BY: Morgan Holmen
We all like to have a good laugh, but did you know it can actually benefit your health? The saying “laughter is the best medicine” certainly rings true for so many reasons. Laughter has so many physical, emotional, and mental health benefits. Here are just a few:
- Laughter can strengthen your immune system! When we laugh, our stress hormone levels decrease, which gives your body more strength to fight off sicknesses and disease. Flu season? Get together with some funny friends to help out your body’s defenses!
- Laughter helps boost your mood! Serotonin, dopamine, and oxytocin, also known as our “feel good hormones,” are released when we laugh. These endorphins help us to feel happier, more positive, and boost our overall mood. Feeling angry, or upset? Try finding something funny either in the situation, or outside of it, to make you instantly feel lighter.
- Laughter drastically decreases stress and anxiety. Being able to find humour in every day helps you build resiliency and makes it easier to make it through difficult situations, disappointments, and emotionally/mentally low periods. Work got you stressed out? Try watching a comedy special on Netflix to help decrease those stress hormones.
- Laughter brings balance, and a sense of connection to your life and relationships by helping you to feeling closer to those around you. Laughing with others brings joy and vitality to your relationships and creates a strong bond with others that helps when we have disagreements or feel disappointment in our relationships. Lacking connection? Call up a loved one and tell them a funny story.
This month, we should all make it a goal to find humour and to laugh as often as we can. Let’s let our inner comedians out and reap the benefits of our bodies’ natural responses to all the hilarity in life.