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Laughter yoga: laughing away the stressLaughter therapy for stress reduction -
Laughter is an especially powerful tool for managing conflict and reducing tension when emotions are running high. Whether with romantic partners, friends and family, or co-workers, you can learn to use humor to smooth over disagreements , lower everyone's stress level, and communicate in a way that builds up your relationships rather than breaking them down.
Laughter is your birthright, a natural part of life that is innate and inborn. Infants begin smiling during the first weeks of life and laugh out loud within months of being born.
Even if you did not grow up in a household where laughter was a common sound, you can learn to laugh at any stage of life. Begin by setting aside special times to seek out humor and laughter, as you might with exercising, and build from there.
Eventually, you'll want to incorporate humor and laughter into the fabric of your life, finding it naturally in everything. Smiling is the beginning of laughter, and like laughter, it's contagious. When you look at someone or see something even mildly pleasing, practice smiling.
Instead of looking down at your phone, look up and smile at people you pass in the street, the person serving you a morning coffee, or the co-workers you share an elevator with. Notice the effect on others. Count your blessings. Literally make a list. The simple act of considering the positive aspects of your life will distance you from negative thoughts that block humor and laughter.
When you're in a state of sadness, you have further to travel to reach humor and laughter. When you hear laughter, move toward it. Sometimes humor and laughter are private, a shared joke among a small group, but usually not. More often, people are very happy to share something funny because it gives them an opportunity to laugh again and feed off the humor you find in it.
Spend time with fun, playful people. These are people who laugh easily—both at themselves and at life's absurdities—and who routinely find the humor in everyday events.
Their playful point of view and laughter are contagious. Even if you don't consider yourself a lighthearted, humorous person, you can still seek out people who like to laugh and make others laugh.
Every comedian appreciates an audience. Bring humor into conversations. This week? In your life? It can even make exercise more fun and productive. A Georgia State University study found that incorporating bouts of simulated laughter into an exercise program helped improve older adults' mental health as well as their aerobic endurance.
Plus, hearing others laugh, even for no apparent reason, can often trigger genuine laughter. To add simulated laughter into your own life, search for laugh yoga or laugh therapy groups. Or you can start simply by laughing at other people's jokes, even if you don't find them funny.
Both you and the other person will feel good, it will draw you closer together, and who knows, it may even lead to some spontaneous laughter.
An essential ingredient for developing your sense of humor is to learn not to take yourself too seriously and laugh at your own mistakes and foibles. As much as we'd like to believe otherwise, we all do foolish things from time to time.
Instead of feeling embarrassed or defensive, embrace your imperfections. While some events in life are clearly sad and not opportunities for laughter, most don't carry an overwhelming sense of either sadness or delight.
They fall into the gray zone of ordinary life—giving you the choice to laugh or not. So, choose to laugh whenever you can. Laugh at yourself. Share your embarrassing moments. The best way to take yourself less seriously is to talk about times when you took yourself too seriously.
Attempt to laugh at situations rather than bemoan them. Look for the humor in a bad situation, and uncover the irony and absurdity of life. When something negative happens, try to make it a humorous anecdote that will make others laugh.
Surround yourself with reminders to lighten up. Keep a toy on your desk or in your car. Put up a funny poster in your office. Choose a computer screensaver that makes you laugh.
Frame photos of you and your family or friends having fun. Remember funny things that happen. If something amusing happens or you hear a joke or funny story you really like, write it down or tell it to someone to help you remember it.
Don't dwell on the negative. Try to avoid negative people and don't dwell on news stories, entertainment, or conversations that make you sad or unhappy.
Many things in life are beyond your control—particularly the behavior of other people. While you might view carrying the weight of the world on your shoulders as admirable, in the long run it's unrealistic and unhealthy. Find your inner child. Pay attention to children and try to emulate them—after all, they are the experts on playing, taking life lightly, and laughing at ordinary things.
Deal with stress. Stress can be a major impediment to humor and laughter, so it's important to keep your stress levels in check. One great technique to relieve stress in the moment is to draw upon a favorite memory that always makes you smile—something your kids did, for example, or something funny a friend told you.
Don't go a day without laughing. Think of it like exercise or breakfast and make a conscious effort to find something each day that makes you laugh. Set aside 10 to 15 minutes and do something that amuses you.
The more you get used to laughing each day, the less effort you'll have to make. The ability to laugh, play, and have fun not only makes life more enjoyable but also helps you solve problems, connect with others, and think more creatively. People who incorporate humor and play into their daily lives find that it renews them and all of their relationships.
Life brings challenges that can either get the best of you or become playthings for your imagination. But when you play with the problem, you can often transform it into an opportunity for creative learning.
Playing with problems seems to come naturally to children. When they are confused or afraid, they make their problems into a game, giving them a sense of control and an opportunity to experiment with new solutions. Interacting with others in playful ways helps you retain this creative ability.
Here are two examples of people who took everyday problems and turned them around through laughter and play:. As laughter, humor, and play become integrated into your life, your creativity will flourish and new opportunities for laughing with friends, coworkers, acquaintances, and loved ones will occur to you daily.
Laughter takes you to a higher place where you can view the world from a more relaxed, positive, and joyful perspective. Boost your emotional intelligence to help you be happy and successful. What to do when you feel like a fraud at work, school, or in relationships.
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A Quiz for Teens Are You a Workaholic? How Well Do You Sleep? Health Conditions Discover Plan Connect. Nutrition Evidence Based Laughing Yoga: What Is It and Does It Work? Medically reviewed by Courtney Sullivan, Certified Yoga Instructor — By Katey Davidson, MScFN, RD, CPT on January 8, What it is How to do it Effectiveness Bottom line Laughing yoga is a popular movement and breathing exercise that aims to cultivate joy, bring out your inner child, and help you let go of daily life stressors.
What it is. How to do it. Does it work? The bottom line. How we reviewed this article: History. Jan 8, Written By Katey Davidson, MScFN, RD, CPT. Medically Reviewed By Courtney Sullivan, CYT. Share this article.
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Learn how to harness the powerful benefits of laughter and humor. Laughter therapy for stress reduction draws people together in Natural liver cleanse that Fuel for workouts healthy physical reductionn emotional changes in the body. Hherapy strengthens your immune system, boosts mood, diminishes pain, and protects you from the damaging effects of stress. Nothing works faster or more dependably to bring your mind and body back into balance than a good laugh. Humor lightens your burdens, inspires hope, connects you to others, and keeps you grounded, focused, and alert. Elizabeth Scott, PhD reductionn an author, workshop leader, Flavonoids in vegetables, and award-winning blogger on stress management, positive psychology, relationships, and emotional wellbeing. Rachel Natural liver cleanse, Fot FTOS, is a licensed Metabolism and calorie burning, clinical assistant professor, speaker, wellness expert stress in eating behaviors, stress management, and health behavior change. Research has shown that the health benefits of laughter are far-ranging. Studies so far have shown that laughter can help relieve pain, bring greater happiness, and even increase immunity. Positive psychology names the propensity for laughter and sense of humor as one of the 24 main signature strengths one can possess. Unfortunately, however, many people don't get enough laughter in their lives.
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