Laughter Therapy – Laugh Your Stress Away

Reducing stress may be as easy as laughing it away. Laughter gives you physical and emotional relief. Laughter is also a good workout. Laughter exercises the diaphragm, abs and shoulders and you feel relaxed after a good laugh. Laughter is also good for your heart. Studies have also shown that laughter provides benefits like strengthening the immune system, reducing food cravings and tolerating pain.

Laughter reduces the level of hormones and brain chemicals like cortisol, adrenaline, dopamine and growth hormones. In addition, it helps in increasing the release of endorphins. Endorphins occur naturally in the body and have analgesic properties. There is also strong evidence that endorphins are associated with ‘pleasure centers’ in the brain that help you ‘feel good’.

And the results are not limited to the time you stay laughing. The feel good factor of laughter stays for several hours after you have finished laughing. And when you feel good, you are not bothered by small things and you stay less stressed. The longer you feel good, the longer you stay relaxed and centered. Hence it makes sense to engage in a small laugh the moment you sense the feel good factor of earlier laughter session is wearing off.

Don’t Wait for an Opportunity. Just Fake It!

While genuine laughter arising from listening to a good joke or a comedy show is welcome anytime, you don’t have to wait for a situation to stimulate laughter in you. In fact it may cause more stress in you when you don’t find a reason to laugh about!

Just fake a laugh! Yes you read that right. Faking a laugh can be equally beneficial. Here’s how to do it:

1. Start by faking a smile. Close your eyes and think about a funny moment in your life. It’ll immediately bring a smile on your face.
2. Next, try to remember how you laughed. Try imitating it. It isn’t as difficult as you think.

Once you are adept at performing the above exercise you’ll find that you no longer need to visualize funny incidents. The very attempt to laugh will make you start laughing. Seriously. Just try it!

Join Laughter Groups

Laughter groups can help a lot to those who are genetically depressed and gloomy people. Sorry for the pun. I mean, there are some people who find it really difficult to laugh heartily. They always need that extra push to open up. Laughter groups can help such people tremendously. Some may find it embarrassing to laugh in front for no reason but that happens only initially. Once you make the first move, there is no looking back and you’ll often find yourself laughing hysterically.

Back to Stress Reduction Techniques.