You're Never Fully Dressed Without A Smile

Wisdom Nugget: "A cheerful disposition is good for your health; gloom and doom leave you bone-tired"

Smile
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“If you can find humour in anything, you can survive it.” - Bill Cosby

Laughter is physically good for you like a vitamin - it relieves muscle tension, improves your memory, boosts your immune system and helps prevent heart disease; among other things. It’s worth it to even fake laughter at your boring friend's "unfunny" jokes. It calms you down, why deny yourself the pleasure? A little drop of healthy humour will settle things down between friends after a bitter argument, faster than anything I know. Irrespective of the weight of that burden, it’s shattered under the strength of a generous dose of healthy humour - humour makes burdens light keeping them from crushing us.

Just in case you're one of those who find almost every joke not funny enough, here are a few pointers to (help) make you laugh.

1. Think of something you find funny. Not surprisingly, the easiest way to laugh is to think of something that you personally find very amusing. This can be useful for those occasions where everybody but you is laughing at a joke. Hear Agnes Repplier, "We cannot really love anybody with whom we never laugh"

2. Smile: If you do want to fake or create a laugh, start with a smile. Scientists have found that genuine laughter is almost accompanied by the contraction of about 15 facial muscles, most of which are the same you use when you smile, it can actually put you in a better mood and make you more apt to laugh. Smiling has been shown to make you feel good; therefore a smile precedes laughter, as you have to feel good before you laugh.

3. Laugh at the appropriate time. Genuine laughs almost always begin at the end of a phrase or sentence.

4. Watch one of your favourite comedies, or ask your friends for a funny movie they have recently watched. You could go watch it with them for more laughs.

5. Talk about something cheerful or funny.

6. Have your own sense of humour too. Make your own joke - something that is truly funny to you.

Laughter is contagious. It’s also beneficial to life and relationships. Laughter reduces stress and tension. Laughter stimulates the immune system. Laughter increases natural painkillers in the blood leading to a decrease in systemic inflammation. Laughter reduces blood pressure and lifts your spirits. Laughter brings couples closer - it keeps a relationship fresh. Jay Leno puts it thus, “You can’t stay mad at somebody who makes you laugh.”

Our emotional, spiritual and physical health improves with daily doses of joy in the Lord. So today make sure you take some time to laugh and rejoice. Joy, smiles, gratitude and laughter are perfect medicines for our soul, available to everyone without negative side effects. Why not give yourself a generous dose of laughter today? 

Laugh Anyway

Wisdom Nuggets: "No matter what your heartache may be, laughing helps you forget it for a few seconds."
                                                                                                   - Red Skelton

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Research has shown that the health benefits of laughter are far-reaching. Bill Cosby said "Through humor, you can soften some of the worst blows that life delivers. And once you find laughter, no matter how painful your situation might be, you can survive it."

1. When you make fun of yourself, you disarm those who would make fun of you and defuse possible confrontations.
2. Laughter relieves tension, stress, anger, irritation, grief, and depression. Similar to crying, laughter lowers emotional barriers, allowing the release of pent-up emotions. After a hearty session of laughter, you experience a sense of true well-being.
3. Medical researchers have found that laughter boosts the immune system.
4. Laughter reduces pain by releasing endorphins that are more powerful than equivalent amounts of morphine.
5. Humor helps merge the 2 hemispheres of the brain. The left hemisphere is used to interpret the verbal content of a joke. The right hemisphere interprets whether it is funny or not.
6. Laughter adds spice to life. Laughter is to life what rain is to the earth.
7. When you develop your sense of humor, you become more productive, communicate better, and tend to be a better team player.
8. Laughter provides the balance we need to get through the many hurdles of life.
9. Laughter is another form of exercise - According to Dr. James Walsh, "it massages all the organs of the body"
10. Laughter/humor helps you to rise to any challenge and handle the unexpected with ease.

Many adults avoid doing fun things because of what I'll like to call "FOWOT", fear of what others think! The bad news is we let this fear control a chunk of our lives and yet the truth is that no one else is ever thinking about us. They are too busy worrying about what WE are thinking about them - how ironic?

Alan Alda says "When people are laughing, they're generally not killing one another" and Red Skelton concludes, "No matter what your heartache may be, laughing helps you forget it for a few seconds" and its usually a great feeling.

He Who Laughs, Lasts

Wisdom Nugget: “A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones”

“The human race has only one really effective weapon and that is laughter.” - Mark Twain

Laughter is a convulsive physiological response to psychological stimuli, such as humorous material, or physical stimuli, such as tickling. The sudden release of tension during laughter causes a decrease in skeletal muscle tone, literally rendering the body “weak with laughter.” The diaphragm contracts and relaxes rapidly, often leading to hiccups or coughing. Some people double over and shake uncontrollably as though they were having seizures (“a fit of laughter”).
Scientists have been studying the effect of laughter on human beings, and have found, among other things, that laughter has a profound and instantaneous effect on virtually every important organ in the human body.

Laughter reduces health-sapping tensions and relaxes the tissues as well as exercising the most vital organs. Laughter, even when forced, results in a beneficial effect on us, both mentally and physically. Physicians have noted that laughter acts as an anesthetic by distracting the patient’s attention from pain - by reducing tension, by changing the patient’s expectations and by increasing the patient’s production of endorphins, which are natural painkillers (Peter and Dana, pp. 7-9).

Psychologists note that clowns and their regressive form of humor can coax people out of a state of withdrawal (Moody, pp. 27, 111-15).

