My twin sister Lucy and I earned a peculiar nickname in our early years: The Giggle Twins. It wasn't due to any telepathic bond often ascribed to twins, but because of our shared sense of humor and ability to find laughter in every situation. Even today, a subtle gesture or a line from a movie is enough to send us into peals of laughter, proving that laughter, indeed, is the language we twins share.
Our propensity for laughter was not restricted to happy times; we laughed through tough times too. This ability to giggle through adversity was our resilience-building secret weapon, and it became the foundation of my journey towards becoming a resilience coach.
The Healing Power of Laughter
Laughter is a universal language, a shared human experience that transcends boundaries. Yet, as we age, we often forget this innate ability to laugh freely, unlike children who burst into laughter at the drop of a hat. Research shows that healthy children laugh about 400 times a day, while adults laugh a mere 15 times per day on average. As adults, we often set conditions for our laughter, robbing ourselves of its healing power.
Here are five reasons why we should consciously strive to laugh more each day:
- Boosts Immunity: Laughter can amplify the body's immune response. It increases the number of antibody-producing cells, enhancing the effectiveness of T-cells, crucial players in our immune system. Furthermore, laughter triggers a surge of endorphins, the body's natural feel-good chemicals, and reduces stress hormones like dopamine, cortisol, and epinephrine.
- Physical Exercise: A hearty laugh can serve as a mini workout. It exercises your shoulders, diaphragm, and contracts your abdominal muscles, leaving you relaxed and refreshed. It's also a fun cardiovascular exercise for your heart.
- Emotional Distraction: Laughter can serve as a positive distraction, helping you not to act on negative emotions like anger, guilt, and stress. It's like a natural emotional reset button.
- Transforms Perspective: Laughter has the power to refract the lens through which we view adverse events, turning a seemingly grim situation into a more lighthearted perspective.
- Strengthens Relationships: Laughter creates an infectious aura of positivity, strengthening bonds and uplifting the mood of those around you.
How to Spark More Laughter in Your Life
Since laughter has such transformative power, how can we incorporate more of it into our daily lives? Here are a few suggestions:
- Regularly meet with friends who make you laugh.
- Initiate a game night with friends or family.
- Follow humorous memes or comedians on social media.
- Listen to a funny podcast daily.
- Find humor in stressful situations.
- Share jokes with each other.
- Try free Social Laughter Yoga clubs.
Laughter has been my steadfast companion in life's ups and downs, even during my battle with breast cancer. You can read more about how humor played a vital role in my journey in my blog post, "Finding Humor: Being Hairless During Breast Cancer Has Its Advantages".
Let's explore further the proven benefits of laughter, and how you can apply the 'Giggle Twins' approach in your life.
Laughter as a Resilience Strategy
Laughter is not just about humor; it’s a potent tool for resilience. It is an antidote to stress, pain, and conflict. It dissolves distressing emotions and enables you to rise above adversities. It can shift perspective, enabling you to see situations in a more realistic, less threatening light. A humorous perspective creates psychological distance, which can help avoid feeling overwhelmed and diffuse conflict.
Laughter and Relationships
Laughter connects us with others. Just as with smiling and kindness, most people find that laughter is contagious, so if you bring more laughter into your life, you can most likely help others around you to laugh more, and realize these benefits as well. By elevating the mood of those around you, you can reduce their stress levels, and perhaps improve the quality of social interaction you experience with them, reducing your stress level even more!
Creating Opportunities to Laugh
It's true, laughter is the best medicine. And best of all, this priceless medicine is fun, free, and easy to use. With this in mind, it’s clear why the Giggle Twins approach can have such a profound effect on your life. Here are a few ways to start:
- Laugh at yourself. Share your embarrassing moments. The best way to take ourselves less seriously is to talk about the times when we took ourselves too seriously.
- When you hear laughter, move toward it. More often than not, people are delighted to share something funny because it gives them an opportunity to laugh again and feed off the humor you find in it.
- Surround yourself with reminders to lighten up. Keep a toy on your desk or in your car. Put up a funny poster in your office. Choose a computer screensaver that makes you laugh. Frame photos of you and your family or friends having fun.
- Keep things in perspective. Many things in life are beyond our control—particularly the behavior of other people. While you might view carrying the weight of the world on your shoulders as admirable, in the long run, it's unrealistic and unhealthy.
- Pay attention to children and emulate them. They are the experts on playing, taking life lightly, and laughing!
Takeaway
Laughter is an incredible resource for surmounting problems, enhancing your relationships, and supporting both physical and emotional health. It's a powerful antidote to stress, pain, and conflict. Nothing works faster or more dependably to bring your mind and body back into balance than a good laugh.
With the Giggle Twins approach, it's clear that laughter truly is the best medicine for the soul. By incorporating more laughter into your life, you can build resilience, boost your mood, strengthen your relationships, and even improve your physical health.
To learn more about how laughter and resilience can transform your life, I invite you to book a free 30-minute coaching call with me. Together, we'll explore ways to build your resilience and harness the healing power of laughter. Turn your pain into purpose and start your journey to a more resilient, joy-filled life today!
Daily Mantra: Hunt the good stuff, find the humor, keep positive, and focus on your blessings. God can bring good out of every situation!
