Laughter

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I love to laugh. For a bit of science…

Laughter decreases stress hormones and increases immune cells and infection-fighting antibodies, thus improving your resistance to disease. Laughter triggers the release of endorphins, the body’s natural feel-good chemicals. Endorphins promote an overall sense of well-being and can even temporarily relieve pain.

I remember when my siblings and I were growing up, my mom would remind us as ‘not to lose the funny.’ It reminded me not to take myself or anything I’m doing “too serious.” Of course there are lots of important things that we need to take serious, but being able to take a step back and laugh helps us keep perspective.

I can remember many times where laughing helped to calm an otherwise stressful situation. Take the picture above! I’ve never reported the weather, and I’ve never been to Alaska… but I was asked to cover the weather in Alaska for our Weather Reporter for one week. I did my best, and prayed for grace to make up the rest! That is definitely progress for me because at one point in my life, I wouldn’t have been able to just hope for grace. My perfectionism would have gotten the best of me, and my anxiety would have kicked in. Thoughts like – 1) people are going to judge you 2) they’ll see your mistakes 3) you could offend people by pronouncing the cities incorrectly. Instead, I answer those thoughts with 1) yes, people will judge me but their judgement has nothing to do with me 2) yes, they will see my mistakes but I am not the only one that has ever made a mistake and 3)  pronunciation? well – at least I will learn the words I mispronounce if I do end up saying a few wrong.

On one of my interviews, when I was thinking about going into the news, the news director gave me some advice. He told me I would probably make a mistake at some point, and then he told me it would be ok because tomorrow is a new day. Such simple advice, but it really resonated with me and can also be applied to other areas of life. There is no use beating yourself up, I don’t make mistakes on purpose! The only real mistake would be not to humble myself and learn from the mistake. I’ve been so much happier realizing mistakes are ok, and the best thing to do is not take them so serious. I never want to sound light hearted about important situations, but my main point remains “don’t lose the funny!” After-all, laughter triggers endorphins and endorphins promotes an overall sense of well-being. Laughter is good for the heart!

I’d love to hear a time you used laughter to help ease an uncomfortable situation. Or anything related to laughter! I actually have something called a “scream laugh” that is reserved for truly hysterical moments. It’s not my best look (or sound), but I can’t help it when I feel it coming. As you can tell by my pictures, I’m just a goof. Thank you for reading, wishing you a fabulous week!!

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