11 Little-Known Benefits Of Laughing

Whether you’re laughing with friends telling funny jokes, giggling while reading comics, or guffawing while watching funny YouTube videos, laughing is good for you.

It’s no wonder laughter has been touted as the best medicine because it offers various health benefits. In addition to this, it can help you bond with other people.

Be it spontaneous or intentional, a good dose of laughter can greatly benefit your mental and physical health. And some of these benefits have even been backed by science.

What Is The Importance Of Laughing?

From helping you release anger and combat stress to improving your mood, relaxing your body, and protecting your heart, laughing is good for you in many ways. In what follows, we’ve presented 11 ways laughing can benefit both your mental and physical health.

11 Health Benefits Of Laughing

1. Laughter Lowers Stress

When you’re under stress, the hormone cortisol is released into your body. Laughter can help your body regulate the levels of this hormone by improving blood circulation and upping your intake of oxygen. One study has shown that laughter can reduce cortisol levels (1).

2. Laughter Relaxes Your Entire Body

Laughter releases muscle tension stimulates blood circulation and reduces stress, which helps relax your entire body.

3. Laughter Helps Increase The Level of Endorphins In Your Body

Endorphins are chemicals that your nervous system produces in response to stress or pain. They’re also known as “feel-good” chemicals since they can help boost happiness and relieve pain. Laughter increases endorphin levels in your body, thereby promoting mental and physical well-being and improving your mood.

4. Laughter Can Reduce Pain

In one study, social laughter has been associated with an increased pain threshold (2). Another study has found that humor therapy can relieve chronic pain in older adults (3).

5. Laughter Can Stimulate Your Organs

Laughter increases your intake of oxygen, which stimulates your muscles, heart, and lungs.

6. Laughter Benefits Your Immune System

When you’re under stress, this triggers chemical reactions in your body that reduce your immunity to disease. Laughing reduces stress hormones, and in addition to this, it can also help increase antibodies that fight infection as well as immune cells in your body, which contributes to your resistance to illness.

7. Laughter Improves Your Heart Health

A good laugh can benefit your heart by improving the function of your blood vessels and blood flow and increasing your heart rate. Moreover, one study that examined the effect of laughter on arterial stiffness found that laughter reduced pulse wave velocity. Arterial stiffness has been associated with an elevated risk of cardiovascular diseases (4).

8. Laughter Can Help You Control Anger

Nothing suppresses anger more quickly than a good dose of laughter. When you’re faced with a problem, looking at the funny side may help you look at the problem from another perspective. Similarly, it can also help you move on from a conflict without holding onto anger and bitterness.

9. Laughter Can Help You Burn Calories

Did you know that you can lose weight by laughing?

Undeniably, going to the gym a few times a week will help you burn calories and lose weight faster than laughing, but some researchers claim that laughing for 15 minutes a day can help you burn 10 to 40 calories. So, now you have one more reason to laugh more often.

10. Laughter Can Distract You From Worrying Thoughts

When you laugh, it’s impossible to think about the final exam you have to take next week or about the big project that’s waiting for you to complete. Laughter enables you to stop worrying about projects or tasks you need to accomplish in the future.

11. Laughter Improves Your Mood

In addition to reducing stress, laughter can relieve symptoms of anxiety and depression and make you feel more joyful.

The Connection Between Laughter And Mental Health

Laughter makes you feel positive and energized. And you continue to feel this way even after you stop laughing. Laughter also enables you to look on the bright side when you’re faced with a difficult situation or feel disappointment. It also enables you to have hope and feel better and gives you strength even in the hardest of times.

In addition, laughter suppresses distressing emotions, such as anger, anxiety, and sadness, because you can’t feel these ways when you’re laughing.

Moreover, when you’re tired or working on a difficult project, laughter increases your energy levels and helps you relax, which, in turn, enables you to remain focused and achieve more.

Laughter Strengthens Relationships

Having a good laugh with your family or friends can help strengthen the bond between you and make you feel more emotionally connected to each other. Laughing with your loved ones keeps your relationships exciting and fresh and allows you to be more spontaneous in them. Additionally, laughing is an effective way to overcome disagreements, conflicts, judgements, and resentments.

Additionally, laughing in the workplace helps you form a closer bond with your co-workers too. In addition to this, it can also boost your creativity and confidence and make you more productive.

9 Easy Ways To Incorporate More Laughter Into Your Life

Now that you know all the benefits of laughter, you understand why it’s important for you to set aside time for laughter and humor. In what follows, we’ve presented 9 simple ways you can incorporate more laughter into your life.

• Laugh when you read or hear a funny joke.
• Smile more. Smile at your friends, family, co-workers, even at random strangers you pass in the street. Smiling is contagious.
• Be grateful. When you’re feeling sad, disappointed, or anxious, think of the people that truly love you and care about you. Think of all your successes and the things you have that make you happy. Counting your blessings and being grateful for them will prevent you from having negative thoughts that suppress humor and laughter.
• Share jokes with others, and when you hear other people laughing, ask them what they’re laughing about and join them in laughing.
• Watch comedies on television and funny YouTube videos.
• Laugh at yourself. Next time you say or do something silly, don’t be upset or reproach yourself. Instead, try to see the funny side of the situation.
• Spend time with people that have a good sense of humor. Such people are witty and always know what to say to make you laugh, even when you’re feeling down.
• Spend time with pets. Pets can bring happiness, joy, and laughter into your life.
• Practice laughing yoga.

7 Benefits Of Laughing Yoga

Laughing yoga is a practice that originated in India, and nowadays, it’s used all over the world. It involves deep, diaphragmatic breathing and playful exercises to promote laughter, joy, wellness, and happiness. (5)

The goal of practicing laughing yoga is to help you make laughing a daily habit. For example, it could be laughing at work, laughing while waiting for your dental appointment in the waiting room, or laughing while doing household chores. By laughing in different situations, you learn to laugh at whatever life throws at you.

Advocates of laughing yoga claim that this practice can offer the following health benefits:

• It can help improve sleep
• It can relieve stress
• It can improve mood
• It can improve energy levels
• It can improve blood flow
• It can reduce pain caused by arthritis
• It can decrease your risk of chronic diseases

However, more research is needed to confirm these effects.