Laughter: Medicine For The Soul

Laughter can help heal life’s most difficult times

Not long ago my family was sitting around the dinner table after finishing a meal just lingering in the joy of each other’s company.  I don’t even remember what we were talking about, but before I knew it we were all erupting in laughter – the deep belly, tears running down your cheeks kind and I remember thinking it felt so good to laugh that hard. In fact, I couldn’t remember the last time I had laughed that hard. In those precious moments something happened to my soul. I was no longer carrying around the heaviness of the difficult days and circumstances which had crushed my spirit for months, but instead felt a sense of release as I allowed myself to have a good laugh. I felt a surge of strength come into my spirit that I hadn’t felt for a long time and so desperately needed. Proverbs says, “A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit saps a person’s strength.” I think that’s what happened at the table that night. Suddenly my sapped strength was re-energized by laughter – and it was good medicine for my soul.

Laughter Therapy

It is true that laughter holds as much healing power as medicine. In fact, research has confirmed this and shown laughter to be therapeutic.

There are health centers treating patients suffering from conditions like depression, and diabetes with laughter therapy.

Now medical science agrees about the benefits of laughter is a powerful remedy for stress, pain, and conflict. Nothing works faster or more dependably to bring your mind and body back into balance after a good laugh. Laughter lightens your burdens, inspires hope, connects you to others, and keeps you more focused on the positive.

Furthermore, it relaxes the whole body relieving physical tension and stress, leaving your muscles relaxed for up to 45 minutes later.

It books the immune system, triggers the release of endorphins, the body’s natural feel-good chemicals promoting an overall sense of well-being, and can even temporarily relieve pain.

And laughter protects the heart.

Perhaps, there is no greater time in our lives for the soul medicine of laughter or a “cheerful heart” than when we’re going through life’s most difficult times. If you think about it, those times are too often characterized by just the opposite, depleting us of all our strength, making it hard to persevere. Once our strength disappears, our spirits can so easily become crushed. In the middle of our hardships, our soul can be healed through the simple medicine of laughter or humor. Not that the hardship is funny in any way.It isn’t! But we are given some relief through the laughter itself – something our soul desperately needs if we’re to live uncrushed in spirit. And a cheerful heart is a continual medicine strengthening us both inwardly and outwardly.

Laughter gives us a sense of comfort that often provides us with the encouragement we need to face what is before us with renewed strength.

Tips

• Do less.
• Laugh more.
• Stop trying so hard.
• Be gentler with yourself.
• Lay down those expectations and embrace grace.
• Just for this week.
• Or just for this day.