When love is all around, so is laughter. For many years, Reader’s Digest has insisted that laughter is the best medicine; a book by that title even now declares it. Scientific research is proving just that. Of course, it makes sense: if things that make us happy relieve stress and make us healthier, then laughter certainly should. There are now clubs virtually around the globe that model the laughter clubs of India.
In the United States, the medical world started taking note of the possibilities of therapeutic laughter after Norman Cousin’s book Anatomy of an Illness as Perceived by the Patient came out in 1979. In it, he describes how watching Marx Brothers movies, Candid Camera, and other comedies helped him fight a life-threatening disease of the joints and connective tissue.
Now hospitals, nursing homes and private clubs all around the country are hiring laughter leaders, certified by the Association for Applied Therapeutic Humor, who teach the healing value of laughter. One of the things Cousins documented was that a ten-minute belly laugh could give him two hours of painless sleep.
Many other studies suggest that the ability to manage and conquer pain can largely be predicted by a patient’s frame of mind. The physiological effects of a 30- minute to one-hour sessions of viewing a humorous video have appeared to last up to 12 to 24 hours in some individuals.
A friend and colleague at my university was involved in a serious automobile accident two years ago. The type of back injury that he sustained should have killed him. In addition to his tremendous faith and support from his family and friends, he credits humor and a positive attitude for much of his healing.
As a helpful resource, I have lots of articles on healthy ingredients and recipes that you can implement into your daily life.
If you’d like to dig deeper into my journey of discovering God’s plan for health and wellness, check out my book, Made For Paradise: God’s Original Plan for Healthy Eating, Physical Activity, and Rest.
