Counterpoint: Laughter really is the best medicine

Every issue, every event – global, national and local – has a point and a counterpoint. You are given the point all the time in news and analyses. Now get the counterpoint.

I am doing some serious research on laughter. I type the word “laugh” in google and it throws up 4,550,000 results at me in 0.11 seconds. I dig some more and I unearth the “world’s funniest joke”, courtesy LaughLab, a huge scientific experiment dedicated to discovering just that.

The joke goes like this:

A couple of New Jersey hunters are out in the woods when one of them falls to the ground. He doesn’t seem to be breathing, his eyes are rolled back in his head. The other guy whips out his cell phone and calls the emergency services. He gasps to the operator: “My friend is dead! What can I do?” The operator, in a calm soothing voice, says: “Just take it easy. I can help. First, let’s make sure he’s dead.” There is a silence, then a shot is heard. The guy’s voice comes back on the line. He says: “OK, now what?”

After pausing to laugh and shake my head and show the joke to friends, I decide I’ll try and get some really good quotes (on laughter) from the famous and the humourous. After much searching among real words and e-words, I come up with six of the very best:

- The most wasted of all days is one without laughter – e e cummings

- Man is distinguished from all other creatures by the faculty of laughter – Joseph Addison

- Always laugh when you can. It is cheap medicine – Lord Byron

- Laughter is the shortest distance between two people – Victor Borge

- Laughter is the sun that drives winter from the human face – Victor Hugo

- The human race has one really effective weapon, and that is laughter – Mark Twain

Wise words, true words. Words that are particularly relevant now, with death and destruction looming large in our conversation and consciousness. Words that nudge us gently in the right direction – the direction of laughter.

My current interest in laughter comes from a workshop. A laughter workshop to be precise. We met – some friends, mostly strangers – last week to laugh. Led by laugh doctor Madan Kataria, we flung our arms, refined our breathing patterns and smiled. Giggled. Chuckled. Guffawed. Bellowed. Held our aching sides. Wiped tears from the corners of our eyes. Let go of our inhibitions. Behaved foolishly. And loved it.

Your body releases feel-good chemicals even when you pretend to laugh, the good doctor told us at the very beginning. The trick lies in stimulating laughter for at least 15 minutes a day. That done, you prepare your body and mind to face the day with energy and enthusiasm.

All of us, sober grown-ups with a hundred responsibilities, followed Kataria’s lead. We said ho-ho and ha-ha. We raised our hands. We spoke gibberish loudly and with many gestures.

We laughed in many different ways and went around greeting complete strangers, looking them straight in the eye, laughing. We sat together and spent 10 minutes without talking, only laughing.
In the beginning, we forced ourselves to laugh. We pushed the giggle up, up, up from our stomachs and hearts and forced it out. But within minutes, inspired by the real gigglers of our large group, we were laughing naturally ourselves.

At the end of the session, we were happy, relaxed, full of energy.

I’d had a niggling headache earlier in the evening. Later, it had gone. That’s when I realised laughter really IS the best medicine.

That’s why I’m doing research on laughter. And smiling as I’m working.

Living Thoughts – Laughter – Gulf News

Laughter is one of the most effortless and inexpensive ways of de-stressing yourself and dissolving the little knots of tension that can give rise to unhealthy medical conditions. If you can laugh away you blues or have the courage to laugh at your own foibles and follies, you might have found the secret key to good health, well-being and a better life.

Over the past 2 decades, research has indicated that laughter has a positive impact on various systems of the body. More than 70 percent of the illnesses like, high blood pressure, heart disease, anxiety, depression, frequent coughs and colds, peptic ulcers, insomnia, allergies, asthma, and even cancer, are in some way related to stress. It has also been proved that laughter helps boost the immune system – the master key for maintaining good health.

Gautam Ram, the managing director of Right Selection, a book store in Dubai, enrolled in Madan Kataria’s laughter club, and in convinced it was the best thing to happen to him.

“It was the first time, I laughted so openly… something very different from what I had ever experienced. I felt like a new-born. I realized that human beings are meant to naturally laugh and feel relaxed without any external cue. That helped me feel free and laugh wholeheartedly.”

So, if you are looking to finding a better meaning to your relationships, laugh from within, break the barriers that you might have built around you and meet people with an open mind.