By Dr. Stacy Irvine
I was reading a fantastic book called “Train Your Brain Like an Olympian” and I came across a very interesting passage. Did you know that on average children laugh approximately six times per day? This number drops off dramatically as we get older, and our lives become more serious. Here is the problem…Laughter provides both our neuromuscular and hormonal system with essential feedback and stimulation that helps keep us healthy and ultimately happy.
Now let’s talk a bit about the last two years. How much do you think you missed out on great belly laughs? I am sure, like almost all of us, that joyous sound and feeling has been hard to come by. Anyone living in Toronto has had a particularly hard time with our extreme levels of lockdown and restrictions. This is part of living in the largest city in the country. Hopefully you and your families are working towards a full recovery and are starting to feel like life may be returning to a time where laughter becomes a part of your regular life again.
But how can we make sure of this?
Try these three things:
- Social Time – A critical component to mental health, as well as physical health, is social activities. These are situations where you are spending time with friends and family, and they almost always involve laughter.
- Sign up for a daily laugh – There are many sites that will send you daily content that will make you laugh. Daily Laugh is a good example.
- Turn Up Humor – It is virtually impossible to avoid bad news. The media loves it and for some reason we love consuming it. Instead of trying to avoid it altogether, let’s reduce the amount we take in and replace it with content that makes us laugh. Just searching for the ‘funniest’ anything will be sure to discover many segments that put a smile on your face.
And to help you kick off some laughable time in your day, take a look at any of these three segments. Enjoy the amazing feeling that laughing brings you.
- TV hosts lose it on a live morning show – < 3 minutes
- Saturday Night Live hosts and cast members can’t control themselves – 10 minutes
- Talking dog can’t believe what his owner did – < 2 minutes