As we are able to feel negativity in the air when someone has bad “halo” around their heads, we can also feel the same for positivity and humor. They are booth infectious.

It’s also funny fact that laughter is far more contagious than any cough, sneeze or sniffle. When we share laughter, we bind people together with us and increase happiness and intimacy. There are dozens of healthy physical changes in the body when we laugh. It strengthens our immune system, boost our energy, diminish pain, and protect us from the damage caused by stress. These are just small portion of the things proving that laughter is the best medicine.

As I previously mentioned, laughter is a powerful antidote to stress, pain, and conflict. One good laugh stabilizes and brings us back to present time in the exact moment. With so much power to heal and renew, the ability to laugh easily and frequently is a tremendous resource for surmounting problems, enhancing your relationships, and supporting both physical and emotional health.

Laughter connects to health

Laughter relaxes the whole body. A good, hearty laugh relieves physical tension and stress, relaxing our muscles up to 45 minutes after.

Laughter boosts the immune system. Laughter decreases stress hormones and increases immune cells and infection-fighting antibodies, thus improving our resistance to disease.

Laughter triggers the release of endorphins, the body’s natural feel-good chemicals. Endorphins promote an overall sense of well-being and can even temporarily relieve pain.

Laughter protects the heart. Laughter improves the function of blood vessels and increases blood flow, which can help protect us against a heart attack and other cardiovascular problems.

Laughter makes us feel good. And the good feeling that we get when we laugh remains with us even after the laughter subsides. Humor helps us keep a positive, optimistic outlook through difficult situations, disappointments, and loss.

More than just a breathing space from sadness and pain, laughter gives us the courage and strength to find new sources of meaning and hope. Even in the most difficult of times, a laugh, or even simply a smile, can go a long way toward making us feel better. And laughter really is contagious. Just hearing laughter heydays our brain and readies us to smile and join in the fun.

Laughter connects to mental health

Laughter dissolves distressing emotions. We can’t feel anxious, angry, or sad when we’re laughing. It’s a way one ticket.

Laughter helps us relax and recharge. It reduces stress and increases energy, enabling us to stay focused and accomplish more.

Humor shifts perspective, allowing us to see situations in a more realistic, less threatening light. A humorous perspective creates psychological distance, which can help us avoid feeling overwhelmed.

Humor in our social lives

Humor and playful communication strengthen our relationships by triggering positive feelings and fostering emotional connection. When we laugh with one another, a positive bond is created. This bond acts as a strong buffer against stress, disagreements and disappointment.

“Laughing with someone is lot more powerful than laughing alone.”

Shared laughter is one of the most effective tools for keeping relationships fresh and exciting. All emotional sharing builds strong and lasting relationship bonds, but sharing laughter and play also adds joy, vitality, and resilience. And humor is a powerful and effective way to heal resentments, disagreements, and hurts. Laughter unites people during difficult times.

Incorporating more humor and play into our daily interactions can improve the quality of our love relationships— as well as our connections with co-workers, family members, and friends. Using humor and laughter in relationships allows us to:

Be more spontaneous. Humor gets us out of your head and away from your troubles.

Let go of defensiveness. Laughter helps us forget judgments, criticisms, and doubts.

Release inhibitions. Our fear of holding back and holding on are set aside.

Express your true feelings. Deeply felt emotions are allowed to rise to the surface.

More humor and laughter in our lives

Laughter is our birthright, a natural part of life that is innate and inborn. Infants begin smiling during the first weeks of life and laugh out loud within months of being born. Even if we did not grow up in a household where laughter was a common sound, we can learn to laugh at any stage of life.

Begin by setting aside special times to seek out humor and laughter, as we might with working out, and build from there. Eventually, we’ll want to incorporate humor and laughter into the fabric of our life, finding it naturally in everything you do.

Here are some ways to start:

Smile. Smiling is the beginning of laughter. Like laughter, it’s contagious. Pioneers in “laugh therapy,” find it’s possible to laugh without even experiencing a funny event. The same holds for smiling. When we look at someone or see something even mildly pleasing, practice smiling.

Count your blessings. Literally make a list. The simple act of considering the good things in your life will distance us from negative thoughts that are a barrier to humor and laughter. When we’re in a state of sadness, we have further to travel to get to humor and laughter.

When you hear laughter, move toward it. Sometimes humor and laughter are private, a shared joke among a small group, but usually not. More often, people are very happy to share something funny because it gives them an opportunity to laugh again and feed off the humor you find in it. When you hear laughter, seek it out and ask, “What’s funny?”

Spend time with fun, playful people. These are people who laugh easily–both at themselves and at life’s absurdities–and who routinely find the humor in everyday events. Their playful point of view and laughter are contagious.

Bring humor into conversations. Ask people, “What’s the funniest thing that happened to you today? This week? In your life?”

Take yourselves less seriously

One essential characteristic that helps us laugh is not taking ourselves too seriously. We’ve all known the classic tight-jawed sourpuss who takes everything with deathly seriousness and never laughs at anything. No fun there!

Some events are clearly sad and not occasions for laughter. But most events in life don’t carry an overwhelming sense of either sadness or delight. They fall into the gray zone of ordinary life–giving you the choice to laugh or not.

Ways to help yourself see the lighter side of life:

Laugh at yourself. Share your embarrassing moments. The best way to take ourselves less seriously is to talk about times when we took ourselves too seriously.

Attempt to laugh at situations rather than bemoan them. Look for the humor in a bad situation, and uncover the irony and absurdity of life. This will help improve our mood and the mood of those around us.

Surround yourself with reminders to lighten up. Keep a toy on your desk or in your car. Put up a funny poster in your office. Choose a computer screensaver that makes you laugh. Frame photos of you and your family or friends having fun.

Keep things in perspective. Many things in life are beyond your control—particularly the behavior of other people. While we might think taking the weight of the world on our shoulders is admirable, in the long run it’s unrealistic, unproductive, unhealthy, and even egotistical.

Deal with your stress. Stress is a major impediment to humor and laughter.

Pay attention to children and emulate them. They are the experts on playing, taking life lightly, and laughing.

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