In the book of Proverbs, Chapter 17, verse 22 it reads “A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones”. Today we have trimmed it down to the phrase “laughter is the best medicine”.
No matter where in the world you live or come from, everyone, all cultures laugh, often at very different things.
When my sister and I arrived in England from the US as teenagers, most people our own age didn’t ‘get’ our sense of humour. My sister and I would roll about laughing at our hilarious jokes, while our British counterparts would remain pan face.
You may recall Ricky Gervais the first time (and subsequent times) he hosted the Golden Globe Awards, it was an absolute cringe-fest. Every joke, every irony fell on deaf ears, it seemed the majority of the audience were unamused with some, positively insulted, looking around the room saying with their eyes “What’s so funny?” Now, it could be that could be that some celebrities don’t appreciate a roasting, or that Americans are infamous for their prudishness (really?)
Anyway, why we laugh is the subject matter in this particular blog.
We laugh before we can even speak. Babies smile in their first few days (I know some of you might put that down to wind but I like to think of it as genuine) giggle at around 12 weeks, and laugh for the fun of it at around 5 months.
According to science, the principal function of laughter is to create and deepen social bonds. Displaying a smile sends a message that we don’t pose a threat (momentarily imagines Joaquin Phoenix’s portrayal of The Joker)
A good laugh actually induces physical changes in your body. It increases your intake of oxygen, stimulates your heart, lungs and muscles. Laughter increases endorphins and decreases your stress response, which results in a lovely relaxed feeling.
Laughter can boost your immune system. Negative thoughts and negative thinking can affect your body by bringing more stress into your system thus decreasing your immunity.
Laughter can ease pain by causing the body to produce endorphins, our natural painkiller.
While most laughter is induced by way of a joke, an incident (stop it Gail, people falling over isn’t funny) or a physical intervention such as tickling, we also fake laughter.
We’ve all been there, you already know I have, when someone says something that’s clearly hysterical to them but not to you or the other way around. Even apes and chimpanzees fake and imitate laughter. Young children fake laughter for the purpose of getting attention, reciprocal laughter or just for the sake of hearing the wonderful sound it makes. We can fake laughter to get ourselves out of potentially sticky situations, “I was only joking, ha ha ha…”
Laughter can be contagious, like yawning. When we were kids, we would get a group of like-minded gigglers together and lay on our backs on the floor. Each person would rest their head on another person’s stomach. The first person would start to laugh, causing the head of the person laying on them, to bounce around like a Ping-Pong ball. The end result would of course be hilarity and mayhem. A perfect combo.
We tend to laugh differently depending on whose company we’re in. For instance, with close friends and family I might throw my head back and guffaw with reckless abandon, if however, I was in the company of strangers, clients, or colleagues I might choose to be more ladylike about it.
You may have heard of Laughter Therapy (come to think of it, my sister and I may well have invented that back in 1979 – retrospective commissions gratefully accepted) There are laughter training courses out there, laughter workshops and even laughter yoga.
In the 1300s, a professor and surgeon called Henri de Mondeville, promoted post-operative laughter as a therapy. Another professor, Norman Cousins bucked the trend by developing his own “treatment,” based on mood elevation through laughter. According to Cousins, ten minutes of laughter results in two hours of pain free sleep.
“A merry heart doeth good like a medicine, but a broken spirit drieth the bones.”.” Proverbs 17:22
Well that’s my whimsical take on laughter over for today.
Tune in again soon for my next blog post 🙂
