Have you tried talking gibberish for few minutes? How about faking a smile? How about laughing for fifteen minutes? If you have not done any of these things, start now. Humor and laughter is what we need to maintain our health or state of wellness.

Why waste time, money and energy on pills or vitamins that boost the immune system? There is a better solution that is more effective, free, readily available, organic, and unlimited supply 24/7. Consider a dose of laughter and add humor to your life. If you only take fifteen minutes a day of laughter, what a difference it will make to your health.

Humor is a state of mind that educes something amusing whether a person, an object or a situation. Laughter occurs from something inconsistent, unsuitable, or incongruous situations or circumstances that the mind mutually takes notice of in an odd manner bursting out of the body creating burst of sounds called laughter. When we laugh our muscles contracts, it increases blood circulation and improves the digestive system. According to Marcel Gurwirth, the author of “Laughing Matter: An Essay on the Comic (1993),” “A smile is a sign of pleasure well adapted to function as a body language of an unspoken expression of good will. Smiling encompasses the more voluntary phenomena of facial expression; laughter is the more automatic laryngeal and respiratory phenomena. Smile is more deliberate expression and communication of positive or euphoric feelings while laughter is more explosive outcome of such communication.”

Start your day adding humor to your life, an optimistic attitude to create positive emotions. Smiling and laughing or even fake smiling can make a difference. These induce the release of endorphins into your blood stream. The release of these endorphins to the body counteracts the effect of the stress hormones: cortisol and adrenalin. These stress hormones increase blood pressure, increase blood sugar level, suppress the immune system, and decrease bone formation leading to the development of osteoporosis.

Norman Cousins, a notable editor and writer (1915-1990) said, “Laughter is inner jogging.” He recovered from a life-threatening collagen disease using high doses of Vitamin C and daily doses of belly laughter to keep his optimistic emotions high at all times. In 1979, Cousins wrote and published a best-selling book about his personal experience on his healing entitled, “Anatomy of an Illness as Perceived by the Patient: Reflections on Healing and Regeneration." He further stated, “The life may be the least understood force on earth and that human beings are not locked into fixed limitations.”

Consider adding humor and laughter in your daily life and think of the benefits. Here are some of my views. Humor can…

• Promote a positive environment


• Make me softer and vulnerable to others


• Create an air of trust


• Cheer me up and cheer others as well


• Help me channel the negative energy to positive energy


• Break monotony


• Release tension and reduce stress


• Help me see things outside the box


• Increase my sensitivity to others and my surroundings


• Develop inner strength to be funny


• Keep me optimistic at all times


• Allow positive energy to attract more positive energy


• Keep me stay longer in my job (because I will live longer!)

So keep on smiling, laughing, and adding humor to your life. Nowadays, laughter is free and cheap medicine. Remember as I quote a verse from the Book of Proverbs 17:22 (NIV), “A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.”

For additional reading on laughter, visit related links below.

Some books you can add to your library on humor and laughter: