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Essay on Health benefits of humor and laughter
Essay on Health benefits of humor and laughter
Essays about the positive effects of laughter on emotional and physical health
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The Joke’s on You
The effect laughter has on the state of your well being is so dramatic that it should actually be prescribed by doctors as treatment. You can improve all three areas of the “Wellness Triangle” simply by changing your attitude and mindset and learning to laugh more. You can create more lasting relationships as laughter is the universal language. You can improve your physical health and develop relaxation techniques akin to meditation. Get out and laugh more, it’s the world’s cheapest and most potent medication.
Laughter’s beneficial health effects are life saving. “Past president of the Association of Applied and Therapeutic Humor, Steven M. Sultanoff, Ph.D. and clinical psychologist in Irvine, California says, “Humor stimulates
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The research, particularly on heart disease, is dramatic. People who are chronically angry are four to five times more likely to have a heart attack than people who are not” (Dean). Laughter’s dramatic effect on heart disease is commendable in and of itself but it’s exceptional qualities spread far and wide for your physiological health. According to Melinda Smith, M.A., and Jeanne Segal, Ph.D. “Laughter decreases stress hormones and increases immune cells and infection-fighting antibodies, thus improving your resistance to disease (Smith,Segal). Laughter strengthens your immune system, reduces stress and lowers your risk for heart disease.
Not only does laughter benefit you physiologically but also psychologically. Thomas Crook, PhD, a clinical psychologist and CEO of Cognitive Research Corp states, “Humor is not just a silly
“The practical disengagement of humor…helps explain the opposition between amusement and negative emotions.” (530) There are three effects of humor; irresponsibility, blocking compassion, and promoting prejudice. Humor can take away what we are/should be doing in life and sometimes there isn’t anything wrong with that. Sometimes when we hear a hateful thing we just laugh it off as if it was no big deal when it really was. “An
This book is about so many things, it is hard to stay on one topic for any length of time. In order to focus on the laugh and laughing as a healing agent, I would like to look towards other influential writers and thinkers to tie together laughing and healing. First, let’s see what laughter is according to Meriam Webster: laughter- n. a cause of merriment. Using this simple definition, we can assume that laughter can come from any form of merriment or emotion like triumph, contempt, relief, and almost any other emotion there is. It is easy to picture in your head different underlying emotions in laughter; the sinister laughs of witches and ghosts, the insincere, fake laughs you hear after pointless, humorless attempts at jokes on the six o’clock news, to the silent laughs of mimes and clowns that fill the people around them with a happy feeling. These are all examples of what laughter is and how it is used. But why do we do it? What in nature created the laugh and made it so successful?
Every choice you take with ultimately impact your life. In “The Laughing Heart” by Charles Bukowski the author creates a theme of; your not living until you seize opportunities in life. In “The Journey” by Mary Oliver the author creates a theme of; you have to take the journey to find yourself. In each of these poems the authors use tone and figurative language to develop the overall message.
Although modern science has allowed us to develop many complex medicines, laughter is still the strongest one available in the real world and in the book. Laughter proves to be a strong medicine in more ways than one and is completely free, allowing anyone to use it at anytime. It allows us to connect socially with people, it can be used as a way of overthrowing power, and it is good for your health. As Randle McMurphy showed in the novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, laughter can lighten the mood in the darkest situations.
The mood of the short story “The Tell-Tale Heart” written by Edgar Allan Poe is anxious. Poe develops this mood with in depth scenes that wrap around anxiety. For example, this work begins with the statement, “nervous -- very, very dreadfully nervous I have been and am”, the murderer’s words (1). This gives the reader an inside look on how the rest of the plot will play out. “The Tell-Tale Heart” is obviously not a laidback or comical writing. “I felt myself getting pale. My head ached, and I fancied a ringing in my ears” (16). These are all symptoms of severe worry, being experienced by the assassinator responsible for the death of an old man, but there is another perspective to look into and that is that of the victim. “The beating grew louder,
Laughing is resorted to in times where we need to laugh. It’s an escape from reality, its comfort, its fear. Laughing subdues any emotion that is too high strung in our system. It lets it vapor out in a melancholy form that helps us cope with problems that no one else can really understand and help us with. In One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest it allowed emotional tension escape from the patients and made nurse Ratched lose her ward.
