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What Happens When You Laugh?

Having a good laugh will immediately cause changes to you mental, physical, and emotional state. You'll be able to feel these changes the more you laugh in that moment.

• Hearty LOL (laugh out loud) laughter makes you breathe in more oxygen which improves blood flow. Therefore your muscles, lungs, and heart get more oxygen which helps them function better.

• Laughing releases endorphins - the "feel good" hormones. You feel lighter both mentally & physically like your stress load & burdens magically disappeared. Don't you feel happier, and in a better mood?

• Even the Proverbs say that a cheerful heart is good medicine.

• Laughter decreases stress and the stress hormone cortisol, and decreases heart rate & blood pressure.

• A study of older adults showed that watching a funny show for 20 minutes or more improved their ability to think, learn, and remember.

• Watching a funny comedy helps keep glucose levels more stable after eating - not rising as much.

• Blood flow & circulation is increased which causes the muscles to relax, relieving tension in the whole body.

• A good LOL laugh can turn tears of sadness into healing giggles.

LOL a Spoonful a Day

Besides getting a boost of happy and the immediate physical, mental and emotion benefits from laughter, there's are also more amazing benefits if you laugh every day. A spoonful a day will help you laugh your way to better health.

• Laughter can boost your immune system and your body's ability to keep disease away. That's huge, especially during bug & flu season.

• Did you know that filling your mind & emotions with negative thoughts affects the health of your body? A negative outlook will create stress which lowers your immune system, leaving the door wide open for sickness & disease.

• Positive thoughts will produce more happy hormones that help fight stress. With reduced stress, your body can naturally build up your immune system.

• Laughter connects you to others, and attracts other people to you. Laughing together can calm nerves, make you feel more at ease & comfortable with the person & situation. Laughing together strengthens bonds of friendship.

• Laughing acts like a pain reliever by helping the body produce natural pain killers. It also relaxes muscles and eases overall tension.

• Laughter will lower inflammation, which also helps alleviate pain. A study showed that it helped those with rheumatoid arthritis.

• A spoonful of laughs will lift your mood, increase self-esteem, and bring relief from anxiety or depression.

• Daily doses of laughter can help you handle difficult situations that arise with more confidence and less stress & anxiety.

• The work environment feels lighter with laughter, and performance and quality improves with more giggles & laughs at the job.

• Laughing more can lower risk of coronary heart disease & heart attacks.

Practice Humor and LOL

If you don't think your sense of humor could eek out a laugh, then not to worry. There's always ways to gather a collection of funny material - then just practice and before you know it - presto, you've got a sense of HUMOR.

• If you're normally clumsy, or just have one of those goofy moments - laugh at yourself. Anyone watching will join in and laugh with you. Who cares if they're kind of laughing "at" you.

  Your laughter will lower your stress and you'll feel better overall, despite having an exceptionally large seagull drop his liquid poop-bomb on your shirt.

• Taking notes of goof-ball animals & children can also provide you with funny short stories to share with others. If you don't have pets or kids, I'm sure you have friends that do.

• Find out how: Pets Improve Your Life.

• Make friends with other people who are funny. Once you're laughing, you'll find your own sense of humor forming and with a little practice - you'll be firing back with your own witty & humorous comments.

• Watch a couple of comedy shows or movies and write down a few jokes you like. Re-word them in a way that fits your personality and share with others for a good LOL.

• Get a book on how to be funny and make people laugh. Also, google can take you to some websites that have funny jokes. Practice on your kids & family, and soon you'll have a library of funnies in your head.

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