As cliché as it may sound, there’s some truth to the idea that laughter is the best medicine. Keeping the doctor away might require a combination of both an apple a day and some giggles every day, but why not do both? U.S. Preventative Medicine notes on their site that humor can go a long way in improving your mood, lowering your anxiety, and helping you relax.
At the same time, a good fit of laughter can boost your immune system and stimulate your heart, lungs, and muscles. Of course, humor can’t solve all of your problems. But it can make it a lot easier to get through life, so don’t knock it till you try it!
Aside from the physical and mental benefits of enjoying a bit of laughter, you might notice some social benefits as well. HelpGuide notes that humor can be a wonderful tool for strengthening relationships, attracting others to you, enhancing teamwork, defusing conflicts, and promoting group bonding.
Enjoying a great joke or some hilarious content can be fun on your own. But it’s much more enjoyable when you get to laugh alongside others. In fact, humans are 30 times more likely to laugh if there’s someone else there to enjoy the joke with them. So the next time you want to watch a comedic film, you might just want to do so in a movie theatre next to your best friend!
When it comes to strengthening our relationships through laughter, HelpGuide points out that enjoying a good laugh with someone not only creates a positive bond. It also creates a buffer against stress, tension, disagreements, and disappointments in your relationship. Plus, this isn’t only reserved for friends, family members, or romantic partners. Laughter can even help you build a stronger bond with your colleagues, leading to better collaboration.
If you’re looking for ways to get even more laughter into your daily life, Angel Cleare, BS, and Sharon Brock, MS, MEd, at Stanford recommend trying laughter exercises. After all, if you think of increasing your daily dose of laughter like strengthening a muscle, it makes sense to practice exercises!
And according to Gigi Otálvaro, PhD, these practices can help people get out of their heads and into their bodies. “[They] encourage students to laugh from the body rather than the mind since we are bypassing the cognitive and judgmental processes of determining if a joke is funny or not,” she explained.
Some examples of exercises that Dr. Otálvaro recommends are “Milkshake Laughter” and "Aloha Laughter.” The former involves participants imagining that they’re adding “feel-good ingredients” to a milkshake. These might include happiness, joy, sunshine, dancing, etc. Then, they are to pretend as though they’re pouring and drinking the shake as they laugh. Aloha Laughter, on the other hand, involves participants raising their arms while saying “Alo” then bending forward at the waist, exhaling and laughing, as they say “ha."
Gill Harrop, PhD, also wrote a piece for Psychology Today sharing her tips on how to find more laughter. The first is an easy one: seek out more humor in your life. Watch funny films, follow meme accounts on Instagram, attend a stand-up comedy show, and play funny board games with your friends.
