Resilience 101: How To Laugh Away Your Stress During Challenges

 Why We're Called The Giggle Twins

Growing up, my twin sister Lucy and I were always asked if we could read each others mind. People thought we could because we could give the other a look or say a word and we would start giggling.

It wasn't that we could read each others mind. We happened to experience the same situations together and have the same sense of humor.

Our parents nicknamed us The Giggle Twins because we were always giggling. Even when we went through tough times we could always find things to giggle about.

Health Benefits of Laughter

Laughing has many physical and mental health benefits. Think about it. Have you ever laughed so hard that your stomach muscles ached? How do you feel after leaving a comedy show?

Studies suggest that healthy children laugh as much as 400 times a day whereas adults laugh about 15 times per day. Adults tend to put conditions on laughter the older they get unlike children who have no conditions to laugh.

Hmmm, what about you?

There are many reasons to laugh more throughout the day to reduce stress:

• Laughter builds a stronger immune system by increasing the number of antibody-producing cells in our body and enhancing the effectiveness of our T-cells, important white blood cells of the immune system. Laughing also increases our "feel good" endorphins while lowering the stress hormones dopamine, cortisol, and epinephrine.
• Laughter gives you good belly laughs which exercises your shoulders, diaphragm, and contracts your abdominals muscles leaving your muscles relaxed afterwards. It also provides a good workout for your heart.
• Laughter can be a distraction from the need to act on negative emotions such as anger, guilt, and stress.
• Laughter can lessen the negative outlook of difficult events and turn it into a lighthearted perspective.
• Laughter strengthens relationships by elevating the mood around others so they reap the benefits as well. Laughter is contagious.

To see how I incorporated humor during my breast cancer journey, please read my blog Finding Humor: Being Hairless During Breast Cancer Has It's Advantages.

How To Increase Laughter In Your Day

Laughter is a great stress-management strategy because it's free, convenient, and has so many benefits as I've discussed.

Pick a few options below to get more laughter in your day.

• Get together with friends regularly
• Start a game night with friends or family
• Follow funny memes
• Listen to a funny podcast daily
• Follow funny comedians on social media
• Find the humor in stressful situations
• Tell jokes to each other and the listener tries not to laugh
• Try Free Social Laughter Yoga clubs. For more information, go to Laughter Yoga USA. 

So what about you? Do you get enough laughter in your day?

Daily Mantra: Hunt the good stuff, find the humor, keep positive, and focus on your blessings. God can bring good out of every situation!