Laughter: What You're After

By IHF President, Author & Hypnotist Shelley Stockwell-Nicholas, PhD

(Includes excerpts from her book “The Mysteries of YOU”)

Laughter is contagious, not infectious. It lets you play, brings joy and helps you cope. Among your senses, your sense of humor is your most uplifting. It lets you live long and prosper. Scientific studies show that laughter eases stress, lowers blood pressure, enhances immunity and helps you get along better with others. Babies start laughing at ten weeks. Perhaps the playful YOU remembers that!

BREATHE EASY. “Laughter involves strong exhalation which reverberates your brain and your vegal nerve which commands endorphins, dopamine and serotonin to peek under the skirts of depression. Instead of a fight, flight, freeze response you tend and befriend. As you exhale, your heart rate and blood pressure goes down and you enjoy a residual calm.

BOND BETTER. Navajo Indians say that a baby’s first laugh is sacred and that the person who evokes that laugh will be forever connected to them. If you hang out with joyous people, there won’t be time to hang out with sad sacks. If you are a sad sack lighten up. Partners who share lighthearted chortles defuse tension and have better relationships. Couples who come to me for hypno-counseling fall in love again as they recall something funny together or laugh at their foibles. It’s fun to attach great stories to tickle-worthy words like “dingle-dangle” or “fnork.” Later, that word when placed in the middle of an argument, can transform a big who-ha with a big ha-ha. Become the joke and chuckle.

LESS STRESS. According to a study at Loma Linda University just the anticipation of laughter release tension and decreases stress hormones like cortisol. Then, after the guffaw, you stress less as muscles go limp and blood pressure drops. When University of Maryland researchers showed movie clips to volunteers; those who watched funny ones had a twenty-two percent increase in blood flow to their hearts.

HEALTH. A chuckle, in fact, keeps you healthy. Blood tests show that laughing boosts immunoglobulins that find and destroy tumor cells and viruses. Those who laugh 10-25 times daily have fewer diseases than those who don’t laugh as much reports a study in the International Journal of Medical Sciences. Patch Adams (in the movie and in life) was right; “laugh just for the health of it.” A University of Maryland study shows that laughter relieves the pain of arthritis and hypertension.

Norman Cousins (Anatomy of an Illness) cured himself of an incurable connective tissue disease by checking himself out of a hospital and into a hotel (He found it was cheaper to live in the hotel). Norman only invited uplifting people who told him funny stories and read him funny passages. He watched amusing movies, took vitamin C and discovered that for every 20 minutes of laughter, he had several minutes pain-free. Within a short time, his illness vanished. He died of old age, many years later as a happy man.

DOUBLE YOUR VISION. The vibration of laughter re-balances your brain so you more easily use your right and left hemispheres. Usually, you see though one eye, then the other, every few seconds. A good belly laugh obliterates or reduces this binocular rivalry causing you to see simultaneously through both eyes, for up to an hour and a half.

DO BETTER WORK. Men's Health Magazine surveys 600 readers and seventy-three percent said “My sense of humor makes me better at my job.” Ha! That’s a laugh.

Local Personality, Shelley Stockwell-Nicholas, PhD is a hypnotherapist, mindfulness and NLP trainer, artist and the author of 25 books. She certifies practitioners through the International Hypnosis Federation.

You can call her at 310 541-4844 or email at shelleynicholas@cox.net