“You look fancy today.  Sometimes you look funny!” four year old Irene truthfully gushed.  We both laughed and another child came over and just laughed with us, not even knowing why we were laughing.  I could feel the muscles on my face stretch and the space in my heart expand.

I live a really rich life-I am a preschool teacher.  Young children live in the present moment and for the most part their dominant emotion is happiness.  They are happy to play with a toy, happy to see a friend, happy to eat lunch and just happy to be alive.  Happiness-what a concept!

I read somewhere that children laugh about 300 times a day and adults laugh 15 times a day.  I’m not sure who measured these laughers, but I know many, many grownups that don’t laugh even close to 15 times a day.  Why don’t we laugh more?  Maybe why not is a better question to ask.

The topic of this week’s Mother’s Medicine Circle is laughter so I did some research.  I learned that the health benefits of laughter range from strengthening the immune system to reducing food cravings to increasing one’s threshold for pain.  There are laughter clubs springing up all over the place with the most famous being in India.  With as much poverty as India has, if they are finding some good reasons to laugh, we need to take note.

Laughter reduces the level of stress hormones like cortisol.  I heard John Gray (the Mars-Venus guy) say that women in America are in trouble because they have high levels of cortisol.  Men reduce their levels of cortisol by working and having orgasms.  Women need romance, friends they can talk to and ways to increase their oxytoxin levels.  Laughing is one way to increase those feel-good, health-enhancing hormones which means a stronger immune system, as well as fewer physical effects of stress.

A good belly laugh exercises the diaphragm, contracts the abdominal muscles, provides a good workout for the heart and even works out the stress in those contracted shoulders.

Studies show that our response to the stressful things in our lives can be altered by whether we view something as a threat or an opportunity.  A more light-hearted perspective is possible when we inject a bit of humor into any challenge. Whatever it takes to feel less threatened and more positive has got to be a good thing.  The economy is crashing, ha ha, sooner or later what goes down has to come up!

Today, decide to find humor in your life.  Instead of complaining about a frustration, try laughing about it.  One day you will look back on this situation and laugh; why not laugh today?  If you approach your life in a lighter way, you will be less stressed and healthier.  If you can’t find something to laugh about, fake it til you make it!  The studies show that faked laughter also provides the benefits of non-faked laughter.  Why do you have to lose?

My sister and I used to play a game when we were children.  We would see if we could laugh longer than the other.  It was contagious!  I would laugh cuz she was laughing and she would snort and I would go into peals of laughter-it was a ton of fun!  I remember how pleasantly pooped I felt at the end of our game.  Maybe children are on to something!

I am thankful for laughter, except when milk comes out of my nose.  Woody Allen

Laughter is an instant vacation.  Milton Berle

What soap is to the body, laughter is to the soul.  Yiddish Proverb

Man, when you lose your laugh you lose your footing.  Ken Kesey

A laugh is a smile that bursts.  Mary H. Waldrip

Laughter is an orgasm triggered by the intercourse of sense and nonsense.