Listen to some of the benefits of laughter: reduces stress, lowers blood pressure, elevates mood, boosts the immune system, improves brain functioning, protects the heart, connects you to others, fosters instant relaxation, and makes you feel good. Humor changes our biochemical state. According to one study it protects the heart against heart attack. It improves brain function and relieves stress. Then the list of social-emotional benefits is incredible and all of this contributes to our health and the quality of our life.
Humor enhances our ability to affiliate or connect with others. It helps us replace distressing emotions with pleasurable feelings. You cannot feel angry, depressed, anxious, guilty, or resentful and experience humor at the same time. Humor changes behavior – when we experience humor we talk more, make more eye contact with, and touch others.
Humor increases energy, and with increased energy we may perform activities that we might otherwise avoid. Finally, humor is good for mental health because it makes us feel good! Laughter, happiness, generosity and thankfulness are all love based, healthy emotions that heal our heart and keep it healthy…our physical heart and our non-physical heart. It is the best medicine there is for life, health and longevity. Happiness is not circumstantial. It is a learned skill that is easier for some than for others.
There are physiological factors that can make us feel depressed, frustrated and angry. And there are circumstances that come to steal our joy. If you struggle with these problems you are faced with a most difficult challenge. You must first choose happiness. And you must know the Spirit of God, in you, can still bring you to the place of happiness, if that is your choice.
Make today a joyous celebration of life… as much as you can at this point. Start finding ways to enjoy everything you do. Look for what is going right instead of what is going wrong. Count your blessings. Make a written list of everything and everyone for which you are thankful. Find friends who like to laugh. Watch funny movies not sad ones. Stop talking about the things that stress you out. Accept that worry has never solved a problem. In fact, worry is often a last vain attempt at control. Just learn to be happy. More than anything, be happy with you through your relationship with God.
Develop a healthy sense of self-worth. Don’t violate you dignity and worth. Use tools like Heart Physics to connect with Christ in you. Cut the chaos people out of your life. Do something productive and useful with your life. My prescription for your heart is to take a big dose of fun every day; first thing every morning, before every meal and just before going to bed!
