The Laughter of an adult has been greatly reduced today. If you google it, there are a number of studies that indicate that more and more people laugh less often compared to the length of time we laugh decades ago. It sounds insane but the ever changing occurrences both in our virtual and real life along with the worldly problems that affects our societies can trigger depression, stress, panic attacks, severe anxiety and a mountain of other mental health issues. As a result, we laugh less.
We can’t help it sometimes because we are so exposed to a tremendous amount of information today. At present, we have been facing a global pandemic, an impending war between big and rich countries, there’s political division everywhere, unlimited amount of fake news, millions of opinions and so much more. It becomes very overwhelming. Our emotions are affected.
So, I think we should keep it simple. We keep things to a minimum. Lessen the amount of information we take and have an internal sieve to screen the information we take. I believe that this will make us happier, help us find humour and laugh more often.
The Science of Laughter
According to Lindsay Barlow when she wrote about the physiological effects of laughter, she said that Laughter can be described as a total body, physiological response to humour. This response results to increased Heart rate; respiration rate and ventilation becomes irregular as an effect of the epiglottis half-closing the larynx. The normal cyclic breathing pattern is disrupted; this causes increased ventilation, clearing of mucous plugs and accelerating the exchange of residual air (which will boost blood oxygen levels). In extreme cases, the face may become red or purple.
We know that benefits of laughter. For so long, we have been calling it the best medicine because of its positive effects in our systems. We get better when we laugh. Better immunity, better psyche, better pain management, better perspectives… Just better and these are all backed up with scientific evidence.
My plan is to at least laugh as often as possible everyday for a month. At the end of the day, it is down to our own choice if we want to laugh or not. Even faking it can give added benefits. Again, this sounds a little bit crazy but there is no harm to try. Obviously, I don’t have the tool to measure the amount of laugh I do everyday but I will try to laugh.
Reference:
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/07/01/health/science-of-laughter-scn-wellness/index.html
Handover Sheets by Nikko 