Originally, it was an impersonation behavior: Demonstrating one’s good teeth to the enemy often prevented real escalation. Meanwhile, mankind laughs for more pleasing reasons – and incidentally, this “jogging from within” is not only amazingly healthy, but also as effective as 45 minutes of relaxation training.
Known symptoms
You know the symptoms: Your diaphragm bounces, your pulse races, about 300 muscles are active. Your pupils enlarge, fingertips moisten, and leg muscles slacken. You breathe out at a good 100 km/h and in again very deeply. Is this about sports or even sex?
Far from it: We are talking about laughter, the research topic of gelotology (from Greek: “gelos” = laughter). Worldwide, about 200 psychologists, immunologists, neurologists and stress researchers are looking into the positive effects of laughter on body, mind and soul.
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A spontaneous burst of cheerfulness does the entire organism good: thus, the body’s immune system is activated in the process, the metabolism is stimulated, the blood flow to the heart and lungs is improved, the stress hormones adrenaline and cortisol are reduced, blood pressure as well as blood sugar levels are lowered, the muscles are relaxed and blood circulation is intensified.
Even the sensation of pain is significantly reduced. And finally, laughter promotes concentration, relieves anxiety and puts you in a good mood!
Laughter is “practical psychotherapy”
The biggest enemy of stress is laughter – because it releases endorphins, which are happiness hormones that counteract the stress hormones that cause illness. But where does it come from that cheerful people are not only more creative, more optimistic and more spontaneous, but also more satisfied, less aggressive, more popular and thus more socially successful?
It is not for nothing that “laughter seminars” for entrepreneurs and their teams are booming: when laughing, the intellect takes a back seat and the right hemisphere of the brain is activated. This releases inner tensions as well as ingrained thought patterns – the head becomes free for new perspectives and approaches to solutions.
Clinic clowns make medicine more human
The fact is: In our dissatisfied society, there is too much thinking, but too little laughing. As recently as the 1950s, Germans laughed for an average of 18 minutes a day, three times as long as they do today, and while children still laugh up to 400 times a day, adults are becoming more humorless every year.
This makes it all the more important that the healing effect of laughter is increasingly being used in therapy: For example, through hospital clowns in children’s wards or even with Alzheimer’s patients: Clowns “mirror” the mental situation of the patients and thus make themselves their allies. This form of therapy gives courage, means attention and gives life energy.
Laughter clubs cultivate “cheerful meditation”
For once, the trend toward organized laughter does not come from America, but from India: Dr. Madan Kataria is the father of the world laughter movement, in which the healing power of laughter is cultivated on the basis of ancient yoga knowledge. In the meantime, more than 300,000 people worldwide meet for this cheerful form of meditation – in Germany alone there are 45 laughter clubs.
Yoga laughter, by the way, does not involve cracking jokes, but rather attempts to rediscover the gratuitous laughter of childhood through special exercises.
