Tushkateers, Devotees of Our Lady of Weight Loss, I have some incredibly good news for you! Especially for those of us who are not “gym bunnies!” Are you ready? Drum roll, please! Laughing 100 times is the equivalent to a ten-minute workout on the rowing machine or a fifteen minute workout on an exercise bike.
The Skinny Scoop on Laughter:
Laugher is made up of a series of short vowel-like sounds repeated every 210 milliseconds (one thousandth of a second). Laughter almost always occurs during a pause at the end of a phrase or at the end of a sentence. You either laugh in the “ho-ho-ho” style or the “ha-ha-ha” style, but your laughing mechanism won’t mix the two.
Humor and laughter are two different things, and up to 80 percent of laughter is not in response to a joke! Women laugh 126 percent more often than me. (You are not surprised, are you?) And there is evidence that laughter is medically beneficial.
While suffering from a collagen disease Norman Cousins checked into a hotel room and watched one funny movie after the next. He laughed (despite his gender)! Mr. Cousins found that ten minutes of really big laughs gave him two pain-free hours of sleep. And he also found that laughter, in time, cured his disease. How amazing is that?
Laughter makes us feel good both physiologically and psychologically.
Laughter:
- Reduces levels of certain stress hormones
- Reduces anxiety and tension.
- Boosts the immune system by stimulating the thymus gland.
- May lead to hiccuping but will dislodge mucus plugs from the respiratory tract! (How attractive!)
- Gives you a full body, aerobic workout (works the diaphragm and abdominal, respiratory, facial and back muscles).
- Gets those positive endorphins pumping! Laughter invokes feelings of happiness and joy.
- Promotes creative thoughts.
- Stimulates both sides of the brain.
- Creates bonding with your fellow humans. Robert Provine, a neuroscientist a thte University of Maryland, studied laugher for more than a decade. He found that we laugh thirty times more often in social situations than when hanging solo. Nothing better than a shared laugh!
Laughter is contagious.
Spread the laughter (far and wide) …NOT the icing!
Janice
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