Humor is a tremendous factor in our daily lives. In the numerous ways we communicate with other people, one of the vital ways is through humor because it helps people get through the hard times, and makes the good times even better. Most of the things people find to be “funny” are based on experiences that have happened to them, others, where they live, and the events happening at the time. When looking at each era, and the humor used in that time, you can see that based on the things happening in that time their sense of humor was different. Humor has existed throughout all of humanity, considering the fact that chimps laugh, just goes to show how long humor has been around. As a result of this, we must look at the philosophy of humor, and
At the end of the experiment I will complete the last two steps in the scientific process. I will analyze the data gained and will formulate a conclusion. I don’t think much research has been done of the effects of Positive Psychology on those people with a higher than average level of happiness, since the catalyst for this research came from the desire to augment pathological treatment for depression. It will be interesting to see the impact, if any, on my current level of happiness.
Why do people laugh? Laughter is contagious and therapeutic. It helps us cope with stress, and relax with friends. It is an indication of happiness, the sole reason we go on living. But what causes people to laugh? People laugh at jokes, semantic humor, which relies on cognitive ability to process the "humor" therein, or sometimes at slapstick type behavior requiring no intellectual understanding. People laugh at different things and for different reasons, and for the few that are interested at the expense of the frog, it can be interesting to investigate.
Yoshino S., Fujimori J., Kohda M.. Effects of mirthful laughter on neuroendocrine and immune systems in patients with rheumatoid arthritis [letter]. J Rheumatol 23: 793-4 (1996).
body's level of cortisol, which aids the immune system. Laughing increases oxygen intake, stimulates heart and lungs, improves overall breathing abilities, and increases the body’s energy level. Laughing exercises several muscles in the body including: the abdomen, back, shoulders, and 15 facial muscles. So when coming home from a stressful day at the office, exercise might not be a top priority. Keep in mind that ...
My two top styles of humor are ones that help create and bond relationships, and uplift one’s self. With this, I believe it shows that I am mentally healthy. I am mentally healthier than I thought I was before writing this paper. Self-enhancing humor is positively related to openness to experience, self-esteem, and psychological well-being (Martin el at. 2003). Mentally, I have never been one to suffer from depression or anxiety, which are both very common in busy high school and college students. I have had moments, or times in my life where I have been at a very low point but I have never been diagnosed. I think that my styles of humor mirror how healthy my mental state has been thus far in my life. I do think that I am insure more times than not, which would logically reflect self-defeating humor. Though, I am thankful after taking the Humor Style Questionnaire (Martin el at. 2003) that I am not that
Those who use humor to its best advantage teach others by example. Instead of getting angry when something goes wrong, we should try to look for the humor in the situation. It eases tensions and keeps things in perspective. Humor can energize us when a task has become tedious. Humor can make even the worst of situations tolerable.
Laughing can be expressed in various ways. Some people chuckle, some people snort, some people sound like hyenas, or if you are like me, you laugh so hard that you actually pee your pants. That moment was not my proudest, but there are far more embarrassing things that have occurred in my life. There have also been times where life was tough and sometimes the only thing that could help me get through it was laughter. Laughter as the best medicine was not something that I regarded highly of until I was a senior in high school. Schulz suggests that we “don’t assess evidence neutrally, we assess it in light of whatever theories we’ve already formed on the basis of whatever other, earlier evidence we have encountered.” (372) And Schulz is right,
If there is one way to bring a smile to someone’s face, it is laughter. Funny jokes, comical stunts, sarcasm- Every person is different when it comes to what makes them laugh. Some find dry humor comical. Others think sarcasm or joke-filled ranting are the best. ‘Comedy’ is such a broad term, broad enough to allow everyone to find something they find comical. In fact, ‘comedy’ includes a specific type of drama, one where the protagonist is joyful and happy endings are expected. Comedy is like a drug; it allows you to escape reality. When we say the word ‘comedy’ in the present, we are generally referring to a type of performance which provides humor. However, in its broadest sense, comedy has only one purpose: comedy makes people smile and