, can relieve pain, can release euphoric feelings, and can release sex hormones. People who do not have a sense of humor may be putting their health at risk. Being serious all the time or feeling negative all the time wears on the body and mind. The endorphins needed to feel content may be missing.

Studies show that the endorphins that are released into the body from laughter can make one feel temporarily better are also effective for:

  • fighting depression and anxiety
  • lowering blood pressure
  • helping the healing process during illness and/or after surgery
  • helping patients with heart problems, cancer, and the common cold.

The endorphins aid the immune system while you are healing. How many have heard of a person with a wonderful sense of humor and attitude recovering from an illness completely? Maybe there is something to “it’s all in the attitude.” A bad attitude is harmful to the body, and a good laugh can help alleviate the negative effects of the bad attitude. The boost to the immune system is worth the giggle, the guffaw, the snorting, the tears rolling down your cheeks from laughing too hard, but it is up to each person how to deal with what ails them. To laugh or not to laugh is the question.

The Benefits from Laughter are Physical

Laughter is exercising? What? Exercising? Yes, while laughing, the facial muscles, stomach, lungs, and heart are getting a workout. Laughing so hard that it hurts is like exercising the muscles and organs and is taking in much needed oxygen. The oxygen goes throughout the whole body giving the that added boost needed to feel more energized. The heart is beating faster pushing the oxygen through the veins and to every part of the body. The endorphins are the neurotransmitters that are running through the brain to the body helping with physical and mental well-being.

Maybe you would prefer a laughing cat. These little toys do get the giggles started.

Adding Laughter When You Don’t Feel Like Laughing

Sometimes laughter must be forced for its natural health benefits. We do not feel like laughing when we are sick, broken-hearted, experiencing a panic attack, or wallowing in our sorrows.

Below are some ideas to add laughter at a time when it doesn't feel natural. Get ready to "get your laugh on."


Source

Practice Laughing

Okay, this is going to sound really crazy. Practice laughing is basically fake laughter at first. Once you get started, you are forcing the happy chemicals to start brewing. You may want to do this alone. I did this to experiment with laughter. It was a very stressful week, so I just started laughing. My dogs looked at me like, “What the…??” If the neighbors heard me, I am quite sure they had decided I had gone mad. The more I watched the dogs and thought about the neighbors' possible reactions, I did start to genuinely laugh. The stress melted away for most of the evening. Little things would set me off to more forms of laughter. Having the giggles was much more pleasant than allowing the stress hormones to run wild, making me have mini-anxiety attacks.

Laughter quote = words of wisdom
Laughter quote = words of wisdom | Source

Be with Funny People

In your low times, you need your friends. Not just any friends, but the ones who love you enough to make you laugh when you have hit rock bottom. Don’t go with the friends who will enable you by jumping on the bandwagon and wallow in your misery. This is counterproductive for your mental and physical well-being. This is not to say the problems causing the stress should be ignored. Talk about them, but do so with someone who is bound to find humor in the situation with a joke or a humorous distraction. Humor therapy is best shared with a friend. It is guaranteed you will feel better before the day’s end.

Lucy accidentally lights her nose on fire... Funny stuff!
Lucy accidentally lights her nose on fire... Funny stuff! | Source

So You Are Alone

Turn on the television to your favorite sitcom marathon. Some recommendations would be I Love Lucy, M*A*S*H, Andy Griffeth, Friends, Seinfeld, and/or Big Bang Theory. You may have other favorites and may even want to buy a collection or two just for these cases of desperation.

If you can’t find a television comedy to enjoy, get some favorite movie comedies, whether it is romantic, foolish, or dark comedy. Jim Carey, Adam Sandler, Ben Stiller, Eddie Murphy, and Tyler Perry make many laugh with their movies. Some of my personal favorites are Dumb and Dumber, Happy Gilmore, There’s Something About Mary, Beverly Hills Cop, and Diary of a Mad Black Woman. Create your own list to fall back on.

Laughter Yoga

It’s true. Laughter has proven to be so beneficial to our physical and mental health that Laughter Yoga has been created as a class to attend. What do you do for Laughter Yoga? You laugh, of course. You laugh from the very center of your being with an instructor to lead you and fellow classmates to follow along. Sound crazy? Big deal! These people are laughing themselves into good health while others are digging their own grave by wallowing.

In a Laughter Yoga class, the laughter is contagious. It may be full of complete strangers, but the laughter begins to come naturally and encompasses all in the class.

Explanation of the Benefits of Laughter Yoga

Final Words on Laughter

Of course there are times when you will not feel like laughing. If you are grieving the loss of a loved one, you are not finding ways to cheer yourself up, and it is quite natural to go through the grieving process. There comes a point, though, when you must remember your own health. Do what you have to do for your family, friends, or job, but do not allow yourself to sink so low that your immune system breaks down and you can’t get back up. Only you are responsible for your physical health, or you may help others with laughter for their health too. So find ways to laugh.


My Favorite Video When I Need to Laugh

© 2012 Susan Holland

working

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy

Show Details
Necessary
HubPages Device IDThis is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons.
LoginThis is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service.
Google RecaptchaThis is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy)
AkismetThis is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Traffic PixelThis is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized.
Amazon Web ServicesThis is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy)
CloudflareThis is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy)
Google Hosted LibrariesJavascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy)
Features
Google Custom SearchThis is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy)
Google MapsSome articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
Google ChartsThis is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)
Google AdSense Host APIThis service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Google YouTubeSome articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
VimeoSome articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
PaypalThis is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook LoginYou can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
MavenThis supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)
Marketing
Google AdSenseThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Google DoubleClickGoogle provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Index ExchangeThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
SovrnThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook AdsThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Unified Ad MarketplaceThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
AppNexusThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
OpenxThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Rubicon ProjectThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
TripleLiftThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Say MediaWe partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy)
Remarketing PixelsWe may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.
Conversion Tracking PixelsWe may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.
Statistics
Author Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)
ComscoreComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Tracking PixelSome articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)
ClickscoThis is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy)