Editor in Chief: Moh. Reza Huwaida Friday, March 29th, 2024

Laughter – A Cheap Medicine

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Laughter – A Cheap Medicine

Do you feel any different after hearing a real belly laugh? If it even gets a smile out of you – that’s a good thing. Just enough to turn your mood from sour to sweet.

Research has shown that the health benefits of laughter are far-ranging. While more studies need to be done, studies so far have shown that laughter can help relieve pain, bring greater happiness, and even increase immunity.

It is said that Laughter is a powerful antidote to stress, pain, and conflict. Nothing works faster or more dependably to bring your mind and body back into balance than a good laugh. Humor lightens your burdens, inspires hopes, connects you to others, and keeps you grounded, focused, and alert.

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. And laughter really is contagious – just hearing laughter primes your brain and readies you to smile and join in the fun.

Laughter is a part of human behavior regulated by the brain, helping humans clarify their intentions in social interaction and providing an emotional context to conversations. Laughter is used as a signal for being part of a group – it signals acceptance and positive interactions with others. Laughter is sometimes seen as contagious, and the laughter of one person can itself provoke laughter from others as a positive feedback.

Shared laughter is one of the most effective tools for keeping relationships fresh and exciting. All emotional sharing builds strong and lasting relationship bonds, but sharing laughter and play also adds joy, vitality, and resilience. And humor is a powerful and effective way to heal resentments, disagreements, and hurts. Laughter unites people during difficult times.

Families benefit from shared laughter as well. Siblings can become best friends. After all, it is hard to dislike a person that makes you laugh, even if that person is an irritating sibling you have often wanted to strangle in the past. It can only happen if you spend time talking and playing together. Reminiscing and laughing about the past has a way of soothing hurts and grudges, and cements those relationships into some of the strongest bonds we can experience in life.

Life brings challenges that can either get the best of you or become playthings for your imagination. When you “become the problem” and take yourself too seriously, it can be hard to think outside the box and find new solutions. But when you play with the problem, you can often transform it into an opportunity for creative learning.

“Fake It Until You Make It.” Just as studies show the positive effects of smiling occur whether the smile is fake or real, faked laughter also provides the benefits mentioned above. The body can’t distinguish between ‘fake’ laughter that you just start doing on purpose, and ‘real’ laughter that comes from true humor--the physical benefits are exactly the same, and the former usually leads to the latter anyway. So smile more and fake laughter; you’ll still achieve positive effects, and the fake merriment may lead to real smiles and laughter.

Children are said to laugh a great deal more than adults: an average baby laughing 300-400 times a day compared to an average adult laughing only 15-20 times a day.

Laughter researcher Robert Provine said: “Laughter is a mechanism everyone has; laughter is part of universal human vocabulary. There are thousands of languages, hundreds of thousands of dialects, but everyone speaks laughter in pretty much the same way.” Babies have the ability to laugh before they ever speak. Children who are born blind and deaf still retain the ability to laugh.

A general theory that explains laughter is called the relief theory. Sigmund Freud summarized it in his theory that laughter releases tension and “psychic energy”. This theory is one of the justifications of the beliefs that laughter is beneficial for one’s health. This theory explains why laughter can be used as a coping mechanism when one is upset, angry or sad.

We have an absolute need to interact with other humans. We are losing these skills as we get more involved in technology. We often don’t talk to our friends anymore because we know what they are doing on Facebook. We don’t call anymore because it is just as easy to send a text. We don’t communicate with our co-workers face to face as often because it is easier to send an email. You are 30 times more likely to laugh in a group that in isolation. Laughter is a valuable and needed part of everyday life. Without it our health suffers and we become depressed.

However, it should be noted that Laughter is not always a pleasant experience and is associated with several negative phenomena. Excessive laughter can lead to cataplexy, and unpleasant laughter spells, excessive elation, and fits of laughter can all be considered negative aspects of laughter. Unpleasant laughter usually occurs in people who have a neurological condition. Hence, we are not supposed to cross the limitation and laugh to excess as to seem like an idiot.

Let’s all make it a mission to find out what makes us laugh and do it more often. Let’s make it a point to pick up the phone and call that friend you haven’t seen in a while. Let’s all schedule more time with that one funny person that we know.

Hujjatullah Zia is the newly emerging writer of the Daily Outlook Afghanistan. He can be reached at outlookafghanistan@gmail.com

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