Introduction
Laughter, also known as relief theory, is a light-hearted and pleasant physical reaction that is stimulated when an individual feels joy, mirth, relief, and happiness. It can be triggered by tickles or humorous incidents or stories. In some cases, it can also occur due to contrary emotional states such as nervousness, embarrassment, surprise, or confusion. Sometimes laughter is also seen to be contagious as it can be instigated in a person by seeing someone else laugh.
Scientific Advantages
The fact that laughter can be contagious has often been seen in helping others heal from their sorrows with the help of other people who instigate laughter to lessen the pain that one goes through. Laughter releases endorphins which help to balance the emotions in our body and promotes the smooth functioning of the body by relieving physical, emotional, and mental turbulence.
Laughter, by dilating the blood vessels increases the blood flow inside the body which helps one to respire and breathe efficiently removing any kind of cardiac stress.
Laughter is also known to reduce allergic reactions in dust mite allergy sufferers. Laughter is also scientifically proven to burn calories, which seems to be a major concern for people in today’s world. Though it is not a replacement for the gym, studies show that laughing for 15-20 minutes a day can burn up to forty calories. Every second person today wants to be fit but completely ignores these small measures that must be taken to attain that. Humor has been proven to outlive those who did not laugh and the theory has been primarily proven for those battling cancer.
Laughter as a Tool of Therapy
For many years, laughter has been considered a form of therapy due to its natural health benefits. It is available without any cost or effort and acts as an effective way to maintain the physical, emotional, and social well-being of a person. It diminishes anxiety, fear, and stress and provides stillness of mind thus helping people to live a happy life. Laughter therapy also has the potential to improve and strengthen relationships, social inclusivity, and teamwork capabilities and reduce the tendencies of conflict, miscommunication, and anger. Humor lightens up the burdens, provides hope, connects us to people, and keeps us grounded, focused, and motivated.
Children are found to be way happier and healthier because they are free of any stress and they make sure to laugh hundreds of times a day from the smallest of things to the biggest. But as we grow up, our lives and shoulders are put to take responsibility for our actions and our surrounding making things harder and stressful. In these stressful times, we mostly forget to have genuine and good laughter which just diminishes our mental and physical capabilities to deal with the problems in life making us humans who just ‘breathe’ and not ‘live.’
Conclusion
You cannot feel angry, anxious, or sad when you are laughing. It shifts our perspective from the negative ones to the positive and fruitful ones which is very important to stay focused on our goals. In order to achieve what we aim for; the most important attribute is conservation of peace of mind and laughter acts as an efficient tool to attain that.
Sharing laughter and joy with others improves personal relationships as it creates a space of comfort and sanity. It unites people during testing times. Even during tense fights, a crack of laughter has been seen to have solved problems by diluting the tension in the situation.
As laughter plays such an important role in our lives, practicing it religiously will bring more light and creativity to our lives and help us flourish in different spheres of life.
