Pathways to Happiness Newsletter - June 2009 #1
Monthly Research and Exercises For You to Get Happier
FREE - Phone Follow-up Discussions after each newsletter – June 21 - 7 PM
Laughter IS the Best Medicine – Research Validates
Give yourself this laughter exam.
- Do you laugh easily and often?
- When others are hooting with glee do you only smile?
- Do you think laughter is silly or doesn’t matter much?
- When others explode into laughter, do you find yourself joining in
to the point of gasping, snorting, and grunting?
- Can you laugh when things go wrong? Or when you make a mistake?
- Do you remember – ever – rolling on the floor with laughter?
Laughter Facts – Benefits of Laughing More (sources below)
- Laughter is healthful and cancels the effects of stress. A hard guffaw has been shown to double the T cell count, a measure of immunity, for 36 hours, and artery diameter is increased by 22% during laughter.
- Laughter improves relationships. Laughter is both mildly euphoric and contagious so people like people who laugh. Robert Provine, a leading laugh scientist, says that the purpose of laughing is to trigger positive feelings in other people. Laughing together relaxes people, averts conflicts, and creates a sense of unity.
- People who can laugh at themselves are happier people. (A sense of humor, the ability to joke in itself, does not correlate with happiness.)
- Animals laugh. Ape laughter is stimulated by tickling, rough and tumble play, or chasing games, some of the same things that make infants squeal and laugh with delight. Probably early adult human ancestors -- before they started speaking -- laughed like this. The first joke came millions of years later - a long time to wait for a punch line!
Laughing Practice – Surrender to the Contagion of Laughter.
If you have frequent bouts of hilarity, keep it up! Your laughter is a gift to all around you.
If you don’t laugh easily, try these experiments for lowering your funny-threshold:
- Watch these videos of infectious laughter. Can you laugh along with them?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jedd2FiZTqM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yE6PNps5N9I
- For the next week, whenever others are laughing, chuckle along. Deliberately magnify your reaction. Even if it is an effort and feels out of character, notice whether you feel some of that euphoria afterwards.
To sign up for the free discussion and get instructions
Contact Nancy, Nancy@pathwaystohappiness.com or 301 587-5735 x2
Coming up in September: Maximizing Joy! 7 Sunday evening phone classes.
Learn to direct your attention in ways that will make you happier.
See pathwaystohappiness.com to register and for more info.
Like what you read here? Sign up for our Telephone Seminars - Research-validated skills and practices for staying happy - even in the face of stress. Participants find them supportive, fun, inexpensive, and easy to schedule - no commute!
Sources for laughter research:
Berk, Lee, Dr. in Loma Linda U., School of Medicine News, March 11, 1999
McCormick, J., in Lancet, August 1994.
Gervais, M. Quarterly Review of Biology, December 2005; vol 80: pp 395-430.
Lehrman, N., in Archives of Internal Medicine, April 26,1993
Panksepp, J. Psychological Science, December 2000; vol 9: pp 183-85.
Robert R. Provine, professor of psychology and Neuroscience, University of Maryland, Baltimore, author, Laughter: A Scientific Investigation, Penguin, 2000.
Robert R. Provine, Laughter, American Scientist 84. 1 (Jan-Feb, 1996): 38-47
Rosner, F. Cancer Investigation, 2002; vol 20: pp 434-36.
Silver, N, in American Health, November 1986
Wilson, Steve, MA, CSP,psychologist, Columbus, Ohio; founder, World Laughter Tour; board
member, American Association for Therapeutic Humor, Columbus, Ohio.
http://www.webmd.com/balance/news/20050307/laughter-may-build-healthy-blood-vessels?src=rss_foxnews
http://tinyurl.com/g9dzs
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