Each year, National Let’s Laugh Day on March 19th reminds us to add a little humor to our day. It’s never good to be serious all the time and letting the laughter bubble up from time to time is good for all of us!
We have all heard the saying, “Laughter is the best medicine.” This is the day to take your medicine.
- Some studies have shown that laughter may boost your immune system, relieve tension and help you relax.
- Laugh at yourself first, before anyone else can. ~ Elsa Maxwell
- We don’t laugh because we’re happy — we’re happy because we laugh. ~ William James
- As we all know, laughter can also be contagious. Even faking it seems to have some benefits. Classes called “laughter yoga”
engage the abdominal muscles, lungs, arms, and facial muscles while using humor to get us laughing to cure what ails us.
- Healthy laughter can help you to reduce pain and prevent infections.
- It has been seen that there is a considerable drop in the levels of stress hormones after a good laughing session.
- It helps in releasing endorphins which can bring positive changes to the mindset of a person.
- Heavy laughter brings in much more oxygen to the lungs than normal breathing would do.
- Laughter reduces the risk of heart diseases!
- Fifteen minutes of laughing a day can make you lose weight.
- It has been scientifically proven that laughter can be contagious.
- Gelotology is the study of laughing and its effects on the human body.
- The maximum laughter happens over social responses which means that only 10-15 percent of it is actually due to jokes.
- Laughter is a sound which does not have any language.
- Humans are not the only creatures who laugh. Animals like dogs and cats also laugh!
- Heavy laughter every day can strengthen your immune system.
- The average person laughs about thirteen times in a single day.
- Laughing has been the cause of death for many people.
- An average toddler laughs about 400 times a day, while an average adult tends to laugh about 15-20 times a day.
- Your facial and abdominal muscles get a workout every time you laugh. You might actually burn as many as 40 calories with a 15-minute belly laugh.
- For many people, laughter soon after waking up has the invigorating effects of a cup of coffee. Try that out.
- Humans were able to laugh before they spoke. Scientists believe that humans related to each other by laughing, long before they were able to use verbal language. It took the evolution of lung strength and breath control for humans to develop speech. Babies are able to laugh when they are as young as 17 days old. Even blind and deaf children have the capacity for laughter.
- Laughter improves relationships. Couples who are able to laugh together are more likely to stay together. A study conducted at the University of California, Berkeley, explored how couples handled stressful situations, finding that those who handled the situation with humor were more likely to stay together and reported higher levels of relationship satisfaction than those who tended to be more serious.
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