Carolyn Cooper had taught me how to live a new life with the use of SimplyHealed™. I love her philosophies, too… Here’s what she has to say about Laughter
“A clown is like an aspirin, only he works twice as fast.” (Groucho Marx)
We’ve all been there. Maybe sitting in a restaurant, an office waiting room, or shopping at the grocery store and you hear someone laughing heartily or uncontrollably giggling. It’s hard to not smile and maybe even (depending on how great the laugh is) begin giggling yourself. Laughter is contagious–just hearing laughter primes your brain and readies you to smile and join in on the fun. Laughter is so good for us in so many ways…..
Balances your Energy Systems
Laughter makes you feel good. And the good feeling that you get when you laugh remains with you even after the laughter subsides. Humor helps you keep a positive, optimistic outlook through difficult situations, disappointments, and loss. It literally raises your energetic vibration, so not only do you feel better, it radiates to everyone else around you. More than just a respite from sadness and pain, laughter gives you the courage and strength to find new sources of meaning and hope. Often during an energy clearing session clients want to work on having more clarity and opening up to more creativity. I like to pose the question, “How many times this week have you had a really good laugh?” Sometimes until we talk about it, they don’t get the connection, but laughter can have a huge effect on your creative processes. It opens your mind and heart and strengthens your aura!
Increases Joy in Relationships
When we laugh with one another, a positive bond is created. This bond acts as a strong buffer against stress, disagreements, and disappointment. Shared laughter is one of the most effective tools for keeping relationships fresh and exciting. Humor is a powerful and effective way to heal resentments and hurts and it unites people during difficult times. Humor and playful communication strengthen our relationships by triggering positive feelings and fostering emotional connection. I always love to see a couple that has been together for years, and they still laugh at each other’s semi-humorous comments. That speaks volumes about their relationship. Mutual laughter and play are an essential component of strong, healthy relationships. By making a conscious effort to incorporate more humor and play into your daily interactions, you can improve the quality of your love relationships– as well as your connections with co-workers, family members, and friends.
Benefits your Physical Health
In addition, laughter triggers healthy physical changes in the body. Did you know a good, hearty laugh relieves physical tension and stress, leaving your muscles relaxed for up to 45 minutes after? Laughter also decreases stress hormones and increases immune cells and infection-fighting antibodies, thus improving your resistance to disease. It triggers the release of endorphins, the body’s natural feel-good chemicals. Endorphins promote an overall sense of well-being and can even temporarily relieve pain. Laughter protects the heart by improving the function of blood vessels and increasing blood flow, which can help protect you against a heart attack and other cardiovascular problems.
The focus on the benefits of laughter really began with Norman Cousin’s memoir, Anatomy of an Illness. Cousins, who was diagnosed with ankylosing spondylitis, a painful spine condition believed that he could, cure himself, even against all the specialists’ prognoses. He used humor as both a painkiller and a substitute for chemical therapy. He found that by watching a lot of comedies, like Marx Brothers films and episodes of Candid Camera, he was, in fact able to heal. He said that ten minutes of laughter allowed him two hours of pain-free sleep.
Emotionally
Humor helps you be more spontaneous by getting you out of your head and away from your troubles. It helps you let go of defensiveness, by helping you forget judgments, criticisms, and doubts. Laughter also helps to release unhealthy inhibitions. It brings you to a place where you can set aside your fear of holding back.
Developing a sense of humor about yourself opens you up to taking more risks that will move you forward in all aspects of your life.
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Laughter is a natural part of life that is innate and inborn. Infants begin smiling during the first weeks of life and laugh out loud within months of being born. Sometimes we as adults get so busy with the ‘important’ things on our to do list, we neglect the levity that is so much needed in our lives. So how do we add more light and laughter into our lives? Even if you did not grow up in a household where laughter was a common sound, or if you did and you’ve forgotten how important that is, you can learn to laugh at any stage of life.
Here are some ways to start:
- Smile. Smiling is the beginning of laughter. Like laughter, it’s contagious. Pioneers in “laugh therapy” find it’s possible to laugh without even experiencing a funny event. The same holds for smiling. When you look at someone or see something even mildly pleasing, practice smiling.
- Count your blessings. Literally make a list. The simple act of considering the good things in your life will distance you from negative thoughts that are a barrier to humor and laughter.
- When in a state of sadness, we have further to travel to get to humor and laughter
- When you hear laughter, move toward it. Sometimes humor and laughter are private, a shared joke among a small group, but usually not. More often, people are very happy to share something funny because it gives them an opportunity to laugh again and feed off the humor you find in it. When you hear laughter, seek it out and ask, “What’s funny?”
- Spend time with fun, playful people. These are people who laugh easily-both at themselves and at life’s absurdities-and who routinely find the humor in everyday events. Their playful point of view and laughter are contagious.
- Bring humor into conversations. Ask people, “What’s the funniest thing that happened to you today? This week? In your life?”
Anyone can join the laughter movement. All it takes is a willingness to see the humor in things. Now of course you understand I’m talking about good, wholesome humor. Not sarcasm that is funny to only some and hurtful to others. There’s more than enough negativity in our world. We want to be able to be optimistic; laugh when we have a choice of being annoyed or seeing humor in our daily situations. All we have to do is allow ourselves to relax, lighten up and look for opportunities to lift our spirit and the spirits of those around us. Laughter is feeling deeply which allows us to live fully.
Humor lightens your burdens, inspires hopes, connects you to others, and keeps you grounded, focused, and alert. Here are a couple of great quotes from men who faced grim circumstances and still understood laughter’s power to heal, renew and take the edge off of surmounting problems.
“Gentlemen, why don’t you laugh? With the fearful strain that is upon me day and night, if I did not laugh I should die, and you need this medicine as much as I do.” Abraham Lincoln, during the Civil War
I would never have made it if I could not have laughed. Laughing lifted me momentarily . . . out of this horrible situation, just enough to make it livable . . . survivable.” Victor Frankl, survived Nazi concentration camp
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. Best of all, this priceless medicine is fun, free, and easily accessible!
Written by Carolyn Cooper, Founder, the Carolyn Cooper SimplyHealed Method of Energy Healing® www.CarolynCooper.com © Copyright 2009. All rights reserved.
