Laughter is the best Medicine 💊

Hello there, wonderful reader of Ndlalane Health Newsletter, I must sincerely apologize for the late delivery of this month's article. I really dropped the ball on getting July’s intelligence quotient out in a timely manner. To be completely honest, the end of June and start of July have been a bit of a circus over here. Between ward work deadlines, family obligations, and an uncharacteristic bout of severe laziness, my poor newsletter duties just kept getting pushed to the bottom of the priority pile. When I finally did get around to sitting down to write, the motivation and mental clarity just wasn't there. It was like my brain had gone on an all-inclusive tropical vacation without telling the rest of me.

But you know what they say - better late than never! I am thrilled to finally have this newsletter in your hands, even though it's fallen a bit behind schedule. 

Welcome back to Ndlalane Health, where we strive to be in the know. Our goal is for each reader to go to bed a little smarter (and maybe even a little gigglier) than they were the day before. So without further ado, dive right in and enjoy the July edition. Here's to learning, growing, and sleeping a little smarter - and a little lighter - every single day. We learn or we perish.

Today we are looking at laughter being dubbed the best medicine💊. Do i believe it to be so?

It’s true: laughter is strong medicine. It draws people together in ways that trigger healthy physical and emotional changes in the body. Laughter 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. It also helps you release anger and forgive sooner with so much power to heal and renew. The ability to laugh easily and frequently is a tremendous resource for surmounting problems, enhancing your relationships, and supporting both physical and emotional health. Best of all, this priceless medicine is fun, free, and easy to use.

If you remember back then when we were children, we used to laugh hundreds of times a day, but as adults, life tends to be more serious and laughter more infrequent.

Seeking out more opportunities for humor and laughter, you can improve your emotional health, strengthen your relationships, find greater happiness—and even add years to your life.

Laughter is good for your health because;

• It relaxes the whole body. A good, hearty laugh relieves physical tensions and stress, leaving your muscles relaxed for up to 45 minutes.

• It also boosts the immune system by decreasing stress hormones and increases immune cells and infection-fighting antibodies, thus improving your resistance to disease.

• It triggers the release of endorphins, the body’s natural feel-good chemicals. Endorphins promote an overall sense of well-being and can even temporarily relieve pain.

• It protects the heart. Laughter improves the function of blood vessels and increases blood flow, which can help protect you against a heart attack and other cardiovascular problems.

• It burns calories. Okay, so it’s no replacement for going to the gym, but one study found that laughing for 10 to 15 minutes a day can burn approximately 40 calories—which could be enough to lose 3kg over the course of a year.

• It lightens anger’s heavy load. Nothing diffuses anger and conflict faster than a shared laugh. Looking at the funny side can put problems into perspective and enable you to move on from confrontations without holding onto bitterness or resentment.

• It may even help you to live longer. A study in Norway found that people with a strong sense of humor outlived those who don’t laugh as much. The difference was particularly notable for those battling cancer.

Humor helps you keep a positive, optimistic outlook through difficult situations, disappointments, and loss. More than just a respite from sadness and pain, laughter gives you the courage and strength to find new sources of meaning and hope. Even in the most difficult of times, a laugh–or even simply a smile–can go a long way toward making you feel better. Laughter really is contagious—just hearing laughter primes your brain and readies you to smile and join in the fun. It stops distressing emotions. You can’t feel anxious, angry, or sad when you’re laughing instead it helps you relax and recharge. It reduces stress and increases energy, enabling you to stay focused and accomplish more.

The more you teach yourself to laugh as often you can be drawn closer to others, which can have a profound effect on all aspects of your mental and emotional health. It 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.

How do you bring more laughter into your 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.

Here are some ways to start:

• Smile. 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. When you hear laughter, seek it out and ask, “What’s funny?”

• 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. Ask people, “What’s the funniest thing that happened to you today? This week? In your life?”

Ok Sakhile I hear you, but, what if i really can’t “find the funny?” Believe it or not, it’s possible to laugh without experiencing a funny event. If you really struggle to find the funny, I’d advise you to add what we call “simulated laughter” into your own life. Go online and search for laugh yoga or laugh therapy groups. You can start simply by laughing at other people’s jokes, even if you don’t find them that 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. Simulated laughter can be just as beneficial as the real thing. 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.

Another option to consider if the first option makes you feel like, saying, things like, “angihlanyi mina, ngeke ngihleke intwe ngekho” [“I’m not mad, I can’t just laugh at nothing”] . You may the try to create opportunities to laugh

• By watching a funny movie, TV show, or YouTube video.

• Invite friends or co-workers out to a comedy club.

• Read the funny pages.

• Seek out funny people. Like me 😃

• Share a good joke or a funny story.

• Check out your bookstore’s humor section.

• Host game night with friends.

• Play with a pet.

• Go to a “laughter yoga” class.

• Goof around with children.

• Do something silly.

• Make time for fun activities (e.g. bowling, miniature golfing, karaoke).

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.

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. 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. 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.

In conclusion, I have spoken so much, and repeated myself a few times to make the information stick, I hope it worked. Before we close, let me tell you two stories to drive the points home clearly.

Ken, a semi-retired businessman, was excited to finally have time to devote to golf, his favorite sport. But the more he played, the less he enjoyed himself. Although his game had improved dramatically, he got angry with himself over every mistake. He wisely realized that his golfing buddies affected his attitude, so he stopped playing with people who took the game too seriously. When he played with friends who focused more on having fun than on their scores, he was less critical of himself. Now golfing was as enjoyable as he had envisioned. He scored better without working harder. The brighter outlook he was gaining from his companions and the game spread to other parts of his life.

Jane worked at home designing greeting cards, a job she used to love but now felt had become routine. Two little girls who loved to draw and paint lived next door. Eventually, Jane invited the girls over to play with all of her art supplies. At first, she just watched, but in time she joined in. Laughing, coloring, and playing pretend with the little girls transformed her life. Not only did it end her loneliness and boredom, but it sparked her imagination and helped her artwork flourish. Best of all, it rekindled the playfulness in Jane’s relationship with her husband.

Don’t go a day without laughing. The more 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.

Thank you for reading up to here and see you on the next one. If you wish to be part of the writing team. You can reach out on this email [email protected]  

References 

Buchowski, M. S., Majchrzak, K. M., Blomquist, K., Chen, K. Y., Byrne, D. W., & Bachorowski, J.-A. (2007). Energy expenditure of genuine laughter. International Journal of Obesity. 

Laugh and be thankful—It’s good for the heart—Harvard Health. (n.d.).

Manninen, S., Tuominen, L., Dunbar, R. I., Karjalainen, T., Hirvonen, J., Arponen, E., Hari, R., Jääskeläinen, I. P., Sams, M., & Nummenmaa, L. (2017). Social Laughter Triggers Endogenous Opioid Release in Humans. The Journal of Neuroscience, 37(25), 6125–6131. 

Miller, M., & Fry, W. F. (2009). The effect of mirthful laughter on the human cardiovascular system. Medical Hypotheses.

Romundstad, S., Svebak, S., Holen, A., & Holmen, J. (2016). A 15-Year Follow-Up Study of Sense of Humor and Causes of Mortality: The Nord-Trøndelag Health Study. Psychosomatic Medicine.

Speer, M. E., & Delgado, M. R. (2017). Reminiscing about positive memories buffers acute stress responses. Nature Human Behaviour.

Yim, J. (2016). Therapeutic Benefits of Laughter in Mental Health: A Theoretical Review. The Tohoku Journal of Experimental Medicine.