The Gift of Laughter

We were born with the gift of laughter. Our granddaughter Cherry has the most infectious giggle that you can’t help but laugh. Children laugh more than 300 times a day, whereas adults tend to laugh less than 20 times a day. The daily pressures of life can easily steal our joy.

Journalist Norman Cousins suffered from inflammatory arthritis and claimed that ten minutes of hearty guffawing while watching Marx Brothers movies brought him two hours of pain-free sleep. Both inflammation and pain were significantly reduced.

Research since then has shown that laughter reduces levels of stress hormones such as cortisol, and dopamine; increases health-enhancing hormones (such as endorphins), and infection-fighting antibodies; and improves blood flow to the heart - all resulting in greater relaxation and resistance to disease, as well as improved mood and positive outlook.

Remember that old song, “The joy of the Lord is our strength.” It was kind of corny, but we got to the ”ha, ha, ha part, we would often burst out in laughter and you could feel heaviness lift.

When the Toronto Revival came in 1994, laughter was one of the things that came with it, and it would contagiously spread through the crowd. When we laugh heartily, it is like giving our internal organs a massage.

When my husband and I watched the movie “Old Dogs”, he laughed so hard, he literally fell out of the bed. If you need healing in your life, add laughter to your prescription. I encourage you to open your mouth take a good does of medicine.

“A happy heart is good medicine.” Proverbs 17:22