Humor and Health

Humour can impart great nourishment to you in everyday life? It is beneficial to start the day with a beaming smile at yourself looking at the mirror followed by a few minutes of giggling laughter. Watching funny movies, reading articles on humour and cracking jokes with children can take you to higher level of health and wellbeing. Loud laughter can increase heart rate, increase oxygen supply to the human system and strengthen the immune mechanism. It increases the level of immunoglobulin in the saliva. This helps the body to fight off infection e.g., the common cold. Humour is contagious, and you can make many others laugh and boost your importance and self esteem. `Humour helps to change man's mood in a very short time. It washes off anger. Parents find humour a handy tool to discipline a mischievous child. Laughing stimulates the brain, and helps to acquire and store more information rendering humour an effective aid to studies. People with a great sense of humour laugh at themselves very rarely experience depression and anxiety. They see the world in a different perspective because of their sense of humour. Smiling and laughter change negative emotions into positive ones. They help us feel better about ourselves. The medical profession recommends laughing as a therapy.

On an average, children laugh over 200 times a day; in contrast, the adult has a poor score. Babies start smiling in a month soon after birth, and laughing soon after. And once they start, they keep doing it over and over as they go through early childhood. The average adult laughs much less. It is less than 20 times per day. It is sad to note adults lose all sense of humour as they grow up. We don't realize that humour can make us healthier.

Laughing helps to lower blood pressure, burn calories, activates our internal organs and almost the whole body. It reduces stress levels, ensuring calmness. Humour helps a person to overcome feelings of anxiety resulting from isolation. It is integral to peace of mind. In crises situations, humour gives hope. Spontaneous humour relieves tension and overcomes fear and anxiety during crisis.

With illness and even death occurring, hospitals have come to believe that even a small dose of laughter can do lot of good for others apart from the patients! However there are safeguards to be taken while trying to be humourous. We must ensure appropriateness of humour to the occasion. Otherwise, humour can be harmful. Look at the following example.

A person is asked to interview selected customers. He is asked to prepare a questionnaire which contains several questions. One question is: Are you married. The second question: if yes, ask how many children Instead of reading and understanding the questions, the interviewer asks: Are you married The customer answers, No. The interviewer asks, How many children Though the answer can be interpreted as humourous, the occasion is inappropriate since the customer, if touchy and sensitive, can react violently defeating the purpose of the interview.

Radiate laughter all around trying to get people to laugh with you. You may not always succeed. Some people are determined to be morose and miserable. But you could try to make them cheerful. Make them laugh with humourous anecdotes. Laughter helps you to improve your attitude. Change in attitude makes you look at the world with a different perspective and enjoy life.

Courtesy:T Ramaswamy