Arjun Singh Rathore
#HasdyRahoTyBasdyRaho
A day without laughter is a day wasted
-Charlie Chaplin
There is something sacred about humour. If you can laugh at yourself, then you can forgive yourself. And if you can forgive yourself, you can forgive others. Are you afraid that you have an underdeveloped or nonexistent sense of humor? No problem. Humor can be learned. In fact, developing or refining your sense of humor may be easier than you think. Consider trying laughter yoga. Most people believe that one must have a sense of humour to laugh but laughter Yoga has proven otherwise. In laughter yoga, people practice laughter as a group. Laughter is forced at first, but it can soon turn into spontaneous laughter.
No one is born with a sense of humour, which is the brain capacity to perceive, relate, and experience a situation and judge if the situation is funny or not. Sense of humour is a very mental and intellectual phenomena. Laughter arising out of humor is conditional. It depends upon the person’s intellectual ability, state of mind and level of happiness and life satisfaction. But laughter can be achieved unconditionally. Children laugh without any mental ability to aid them in comprehending humour. Most of their laughter is an outcome of playfulness and inherited joyfulness. To develop the ability to laugh joyfully once again, adults must remove layers of inhibition, programming and mental roadblocks created by self, family, and society. Beneath these barriers lies a child in every human being with an infinite ability to laugh for no reason.
Laugh and the world laughs with you. Find a way to laugh about your own situations and watch your stress begin to fade away. Even if it feels forced at first, practice laughing. It does your body good. Whether you’re guffawing at Tom & Jerry on your TV sets or quietly giggling at a newspaper cartoon, laughing does you good. Laughter is a great form of stress relief, and that’s no joke. A good sense of humour can cure all ailments.
Laughter is the best medicine. Go ahead and give it a try. Turn the corners of your mouth up into a smile and then give a laugh, even if it feels a little forced. Once you’ve had your chuckle, take stock of how you’re feeling. Are your muscles a little less tense? Do you feel more relaxed or buoyant? That’s the natural wonder of laughing at work.
A good laugh has great short-term effects. When you start to laugh, it doesn’t just lighten your load mentally, it actually induces physical changes in your body. It stimulate many organs. Laughter enhances your intake of oxygen-rich air, stimulates your heart, lungs and muscles, and increases the endorphins that are released by your brain.
It activates and relieves your stress response. A rollicking laugh fires up and then cools down your stress response, and it can increase and then decrease your heart rate and blood pressure. The result? A good, relaxed feeling. Laughing soothes tension. Laughter can also stimulate circulation and aid muscle relaxation, both of which can help reduce some of the physical symptoms of stress.
Laughter improves our immune system. Negative thoughts manifest into chemical reactions that can affect your body by bringing more stress into your system and decreasing your immunity. By contrast, positive thoughts can actually release neuropeptides that help fight stress and potentially more-serious illnesses. Laughter also helps in relieving pain. Laughter may ease pain by causing the body to produce its own natural painkillers.
Humour coupled with even a small smile increases personal satisfaction. Laughter can also make it easier to cope with difficult situations. It also helps you connect with other people. It helps to improve our mood. Many people experience depression, sometimes due to chronic illnesses or due to some bad happenings unexpectedly taking place in one’s life. Laughter can help lessen your stress, depression and anxiety and may make you feel happier. It can also improve your self-esteem.
One of the best feelings in the world is the deep-rooted belly laugh. It can bring people together and establish amazing connections. Everything from a slight giggle to a side-splitting guffaw can change the temperature of a room from chilly unfamiliarity to a warm family-like atmosphere.
Put humour on your horizon. Find a few simple items, such as photos, greeting cards or comic strips, that make you chuckle. Then hang them up at home or in your office, or collect them in a file or notebook. Keep funny movies, TV shows, books, magazines or comedy videos on hand for when you need an added humor boost. Look online at joke websites or silly videos. Listen to humorous podcasts. Go to a comedy club.
Share a laugh. Make it a habit to spend time with you longoti friends from childhood who make you laugh on every stupid thing. And then return the favour by sharing funny stories or jokes with those around you.
Know what isn’t funny. Don’t laugh at the expense of others. Some forms of humour aren’t appropriate. Use your best judgment to discern a good joke from a bad or hurtful one.
Another benefit of using humour that might surprise you relates to the brain as well. Using humour improves memory retention. When relevant humour is paired with a fact, you’ll have better recollection of that fact.
In a study focused on humor’s relationship to politics and news, researchers found that the information had a higher chance of being both remembered and shared if the content made the participant laugh.
Whichever way you choose to add more laughter into your life, maintain a healthy mindset as healthy sense of humour can help you deal with tough times. Humor might seem like a soothing balm or a light diversion. But humor is much more powerful than something that simply lulls us or calms us down.
In Shrimad Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna says “Her haal main prasan rehna sab say badi eeshvar bhakti hai”
(The author is Executive Manager & Branch Head
at JK Bank Canal Road, Jammu)
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