What a pleasant emotional exercise it is! But have you ever noticed how often we humans laugh in a day?

Research says we adults laugh only 17 times a day whereas children laugh about 300 times a day! Other researchers moderate the children’s laughter to about 150 times a day. Still, there is vast difference in laughing …children laugh a lot more than adults.

It is a surprise that we adults laugh 17 times a day too… I have seen some really grumpy souls who hardly smiled even once a day!

And then there are others who do laugh a lot.

Why is it important to laugh?

There are many scientific reasons in support of a good laugh every now and then

• It induces positive physical changes in our body
• We take in more of oxygen when we laugh
• Laughter boosts our immune system
• It stimulates production of endorphin, a happy hormone
• It exercises our lungs, heart and muscles
• Lowers blood pressure
• Reduces pain
• Helps in weight loss
• We live longer, if we are able to laugh heartily

Common understanding tells us that laughter is important because

• It relieves us of negative feelings
• Improves our mood, by soothing our tension and anxiety
• Reduces chances of negative stress responses
• It lightens a serious situation
• It provides distraction
• It fills us with positivity
• It helps build relationships
• It makes us look good
• It helps us diffuse a volatile situation
• It helps us keep things and issues in perspective

What should we be laughing at or about?

• Funny situations narrated by others : Funny situations narrated by others is very easy to laugh at, it has less social censure, and may not lead to negative consequences
• Funny things read: the best way to laugh, if you ask me. Read a humorous book and laugh out loud. PG Wodehouse works come to mind
• Things that happen to us in life: this is a very tricky one. If you are not given to sense of humour, things that happen to you cannot be seen as funny and laugh worthy!
• Things that happen to others in life: we human are very good at laughing at others; ridiculing others is very easy, and comes naturally to us. So, at the expense of others we can have a good laugh comfortably.
• Things that happen at a macro level that affect all of us : at national level, at state level ridiculous things often happen, giving way to jokes, cartoons, articles, memes and so on for us to have a hearty laugh once in a while
• Laughing at ourselves… this is the most effective one actually, but very difficult to achieve

Laughing at ourselves:

The greatest thing about laughter is that when we are able to laugh at ourselves, it puts a different perspective on our life! We tread lightly on the path of our life. Being able to laugh at ourselves requires a certain kind of personality, not many can boast of that.

How can we laugh at ourselves? This is difficult for most of us because

• We have a fragile self esteem, which does not allow us to see our less than optimum traits and laugh at ourselves
• We cannot see or are blinded to see the ridiculousness of the situations in our life
• We fear that if we laugh at ourselves, others will laugh at us too!
• We have a feeling that laughing is an immature behaviour
• We feel if we laugh at ourselves others will never take us seriously
• Most of us take ourselves and our life too seriously…it is hard to laugh at matters considered serious
• Laughing at ourselves requires a level of fair mindedness that’s hard for most of us
• We confuse being able to laugh at ourselves as losing self respect

What are the traits that are important for laughing at ourselves?

• Good, positive self esteem: this cannot be over emphasized among all personality traits. Its critically important to think well of ourselves with a clear self concept in place to be able to laugh at our selves
• Honesty: if we do not have an ethical mind, we cannot take the right path, we will forever be defending ourselves and never face the ridiculousness or unfairness of our behaviour. All these come from being honest
• Respect for others: it is important to respect others to be able to be fair minded
• Courage: cannot be over emphasizing this trait too. It take courage to laugh at yourself
• Less of enviousness: enviousness makes us ridicule others and guard ourselves.
• Excessive self preservation tendency: self preservation wrecks havoc with fair mindedness, therefore leading to unfair judgments on others as well as self!

How much laughter?

It is also important to know how much to laugh, when to laugh, and when to stop… laughter is good but

• We cannot laugh at situations that call for serious reflection
• Someone loses a battle in life
• Someone requires our sympathy and empathy
• We need to correct a damage done
• We need to correct ourselves

It is important to curb our detrimental tendencies to be able to not only laugh heartily at things outside of us, but at ourselves too, by balancing seriousness with a good dose of laughter appropriately  used. Then life and its vicissitudes can be handled with more aplomb and lots of self invigorating laughter.

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