The most wasted of all days is one without laughter." e.e.cummings

I was reading some material last week about the effects of laughter on our health. We all know how good it feels to laugh and the more humor we have in a day, the better we feel. No matter what the stressful circumstance or situation, if we can introduce some humor, it always lightens the stress. Laughing comes naturally to us; we were born to be joyful and have fun. Small children laugh on average around 400 times a day! Unfortunately, as we move into adulthood responsibility grows and laughter diminishes. Adults average only 20 laughs per day. What a tremendous change!

Whens the last time you had a really good belly laugh? Being with family or friends always leads to laughter for me. I love to spend an evening with good friends sharing stories with lots of humor. Sometimes we laugh at ourselves which seems to happen more often as we get older! Other times we laugh at something on TV or something we read or maybe something that happened during the past week. It doesnt seem to matter. Once the laughter starts, it goes on for hours and the evening just flies by. It is fun to see how relaxed everyone becomes. You can visibly see any tension in the body dissipate. After a good laugh, your blood pressure drops, muscles relax, and your heart rate and breathing slow down. Ah...doesnt this sound soothing? What would your laughter meter show right now? Are you doing better or worse than the average? Close your eyes and think about something or someone that makes you laugh. What happens to your body when you bring up this image? Wouldnt you like to feel this way most of the time?

A good friend of mine just called as I was writing this article. In the process of catching up, she shared a funny story about herself. As she was hurridly applying her makeup to go to a wedding she accidently got her mascara brush stuck in her bangs! The pictures she painted about attempting to wash the mascara out of her bangs without getting the rest of her hair wet was hilarious! We had a good laugh over it and I was still smiling when I hung up the phone.

Pay attention to what makes you laugh and how often you laugh over the next several days. Bring more laughter back into your life by sharing funny stories with your friends and family everyone benefits!

Who do you know that needs a good laugh right now? What could you do to bring some lightness and laughter to this person? Maybe call and share a funny story or incident? Rent a comedy and watch it with them? Buy them a humorous gift or card? Whatever surprise you come up with, it will be perfect and, when they laugh at what you did, so will you!

Copyright October 2003 by Vicki Miller