Why Laughter is good for your health
When laughter is incorporated as a permanent part of who you are, it attracts friends, improves health and extends life. When we laugh, every organ in the body is affected a positive way. Our breathing quickens, which exercises the diaphragm, neck, stomach, face and shoulders. Laughter creases the amount of oxygen in the blood, which not only helps healing and improves circulation, it also expands the blood vessels close to the skin’s surface. This is why people go in the face when they laugh. It can also lower the heart rate, dilate the arteries, stimulate the appetite and burn up calories.
Neurologist Henri Rubenstein found that one minute of solid laughter provides up to 45 minutes of subsequent relaxation. Professor William Fry at Stanford University reported that 100 laughs will give your body an aerobic workout equal to that of a ten-minute session on a rowing machine. Medically speaking, this is why a damn good laugh is damn good for you.
The older we become, the more serious we become about life. An adult laughs an average of 15 times a day; a preschooler laughs an average of 400 times.
Source: “Why Laughter Is the Best Medicine,” from The Definite Book of Body Language, by Allan & Barbara Pease
Dalajlama: Why I Laugh
“I am a Professional Laugher. I have been confronted with many difficulties throughout the course of my life, and my country is going through a critical period. But I laugh often, and my laughter is contagious. When people ask me how I find the strength to laugh now, I reply that I am a professional laugher!”
Full Article: The Dalai Lama on Laughter and Compassion http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-10-24/dalai-lama-on-laughter-and-compassion
Amongst others, the proven effects are:
-improved deep breathing
-optimized supply of oxygen to the cells
-strengthening of the immune system
-increased production of endorphins
-educed production of cortisol (stress hormone)
Laughter also has many beneficial effects on emotional and social levels. It helps you adopt a more optimistic attitude to life, it leads to a positive charisma and develops social bonding – laughter connects, creates social cohesion and finally an atmosphere of tolerance, love and respect.