Laugh Anyway

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

Source: Photo Pin

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.

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.