Ideas for blog posts come from all sorts of places. Sometimes a word or a phrase catches my attention and suddenly, I feel a blog post coming on. Recently, my good friend, Richard M, responded to a comment from another of his friends on Facebook with an excellent bit of advice. “NEVER forget to laugh!” he wrote. That immediately sounded like a title to me!

We’ve all heard it said that laughter is the best medicine, but did you know that it’s actually good for your health? I have absolutely no medical background and I know better than to depend on Dr. Google for sound medical advice, but even trustworthy sites like the Mayo Clinic agree that laughter has many positive physical and mental benefits.

Physical benefits of laughter

• Lowers stress by reducing the release of stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline.
• Boosts the immune system which is negatively affected by stress hormones.
• Promotes heart health
• Lowers blood pressure
• Increases oxygen intake
• Relieves pain by releasing endorphins which act as natural pain killers.
• Boosts energy
• Relaxes muscles
• Burns calories. Though it won’t replace regular exercise, 15 minutes of laughter burns 10 to 40 calories!

Mental benefits of laughter

• Builds rapport and strengthens relationships between people
• Eases symptoms of depression as endorphins also act as natural antidepressants.
• Reduces anxiety and other negative emotions
• Improves mood
• Promotes relaxation

Clearly Richard M is right. We should never forget to laugh. Laughter adds joy and zest to life, but we live in a world that seems to be in constant turmoil. Last month it was the fires in Australia and a plane shot down; now the news is dominated by the coronavirus. Our own personal lives are often a struggle. How, in the midst of all that, do we remember to laugh?

Here are a few suggestions

• Spend time with people who make you laugh
• Don’t take yourself too seriously
• Look for the humour in everyday situations
• Watch funny movies or TV comedies
• Make time in your life for fun activities
• Play with a pet
• Hang out with a little kid and find your inner child

If you really can’t find any reason to laugh, you might even want to check out laughter yoga or laughter therapy. While the idea of sitting in a group or one on one with a therapist forcing myself to laugh definitely doesn’t appeal to me, I could probably use more laughter in my life. We probably all could.

I will add one caveat, however. Never laugh at someone else’s expense. Not everything that passes as humour is funny. Make sure you know the difference.

“The human race has only one really effective weapon and that is laughter.”   Mark Twain