Six year olds laugh an average of 300 times a day Adults only laugh 15-100 times a day
They say that laughter is the best medicine and we think that's pretty darn accurate! It brings people together, helps lighten the mood, strengthens your immune system, diminishes pain and protects your from the damages of stress.
Here are 11 reasons to lol more -
Laughter decreases stress hormones in the body such as cortisol and adrenaline, thus helping to stave off illness - it does other stuff too
Laughter strengthens the immune system - when you laugh, the diaphragm becomes a powerful pump for your lymphatic circulation. This assists the lymphatic vessels in carrying this fluid through your body and helps your lymph nodes to clean and filter this fluid, removing waste products, dead cells, and even unwanted microorganisms.
Laughter releases Endorphins - the feel-good hormone.
One minute of laughing burns the same number of calories as 6 to 10 minutes on a treadmill.
Laughter causes you to take in more oxygen improving your circulation to your tissues and organs
Laughing raises your mood; joyfulness through laughter is the fastest way to create a positive state of mind.
Laughing is good for the heart and improves blood circulation.
Laughter can reduce pain and aid the healing process.
Laughter creates and strengthens human connections.
Laughter relaxes your whole body - relieving tension and stress leaving your muscles relaxed.
It feels good to laugh.
But because we're adults with jobs, responsibilities, bills and meetings it's hard to remember to loosen up and have a giggle.
Here's some tips to loosen up and and have a chuckle more...
1. Love your laugh! "Your laugh is part of your identity and self-esteem, and it's essential to who you are," says Steve Wilson, Ohio-based psychologist. If you're worried that your laugh is too loud, too piggy or cackly, you need to laugh away the worries - haters gona hate. To inhibit or deny laughter can jeopardise your health and happiness.
2. Don't worry about being funny - You can still have a sense of humour and a have a laugh. There's no need to practice saying jokes in the mirror or whip out a clown nose. Focus more on enjoying and sharing laughs, rather than creating them. Relax, smile and just be you.
3. Hangout with people who have a sense of humour - Take note of who makes you laugh and smile, and spend time with them. Go out for lunch with your colleague who cracks you up. Face-time your goofy mates. Social bonds and the benefits of laughter are well worth the effort.
4. Know your sense of humour - Everyones sense of humour is different. You may find the same things funny as your mates but you're not going to laugh at all the same things. Figure out what kind of humour does make you howl and schedule time to enjoy it.
5. Look for lols - Make a conscious effort to seek humour, watch YouTube clips, look at funny memes, watch your favourite TV show. When you're feeling blue you'll know where to go to pick yourself up again.
6. Laugh at yourself - Most of us take ourselves too seriously, which limits our ability to find the humour in difficult situations. It can also make us uptight and overly sensitive to what other people may be thinking of us. Learning to laugh at yourself takes some of the pressure off, and it will allow you to be more authentic and vulnerable (both of which are desirable character traits). Be silly and look at the funny side of things.
7. Take up something new - When you try something new - whether it’s to draw, roller blade or Yoga - our initial attempts will likely be clumsy and even ridiculous. That is, funny, and, since in the point above you learned how to laugh at yourself, taking up something new is very likely to result in lots of laughs.
Be six again
