Getting My Laughter Back

Every morning I come online and ask the internet to entertain me. I am not looking for wisdom or drama. I don’t want to be educated, informed, or manipulated, I simply want five minutes of giggles and bellylaugh. What started as a quest to forget about all the negativity around me, has become now a treasured morning routine.

I was looking to find something that would give me the joy of real laughter. The laugh that sounds funny, seems uncontrolled, and never stops abruptly but gradually comes to a halt.

Five minutes alone in the morning, a short vacation from reality that I seem to need and look forward to. The short time before the day starts, and the daily dose of bad news will send shivers down my spine, has given me many treasures. I have remembered old comedians, and have laughed with animals and babies that I will never meet in real life. I have been introduced to great talents that I would have never heard of if I wouldn’t be on the quest to give myself some giggles.

Laughing makes me feel good and quite often my husband seems to laugh with me, even though he is in the other room either on his phone or on his tablet. “What did you watch,” he often asks and then I share with him what I had found. Not the fake short clips we get bombarded with, but gems, the real thing, the unexpected. The best humorous stories are written by life itself.

One of the best moments of the day is when I lean back in my chair and laugh out loud for minutes.

It all started at a time when I -like so many- felt weighed down by the daily news. Shootings and political dramas, murders and killings, wars and lies, hatred, and misinformation. I felt out of balance, I frowned and sighed more than ever before, but the alternative of letting all negative information go didn’t seem like the right solution. Without the daily news, I would become uninformed and that’s just not an option.

I read an article about how we lose our laughter when we age.

Children laugh up to 400 times, adults just 15 times a day. Why? With age, we seem to build up something like a laughter inhibition threshold. It seems we are pressed into a system in which performance, success, and duty have become more important. Real, heartfelt laughter seems to be reserved for our private life.

Times have changed! In 1979, people laughed twice as much as they do today. That’s pretty sad!

I was a giggly child and could find some humor in almost everything. A weird-looking apple made me chuckle, and animals in the fields playing made me laugh.

I miss that. It feels good when I laugh first thing in the morning and afterward I am more relaxed, at ease, and at peace with my surroundings. My mood is better and the outlook for the day is marvelous.

I smile more often and it’s not a polite smile, but a genuine one.

We need more laughter in this world.

How can we get laughter back?

Laughter must return to everyday life. In my workroom and in my home, I am often responsible for the mood. How do I act with my customers, my students, or my friends? I don’t want to be running around like a smiling fool, but an inviting smile -if honest- goes a long way.

Laughter. That’s one of those expressive abilities that people have, whether they want to or not –like crying, only funnier. About five or six months after our birth –before speaking– it is there, this chuckle, these strange, repetitive sounds that we emit.

The range of laughter is enormous. It ranges from cackling baby laughter to loud grandpa rumbling, from giggling to chirping, trilling, chirping, and chuckling, from grunting, wheezing, or coughing to Aunt Angelika’s unrestrained neighing after the afternoon cognac with coffee. Our laughter is a very special form of communication. I sound like a donkey, and I am mighty proud of it.

Years ago someone who I happen to love told me that I will never laugh like a lady and he is right. Not a chance!

I was wondering why laughter makes me feel so much better. Come to find out there are many reasons and I am not the first one who wanted to know about it.

The way our body reacts to laughter is stunning:

1. At 100 km/h, the air shoots through the lungs while laughing and makes the vocal cords vibrate.
2. 50 kcal burns real and hearty laughter in just ten minutes.
3. 3 to 4 times more oxygen than usual is processed by the lungs when laughing.
4. People with laugh lines next to their eyes are judged to be more intelligent and attractive.
5. Our heart beats faster when we laugh. The oxygen supply increases and the metabolism is stimulated. When we have finished laughing, stress hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline are broken down, and the happiness hormone endorphin is released. We feel exhausted but relaxed and happy.
6. 20 seconds of laughter stimulate the cardiovascular system as much as three minutes of fast rowing.
7. Our brain automatically releases happiness hormones when we make our face smile.
8. The blood vessels dilate when laughing. It thus promotes blood circulation and lowers blood pressure.
9. The risk of heart attack is 50 percent lower in people who laugh frequently.
10. Digestion is stimulated by laughter.
11. Insomnia and headaches are relieved by laughter.
12. 1 minute of laughter is as refreshing as 45 minutes of relaxation training.
13. In stressful professions, humor is “a completely underestimated resource,” says social pedagogue Prof. Herbert Effinger from Dresden. The best example is nursing. Those who deal with human suffering are often forbidden to laugh, which makes no sense. A humorous atmosphere is equally favorable for patients and staff.
14. The sensation of pain is reduced by up to 30 percent with hearty laughter. The Zurich humor researcher Willibald Ruch put 77 test subjects in ice water. Those who showed genuine laughter or smile held out longer.
15. The lacrimal glands are activated when laughing. That’s why you often get wet eyes.
16. Laughter therapy was discovered by science reporter Norman Cousins, who suffered from an extremely painful spinal cord disease, by watching funny movies. He noticed, after ten minutes of hearty laughter, he was able to sleep pain-free for two hours.

So it sounds like laughter is the best medicine there is.