Laughter Therapy: Laughter Improves
Your problems will disappear when you sing, dance or laugh. Laughter therapy is a strategy that is being used more and more. It helps patients with health or mental problems.
This method we are familiar with today is quite modern, although laughter has helped to treat or solve all kinds of difficult problems from the very beginning of humanity.
Laughter therapy throughout history
People have been laughing ever since we lived in caves and learned how to make fire. But the idea that laughter helps to heal and affect the body only emerged later.
In China, for example, those who taught Taoist philosophy taught a smile. They said a smile assures happiness, health and longevity. As a result of this, they recommend smiling several times a day.
In the Middle Ages, fools were not only used to entertain the king. The court thought it was also necessary to promote digestion.
Since the 16th century, several philosophers, doctors, and psychologists, including Immanuel Kant, have said that laughter was a psychosomatic phenomenon. According to them, laughter releases negative energy from the body. As a result of this, it will help you in life.
When you burst out laughing, you use 100-400 muscles. Laughing is good for your mental and physical health. It is also one of the main means people use to trigger an unpleasant situation.
Did you know that when you were a kid you laughed up to 300 times a day? As time goes on, this decreases. The laughter gradually diminishes until you laugh at all.
A good sense of humor increases your defense mechanisms. This will help you face your problem. Laughing is one of the enemies of stress and illness. If we laugh, we feel happy and see things differently.
Laughter therapy and its benefits
Laughter therapy is a therapeutic process that utilizes, among other things, laughter. Laughter Therapy will help you feel yourself a full, happy and contented. Plus, when you just laugh for 20 seconds, your body does the same job as a 3-minute aerobic workout.
Laughter therapy releases both physical and mental excitement. Laughter therapy sessions take place in groups, and the activities in them follow the suggestions of instructors specializing in laughter therapy.
Laughter therapy utilizes games, dancing, body expressions, and even massage. The idea is for all participants to let go of their barriers and laugh until they can no longer do so.
This also works to relax your muscles, get rid of tension, and encourage natural, spontaneous laughter.
The harmless jokes or anecdotes made in these sessions help adults. They encourage them to take laughter as a lifestyle and especially as a form of expression.
Some of the exercises in the laughter therapy group are:
- Blowing a balloon. With each breath you get rid of something negative.
- Dance so you have a balloon tied in your shoes.
- Practicing different levels of laughter (from very light to very intense).
- Tickling a partner.
- Listening to a child’s laughter (one that is very contagious).
The benefits of laughing
Still don’t want to try laughter therapy? If you need more encouragement to make a decision, pay attention to the following benefits of laughing:
1. It strengthens you
We’re not talking about having stronger muscles. Instead, we are talking about the onset of disease.
If you suffer from cold hands or feet, laughing is even better than gloves or socks! This method increases your internal heat, oxidizes your tissues, and speeds up the healing of wounds and diseases.
It also strengthens your immune system, helps protect you from heart disease, and strengthens your metabolic functions.
If that’s not enough, laughing will help cleanse your arteries of fat (if you suffer from high cholesterol). It also stimulates the production of endorphins in your brain, and balances your hormonal system.
2. It brightens your mind
When you laugh, you leave your worries behind. In addition, you make it easier to find a solution to your problems. This includes realizing that a situation that doesn’t let you sleep isn’t really as complicated or serious as it seems.
The resulting laughter helps reduce stress, anxiety and nervous tension. This affects your quality of life, your relationships, and of course your health.
3. It will enliven you
The lines that appear around your mouth and eyes are not that important. This is because they are a sign that good things have happened to you in the past.
Your skin is more relaxed. You don’t have that much acne or signs of premature aging. And you just have to enjoy a good amount of laughter every day!
4. It helps to get rid of bad things
Often we create trivial problems in our minds. We stumble down the street, the phone’s internet doesn’t work, we sleep in a bomb, we burn our fingers while we cook… all these little annoyances pile up. Instead of cursing and coming in a bad mood, why not laugh at the situation? You will see things differently. In addition, you understand that there is a solution for everything. Above all, laughter makes you realize that a bad wind is just one of several routes you can take when something happens… but by no means the only route.
