Humor Me
Every year on April 1st, millions of people around the world like to participate in “April Fool’s Day” with various tricks, gags, jokes, pranks and all other manners of comedy-hijinks. To help extended those laughs and fun times is the fact that April is also known as National Humor month! Created in 1976 by author Larry Wilde, each National Humor Month kicks off with April Fool’s Day and goes until the end of the month. Even better, did you know that sometimes laughter really can be the “best medicine” for your physical and mental health? Here’s how laughter can help you:
Relax - A good bout of laughter can help you fight off the feelings of stress or physical tension by releasing ‘feel-good’ endorphins into your body. Those endorphins help your body relieve pain and improve your overall wellbeing. Those great effects from laughter can last up to 45 minutes after your laugh-attack!
Fight Diseases - Like helping you relax by releasing endorphins, laughter can also help boost your immune system. Whenever we laugh, our body starts to not only decrease our stress hormones, but it also boosts your immune cells and antibodies. Talk about really being a great form of medicine!
Protect Your Heart - Similar to releasing endorphins and antibodies, laughter has also been found to help your blood flow by improving how your blood vessels work. All of this can work towards keeping you protected against cardiovascular health issues.
Burn Some Calories - Did you know that laughing can help you burn calories? It’s true! Studies have shown that heaving bouts of laughing for 10-15 minutes a day can help the average person burn around 40 calories. So, put on a funny movie or bust out your best knock-knock jokes and burn those calories!
Strengthen Your Resilience – Being able to find humor in any situation is a great way to help you bounce back when things get tough. By being able to laugh when things don’t go your way can help you cope better with stressful or emotional situations and can allow you to be at your best.
Strengthen Your Relationships! Laughter helps you forget resentments, judgments, criticisms, and doubts, which is important when you are spending time together with your friends, family and even coworkers!
