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![two women laughing together on a sofa](https://ucarecdn.com/d4fcce92-9fb6-4058-8917-e3eb7eafdac4/-/format/auto/-/preview/3000x3000/-/quality/lighter/peopleLaughing.jpg)
Benefits of Laughter
- Reduces stress: Laughter can improve your mood, reduce stress hormones, relieve anxiety, and relax your muscles.
- Improves health: Laughter boosts your immune system, lowers blood pressure, and improves heart health.
- Relieves pain: People who laugh regularly experience a reduction in chronic pain symptoms, which is why laughter is often used in pain therapy.
- Improves social relationships: Laughter can help to create a sense of connection and community between family, friends, and acquaintances.
- Releases endorphins: Laughter triggers the release of natural feel-good chemicals known as endorphins, which promote a sense of well-being and may temporarily relieve pain.
- Improves heart health: Laughter can increase blood flow, which may help lower your risk of heart attack and other cardiovascular problems.
- Burns calories: Laughter is no replacement for going to the gym, but it does burn calories. For example, one study found that laughing for just 15 minutes burns up to 40 calories — if you do it daily, that’s enough to lose three or four pounds a year!
- Reduces anger: Nothing diffuses anger and conflict faster than a shared laugh or a good joke. Looking at the funny side of things can put problems into perspective and help you let go of confrontations without bitterness and resentment.
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Lengthens life expectancy: Research has shown that regular laughter helps you live longer and reduces your risk of early mortality, particularly for those battling cancer.
Celebrate National Humor Month
Since 1976, we’ve celebrated National Humor Month every year to live, love, laugh, and find humor in our lives. It’s a time to consider the power of laughter and humor.
Ways to Laugh for National Humor Month
- Watch comedy movies and funny videos
- Read funny books or comics
- Tell jokes
- Try to stop taking yourself and life too seriously
- Spend time with people who make you laugh
- Participate in laughter yoga
- Express your humor through writing or drawing
- Perform a stand-up comedy routine at a school, retirement home, or hospital
- Listen to comedy podcasts or audiobooks
- Attend a comedy show or open mic night
- Do things that make you happy
- Play with your pets and children
- Find ways to be playful and silly
- Try to release your inhibitions.
- Just enjoy each moment
- Play games that encourage laughter, such as charades or Pictionary
Take a Moment to Have a Good Laugh Right Now!
![Man Laughing](https://ucarecdn.com/9b00f579-1ed1-4a3e-846e-1495fcc88c95/-/format/auto/-/preview/3000x3000/-/quality/lighter/manLaughing.jpg)
Holy cow!
“Yeah,” the other cow says. “Makes me glad I’m a penguin.”
Where there’s smoke
Just desserts
“Why should it?” answered her spouse. “I keep telling them it’s for you.”
—Selma Glasser, Good Housekeeping
Matching wedding bandwidths
Snail’s pace
Identity crisis
“My mother?” replied Helen. “I thought she was your mother.”
—Joseph Lozanoff
Beat it
“Sorry,” the barman replies. “We don’t serve breakfast.”
—Susan Maguire
Take Time to Enjoy Yourself!
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