Have you heard of laughter therapy and want to be clear about what it means? What is humor therapy and how to practice it? What are the benefits and why is it so worth trying to laugh a little more?
We all have it: the gift of laughter. Laughter is natural medicine. What makes our souls grow and feel in harmony. It is a recurring and contagious emotion. It serves to unite us, to feel powerful and, ultimately, alive.
Laughter therapy, also called huurtherapy, uses humor to promote general health and well-being. The objective? Use the natural physiological process of laughter to alleviate discomfort, such as physical or emotional stress.
Laughter therapy is a modality devised to promote well-being through the movement of the force of laughter to create and maintain positive energies for the body, mind and spirit.
Today you will learn how to benefit from the practice of laughter therapy in a reliable way, through laughter, joy and human connections to develop a more resistant and positive attitude towards life. A codified approach that is very easy to implement.
Why practice laughter therapy?
More and more people are taking advantage of the benefits of laughter therapy!
Not only for its social effects, but also for its great therapeutic value, humor has been used for many years as an essential component of medicine.
The practice of humor was already used by surgeons in the thirteenth century to distract. Just two centuries later, the effects of laughter on physical well-being began to be considered a true science.
But the thing did not stop there, because for many years, researchers have struggled to know the impact of humor on health. The results are clear: after evaluating the participants before and after a humorous event - such as a funny video - pain was reduced by reducing stress-related hormones and stimulating the immune system of the volunteers.
To this day, humor remains a fundamental pillar in the healing and recovery of many patients.
Mood-based therapies help improve the quality of life of patients with chronic diseases, which is why many health centers now include laughter therapy as a complementary treatment for many diseases.
How does laughter therapy work?
Many serious illnesses make it difficult to find humor. However, laughter is one of the best ways to cope, even if many people still do not realize it.
Laughter is a magical ingredient to feel better about yourself and others. It is a natural diversion that invades your mind and that produces changes at all levels.
Laugh for a while and feel good all day.
Hence, it is so important as an ideal complement to conventional medical treatments, as it can accelerate the overall healing process.
Among the benefits of laughter therapy, it is found that:
- Improves oxygen intake.
- Stimulates the heart and lungs.
- Relax the muscles of the entire body.
- Trigger the release of endocrines, which are the body's natural pain relievers.
- Soothe the pain.
- Balances blood pressure.
- Improves mental functions: alertness, memory and creativity.
But, in addition, laughter and humor therapies are useful for:
- Improve the general attitude towards the day to day.
- Live with less tension and stress.
- Facilitate relaxation, sleep and quality of life.
- Strengthen social ties and relationships.
- In short: it produces a great general feeling of well-being.
How to use laughter therapy safely?
- Follow your heart, worse be guided by the mind. If you have a medical condition, always get the okay from your doctor before starting any type of complementary therapy. If you ignore this, you are doing it at your own risk.
- Enjoy everything you decide to do. Each has its own limits, so you can start with a smile or laugh as much as you can.
- No more pain! Avoid extremes and stop doing anything that makes you feel uncomfortable or in pain. If you have questions, ask at your health center.
- If you laugh more, you need to drink more water. Laughing dehydrates. Although not much, enough to drink more water if you get a headache after laughing, as it could be a sign of dehydration.
How to practice laughter therapy?
Decide to laugh
You may feel a bit strange at first, but you have to be clear that it is an exercise and not a comedy. Only laugh when you want, because you always can. Don't judge the quality of your laugh, and get away from the misconception that fun is frivolous. Anything is good to start with. Just look for something that will motivate you or relax you and let yourself go: you can start by watching a comedy movie, watching a comedy club monologue or learning some funny short jokes to share with your family and friends.
There is always cause for joy.
Laughter therapy is serious therapy, but not too much. Play with it! Once you learn how to play, you no longer have to practice it. Laughter will become a natural result of your kind and gentle behaviors.
Believe you can do it
You should approach this activity with an open mind. You think it really works (because it does). Simulate sincere enthusiasm. If you do it with enough passion, in the end everything will be much more natural.
Practice, be patient, and persevere
If you practice laughter therapy regularly, you can benefit from most of its benefits. Your brain will develop new circuits and the knowledge that you can always choose to laugh to make it a part of your unconscious mind.
Respect the people around you
Laughing is not for everyone. Be tactful and respectful of people who may be upset. Try to adapt to the circumstances of the place and the company you are with, and never try to coerce someone to laugh with you. The first step in changing others is to change yourself first to be the example of what you would like to see in others.
Committing to laughing is a good start, but it is not enough
To live a richer life with all the well-being that humor therapy offers, you need to adopt behaviors and attitudes that prevent all the positive energy that laughing provides from escaping.
Laughing alone is good. Laughing with others is even better
Although all the laughter therapy exercises can be practiced alone, the benefits multiply if you do it with others. Get together with those people closest to you and choose to feel good with them. The social interactions that occur during the therapeutic practice of laughter, away from judgments, have many more benefits than laughter itself.
