I think laughter is good medicine. As I have always said, “A laugh a day keeps the doctor away”. When it comes to stress management, how about a good laugh?
Laughter is a wonderful strategy to relieve stress, and I’m not kidding.
According to Mayo Clinic, there are many short-term and long-term benefits to laughter, because laughter actually induces psychological and physical changes in your body.
Laughter enhances your intake of oxygen, stimulates your heart, lungs, and muscles, and increases the endorphins that are released by your brain.
Laughter positively starts up and cools down your stress response and increases your heart rate and blood pressure and quickly creates a relaxed feeling. Laughter stimulates blood flow and circulation and this causes muscle relaxation and helps reduce some of the physical symptoms of stress.
Over time, laughter may improve your immune system and may help ease pain by causing the body to produce its own natural painkillers.
Laughter can also make it easier to cope with difficult situations. Laughter may improve your mood and help you connect with other people. If you sometimes feel blue, laughter can help lessen your depression and anxiety and help you feel happier.
It might be wise to carry a survival kit of funny stories, good clean jokes, and humorous anecdotes. Learn to laugh easily. Keep a “funny” First Aid Kit handy and you may not ever need the real one.
If you need to find a keynote speaker, plenary speaker, breakout speaker, concurrent session speaker, seminar leader, or workshop facilitator who can deliver in-person, virtually, or via prerecorded session, Kit Welchlin, M.A., CSP, CVP, is a nationally recognized professional motivational speaker and author and can be found at www.welchlin.com or www.SeminarsOnStress.com.