IT TAKES ALL TYPES…
▶
Laughter brings people together and strengthens
social connections – studies show that you’re 30 times
more likely to laugh if there’s someone else with you than
when you’re on our own. And it doesn’t matter what kind
of laughter it is for you to reap its many benefits.
1. Belly laughter:
This is the most connecting and healing
type of laughter, when you can really let go and give
your whole body over to the act.
2. Embarrassed laughter:
When you become able to
laugh about embarrassing things, you can replace
shame with a good measure of humour. ‘Sharing the
burden of embarrassment by sharing a good laugh can
be transformative,’ says Du Plessis.
3. Contagious laughter:
‘It seems that it’s absolutely true
that “laugh and the whole world laughs with you”,’
says Sophie Scott, a neuroscientist at the University
College London in the UK whose 2006 study showed
that laughter truly is contagious. Your brain responds
to the sound of laughter by prepping the muscles in
your face to join in the fun.
4. Laughing through your tears:
Laughter can be a
defensive coping mechanism when you’re faced with
something traumatic or distressing. A 2017 study
conducted by Lancaster University in the UK found
that humour can help people deal with distressing
circumstances, often by mocking the situation they’re
dealing with.
5. Forcing a laugh:
Believe it or not, your laughter doesn’t
have to be genuine to have health benefits. Because
your body can’t distinguish between fake laughter and
the real thing, you can trick your brain into believing
your forced laughter. You’ll still enjoy the health
benefits produced by genuine laughter.
A good guffaw boosts
your mental and
emotional health too
▶
Laughter has similar benefits for your
brain as doing moderate exercise: it releases
serotonin, your natural antidepressant,
and triggers the production of key
neurochemicals like dopamine, which
produce calming, anti-anxiety benefits.
According to Bradley Willcox, Craig Willcox
and Makoto Suzuki, the authors of
The
Okinawa Program
, a book that details how
to stay fit, active and happy well into old
age, ‘During laughter, muscles throughout
your body tense and relax in a way that
is strikingly similar to stress-reduction
techniques.’
Laughter also increases the frequency
of your gamma brainwaves, which relate
to the rapid and simultaneous processing
of information from different brain areas,
and helps improve memory and cognitive
processing.
In addition to serving as a sort of
antidepressant in the brain, laughing can
cause a rush of hormones that can make
you feel positive effects similar to those of
a narcotic. However, unlike opioid drugs,
laughter’s endorphins obviously aren’t
addictive or damaging to your health.
Some people laugh at horribly
inappropriate moments, such as at the
announcement of the death of a loved
one or during that minute’s silence
to honour a fallen hero. As awful as
this kind of nervous laughter is for the
person, it’s actually the body trying to
cope with a difficult situation. Experts
believe that it’s a psychological response
to anxiety and tension, and that our body
makes us start laughing to relieve the
tension, even if we don’t want it to.
INAPPROPRIATE
LAUGHTER