We’ve heard this saying a million times, but do you really know all the ways laughter can improve your health? Let’s start with the more obvious reasons: laughter relaxes the body, relieves stress and anxiety, and provides an overall sense of well being. It’s difficult to feel angry, anxious or sad when you’re laughing! It feels good to laugh, and those good feelings remain with you, keeping you positive, boosting your outlook on life by helping you see life’s daily problems in a more realistic, less serious light. Now, here are some facts about laughter you may not have known: according to Psychology Today, laughter boosts the immune system by releasing infection-fighting antibodies, improving your resistance to disease. It reduces blood sugar levels which increases glucose tolerance in diabetics. Laughter also improves the function of blood vessels by causing them to relax and expand, increasing blood flow which is beneficial to the heart and brain. Laughter can also temporarily relieve chronic pain. Here are some ways to incorporate humor into your daily life:
• Read the funny pages or a funny book
• Watch a funny TV show or movie
• Play games with friends
• Spend time around children
• Hang out with funny people
• Go to a comedy show
• Play with a pet
• Tell funny stories or jokes
• Be playful, do something silly
• Try to find the humor in tough situations
• Laugh at yourself – lighten up!
In case you haven’t had a good laugh today, here are a couple jokes to boost your mood!
An 85-year-old widow went on a blind date with a 90-year-old man.
When she returned to her daughter’s house later that night, she seemed upset.
“What happened, Mother?” the daughter asked.
“I had to slap his face three times!”
“You mean he got fresh?”
“No,” she answered. “I thought he was dead!”
Three sisters, ages 92, 94, and 96, live together. One night the 96-year-old draws a bath. She puts one foot in and pauses, “Was I getting in the tub or out?” she yells.
The 94-year-old hollers back, “I don’t know, I’ll come up to see.” She starts up the stairs and stops. She shouts, “Was I going up or going down?”
The 92-year-old is sitting at the kitchen table having tea, listening to her sisters. She shakes her head and says, “I sure hope I never get that forgetful,” and knocks on wood for good measure. Then she yells, “I’ll come up and help both of you as soon as I see who’s at the door.”
An old man is afraid that his wife is losing her hearing. So, he walks up right to her ear and asks, “Can you hear me?” She didn’t answer. He walks up closer and asks again, but there was no answer. Finally he asks her one more time really loud and his wife says, “For the third time yes!!!”
There once was an old man who was about to die. He told his wife to put a bag of money in the attic. “When I die I’ll get it on my way up,” chuckled the old man. Well when the old man died the wife went up to the attic and found that the bag of money was still there. “I knew I should have put that money in the cellar!” said the old woman.
By Amber Triebull
HomeLife Senior Care is an award winning, professional agency providing clients with exceptional in-home care. Call today for a no obligation assessment: 925-240-5770. “Our Family Helping Yours.” www.HomeLifeSeniorCare.com
