Laughter Is Good Medicine

"A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones" Proverbs 17:22, NIV

Science has finally caught up with these words in the Bible that King Solomon wrote some 3,000 years ago.

My girlfriends at my church were talking the other day about how to get through rough and/ or sad times.  The scripture above came to mind.  So I thought I would do a little research on the subject. 

George Burns said it best: “You can’t help getting older, but you can help getting old. Chronologically, the clock is going to keep on ticking for all of us, but if we take a lick of humor, we can prevent a hardening of the attitudes. If we savor humor, humor can be a lifesaver.”

Here are some ways to start:

• Smile. Smiling is the beginning of laughter. Like laughter, it’s contagious. Pioneers in “laugh therapy,” find it’s possible to laugh without even experiencing a funny event. The same holds for smiling. When you look at someone or see something even mildly pleasing, practice smiling.
• Count your blessings. Literally make a list. The simple act of considering the good things in your life will distance you from negative thoughts that are a barrier to humor and laughter. When in a state of sadness, we have further to travel to get to humor and laughter.
• When you hear laughter, move toward it. Sometimes humor and laughter are private, a shared joke among a small group, but usually not. More often, people are very happy to share something funny because it gives them an opportunity to laugh again and feed off the humor you find in it. When you hear laughter, seek it out and ask, “What’s funny?”
• Spend time with fun, playful people. These are people who laugh easily–both at themselves and at life’s absurdities–and who routinely find the humor in everyday events. Their playful point of view and laughter are contagious.
• Bring humor into conversations. Ask people, “What’s the funniest thing that happened to you today? This week? In your life?”
• Watch TV shows that make you laugh such as:
1. ‘My Three Sons.’ You’d think that a show about a widower left to raise his sons would be somber at best. Not so with ‘My Three Sons.’ Maybe it’s the fact that Fred MacMurray as the cardigan-wearing Steve Douglas always knew just what to say. Maybe it was Bub’s dry wit or, later, Uncle Charlie’s tough love. Maybe it’s because I identified with the kids, having grown up in that era myself. Whatever the reason, watching ‘My Three Sons’ is a sunny day in the storm of life.
2. ‘The Mary Tyler Moore Show.’ I loved watching this show with my parents every week, because it had something for everyone. My Dad loved watching Ted Baxter make a fool of himself, and Mom and I loved watching Mary “make it after all.” There’s no denying it had one of the best casts in TV history, including Betty White as the ditzy Sue Ann Nivens.  And even though Mary Richards seemed like she had it all, I could still identify with her “off” moments, like the time she went to the awards banquet with a nasty cold and her hair all puffed up. But she got through it. She had spunk, after all.
3. ‘M*A*S*H.’ No matter where I am in my life or the world, there’s one show I can always count on to get me through. ‘M*A*S*H’ still airs somewhere on my TV every day, and watching the doctors and nurses at the 4077^th struggle through as best they can – even as the war rages on -- gives me hope that I can get through life, too. And I still have a major crush on Alan Alda as Hawkeye Pierce.
4. Any Doris Day Movie. I’m partial to the movies she did with Rock Hudson, including ‘Pillow Talk,’ ‘Lover Come Back,’ and ‘Send Me No Flowers.’ But she also scored with every other male star with whom she was paired, like Cary Grant in ‘That Touch of Mink,’ James Garner in ‘The Thrill of It All,’ and Rod Taylor in ‘The Glass Bottom Boat.’ I love her early movies like ‘Romance on the High Seas’ and ‘Tea for Two,’ as well as her TV series – especially the later seasons where she gained more control over the direction of the show. I’ve read several books about Doris Day, so I know she hasn’t had an easy life. But you’d never know it watching her on screen. She just exudes grace and style and a happy outlook on life that makes you feel like anything is possible.
5. ‘The Andy Griffith Show.’ Is there anything more calming than the life Andy Taylor led in Mayberry? With Aunt Bee cooking up a pot roast at home and Opie stopping by the courthouse after school, you get the feeling this must be the happiest, most stress-free place on the planet. And the comical capers of Barney Fife (“Nip it in the bud!”), Gomer Pyle (“Citizen’s Arrest!”) and the rest of the gang just add to the homespun goodness of this show.

Creating opportunities to laugh

• Watch a funny movie or TV show.
• Go to a comedy club.
• Read the funny pages.
• Seek out funny people.
• Share a good joke or a funny story.
• Check out your bookstore’s humor section.

• Host game night with friends.
• Play with a pet.
• Go to a “laughter yoga” class.
• Goof around with children.
• Do something silly.
• Make time for fun activities (e.g. bowling, miniature golfing, karaoke).