 
Next time you feel nervous and jittery, indulge in a good laugh. Laughter is the best medicine for a long and happy life. He who laughs lasts.

 
It is said that Dr. Theodore Cuyler and Mr. Spurgeon were once out in the fields enjoying God's sunshine and the beauties of nature. Dr. Cuyler told a story at which Mr. Spurgeon laughed until his sides shook. Suddenly Mr. Spurgeon said, "Theodore, let's get down on our knees and thank God for laughter." And these two happy Christian preachers knelt in the field and thanked God for His great gift of laughter.
Martin Luther wrote "If you're not allowed to laugh in heaven, I don't want to go there".

Laughter Can Help Your Marriage

"Laughter is the sun that drives winter from the human face". Lets restore the sunshine back to our homes because a good laugh is sunshine in every home" - Victor Hugo

Wisdom Nugget: "A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones

 

The writer of the Proverbs has a saying which the Authorized Version translates: "A merry heart doeth good like a medicine." But, if we look in the margin, we find another translation: "A merry heart doeth good to a medicine." Moffatt has it: "A glad heart helps and heals." The A.R.S.V. has it: "A cheerful heart is a good medicine."

A medicine will do far more good to a man with a happy heart than it will do to a gloomy and pessimistic soul. A doctor can hardly write in his prescription "To be taken three times a day with a merry heart," but he certainly would, if he could. It is a medical fact that those who laugh most live longest.

A hearty laugh expands the lungs, and is good for any man. Every time we greet life with a happy human face, we are stretching the span of life for ourselves and giving ourselves the best of medicines. Laughter is one of the greatest mental tonics known to man. It is the second most powerful human emotion we as people can possibly express (the first being love). 
 
Laughter can dispel anxiety; help manage stress, depression, fear and worry. It can stimulate the healing process. Laughter provides strong medical, psychological, social and even spiritual benefits.
Laughter is like internal jogging. It enhances the respiratory system, helps oxygenate the body, relaxes tense muscles, and is an all-around pain killer. It will lower pulse and blood pressure. Laughter can pave the way for a new and exciting outlook on life. It is the universal communicator that can cross all boundaries of race and culture.
 
You can't laugh and be mad; you can't laugh and worry. Stress, worry and laughter are not compatible.
Take a cup of love, two cups of loyalty, three cups of forgiveness, four quarts of faith, and one barrel of laughter.

So if today your marriage has any signs or symptoms of sickness permit me to give you the following prescription: take love and loyalty and mix it thoroughly with faith; blend it with tenderness, kindness, and understanding. Add friendship and hope. Sprinkle abundantly with laughter. Bake it with sunshine. Wrap it regularly with lots of hugs. Serve generous helpings daily, and you've got a marvelous recipe for a happy marriage.

Want to Laugh? Why Not Find Your Peace First?

“There is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good humor.” -  Charles Dickens

 

Wisdom Nugget: "Laughter can conceal a heavy heart, but when the laughter ends, the grief remains"

Before I get very deep on The Gift of Laughter, let me register an observation. I have seen mad people laugh, drunkards laugh and even wicked people laugh. Sometimes it’s difficult to tell the difference between real laughter and the superficial, cosmetic kind.

 

Many people are seeking laughter in their heart when they really need peace. Laughter is to a wounded heart what morphine is to terminal cancer. Max Lucado, in "No Wonder They Call Him the Savior", tells the story of Maria and her daughter Christina.

Longing to leave her poor Brazilian neighborhood, Christina wanted to see the world. Discontent living at home having only a pallet on the floor, a wash basin, and a wood-burning stove, she dreamed of a better life in the city. One morning she ran away, breaking her mother's heart. Her mother knew what life on the streets would be like for her young, attractive daughter, so Maria quickly packed to go find her daughter. On her way to the bus stop, she went to a drugstore to get one last thing - pictures.

She sat in the photograph booth, closed the curtain, and spent all the money she could on pictures of herself. With her purse full of small black-and-white photos, she got on the next bus to Rio de Janeiro. Maria knew Christina had no way of earning money. She also knew that her daughter was too stubborn to give up. Maria began her search. Bars, hotels, nightclubs, any place with the reputation for street walkers or prostitutes. At each place she left her picture--taped on a bathroom mirror, tacked to a hotel bulletin board, or fastened to a corner phone booth. On the back of each photo she wrote a note. It wasn't too long before Maria's money and pictures ran out, and Maria had to go home.

The tired mother cried as the bus began its long journey back to her small village. A few weeks later, Christina was coming down the stairs in a seedy hotel. Her young face was tired. Her brown eyes no longer danced with youth but spoke of pain and fear. Her laughter was broken. Her dream had become a nightmare. A thousand times she had longed to trade all those countless beds for her secure pallet. And yet the little village seemed too far away. As she reached the bottom of the stairs, her eyes noticed a familiar face. She looked again, and there on the lobby mirror was a small picture of her mother. Christina's eyes burned and her throat tightened as she walked across the room and removed the small photo. Written on the back Maria had written this: "Whatever you have done, whatever you have become, it doesn't matter. Please come home." And Christina went home. 

God is the same way. He wants us to come home. It doesn't matter what we've done. It doesn't matter what we've become. We can always come home to Him. It is like Maria, reaching out for her daughter even when her daughter didn't realize it. It is like God reaching out to us while we are living a life of sin and we are lost and yet, Christ is there...reaching...longing...desiring to bring us home. It is prevenient grace - it has kept us, as Newton writes, "safe thus far."

May I suggest that before you laugh, first find your peace in Christ.