April is National Humor Month

Humor and laughter have many health benefits connected to them. Numerous studies show the impact of laughter on health through measurable improvements in the immune response, blood pressure, blood flow, stress hormones and other health indicators during and following a session of laughter. Some of these effects mimic the body’s physiologic response to exercise leading some to refer to a good laugh as "jogging on the inside."

In his book, Anatomy of an Illness, author Norman Cousins outlines a program of recovery from the debilitating illness known as Ankylosing spondylitis using positive attitude, love, faith, and laughter. Cousins watched Marx Brothers movies to evoke laughter and said, "I made the joyous discovery that ten minutes of genuine belly laughter had an anesthetic effect and would give me at least two hours of pain-free sleep. When the pain-killing effect of the laughter wore off, we would switch on the motion picture projector again and not infrequently, it would lead to another pain-free interval."

In addition to having healthy benefits for the body, humor helps relationships by easing tension, shifting perspective and encouraging a common bond.

Getting more laughter into your life is a good thing to do for health. Below are some tips:

• Laugh-even if nothing is funny. This is the basis for programs like laughter yoga. Your body will benefit from laughter weather even if nothing is funny.
  
• Move toward laughter-when you hear a group of people laughing, move toward them and ask "what’s funny?" Usually they are more than willing to share.
  
• Spend time with fun, playful people-their sense of fun and laughter are contagious.
  
• Bring humor in to conversations-ask people what funny things have happened to them in the past week, or ever
  
• Get a laugh box-there are gadgets you can buy that contain recorded laughter. You can play it when you need a good laugh, it can get a crowd going as well.
  
• Lighten up-laugh at difficult situations rather than complain about them-this helps to shift your perspective.
  
• Watch children and emulate them-they are experts at play and laughter.

They say the teacher always learns more than the student, and so it is for me in this instance. Researching for this post made me realize that my laughter quotient could use some improvement. So, I am making it my goal to get more of into my life. Anyone want to join me?