Laughter and Stress

Stress is the number one enemy of health today. It is estimated that majority of all doctors’ visits and medication prescribed today are for stress-related illnesses that accounts for 70% or more.

Some stress symptoms include:

* a negative state of mind with a cynical, sarcastic and critical outlook;
* lack of motivation;
* irritability and lack of patience;
* lack of energy;
* lack of satisfaction with one’s own life and personal achievements;
* disillusionment;
* the feeling of facing insurmountable barriers;
* lack of productivity and efficiency;
* self-medication using food, alcohol and drugs to feel better or to not feel;
* changes in sleep and appetite habits;
* headaches, neck and lower back pain;
* loss of the ability to experience joy.

Laughter is nature’s counter to stress ─ they are physiological opposites. As what we all know - laughter is the best medicine.

A clue to this may be found in the body’s typical actions after extreme stress of the fight or fight kind: deep panting and using laughter make light of events that provoked fear.

The predominance of one (deeper breathing and laughter) tends to prevent the other (fear).

In short:

* Laughter quickly reduces the levels of stress chemicals and hormones in our body. Significant reductions can occur in minutes and last for days;
* Laughter switches on and boosts physiological systems that stress switches off, including the circulatory, digestive, sexual and immune systems;
* Stress, worry, fear and emotional problems stifle learning ability, creativity, teamwork, productivity, efficiency and motivation while laughter boosts and strengthens these attributes;
* Stress promotes illness, depression and anguish. Laughter promotes health, wellness, emotional balance and joyfulness;
* Laughter can not only help reduce stress levels, it can also effectively protect our systems from the effect of further stress.