There are a few things I enjoy more in this life than hearing the laughter of my wife. It is an all-encompassing laughter when her guard is let down just for a minute, and I can see in her face that all life’s worries are put on the back burner for those few precious moments. Even if I am the cause of most of those life worries, it is still nice to see. But I must admit there is just something about hearing a baby laugh. Just those deep belly laughs from a tiny tot are enough to bring about world peace. And even if I might look and sound like a grumpy old fart, I love a good laugh. It usually comes at the expense of my daughters, but I am sure they know I am only joking. I hope? I’d better check. And of course, my favourite humour, the mighty “Dad Joke.” I will, however, refrain, as hard as it might be, from turning this blog into a list of my favourite dad jokes.
Laughter is truly medicine for the soul. It can remove a weight, a heaviness that pushes one deep into the ground. Pent-up feelings are released into the ether through the eruption of a good, heartfelt laugh. Energies are renewed and sometimes even a little fart is released (I might have to remove this before this blog goes out, let us see if it passes the editorial team!). If laughter is pure, it is truly something positive. You would be hard-pressed to find a person who cannot, for just a little while, set aside their negativity while they are rolling on the floor laughing. Laughter brings joy into your life and into the lives of those around you.
We cannot always be serious. Seriousness has its place, but even the scriptures are full to the brim with references to laughter:
A joyful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones (Prov 17:22 ESV).
There are over forty references to laughter in the Bible. Ecclesiastes 3:4 tells us there is a time to weep and a time to laugh. There might not be any scriptures of Jesus laughing, but as a true and faithful proponent of the scriptures, he would surely have known the time to weep and the time to laugh. I have seen a few youngsters crack up trying to picture a camel squeezing itself through the eye of a needle!
Yes, we cannot always take life too seriously, but medicine is a serious business, so get serious about taking your meds. Laughter has numerous health benefits; it is not just a feel-good, fleeting emotion. They have done literal studies on the benefits of laughter, both long-term and short-term. Let us see just how much of a soothing medicine laughter is for your soul.
In the short term:
- You laugh, you take in air, rich in oxygen and just what is needed for heart, lungs, muscles and a good dose of endorphins.
- Laughter aids in muscle relaxation and reduces the physical symptoms of stress. Initially, when you laugh, you activate your stress response, increasing your heart rate. As the laughter subsides, your heart rate and blood pressure decrease, leaving you with a relaxed feeling.
- A study from the Maryland School of Medicine found that laughter increases blood flow by about 22 per cent.
This one did not come up in my research, but I am sure if you laugh hard enough and often enough, and you feel like you have done a billion sit-ups, you might get a six-pack. I think they need to do a study on this. If found to be valid, I will put Dumb and Dumber on repeat!
In the long term:
- Negative thoughts create a chemical reaction in your brain, increasing stress and decreasing your immunity. Positive thoughts from laughter, however, release neuropeptides that help fight stress and possibly more serious illnesses.
- An obvious one is a mood enhancer. Laughter can help lessen the severity of those moments of depression and anxiety.
- Laughter can also aid in pain relief. Laughter promotes the body’s natural painkillers to be released. An Oxford study puts the increase in the pain threshold from laughing at 10 per cent.
It is certainly sometimes hard to laugh in troubling situations, but surround yourself with joyful family and friends. Laughter is contagious, and once the first moment of laughter erupts, you will see just how contagious it can be. When we as a family get together for a meal, our house becomes a place of joy with jokes flying around the table and funny moments recollected, ending with tears of laughter running down someone’s cheeks from the hilarious stories. My favourite one that I love to tell is one of such fond remembrance that even while writing this, I am laughing. I will not name the person to protect their identity, but it is one of my daughters. When she was a little mite, knee-high to a grasshopper, my wife and I noticed she would only spray her deodorant once she was fully dressed and all over her clean clothes. When probed, she answered, “The can says do not spray on naked.” We looked at each other, and my wife took the can, and turning it slightly, she saw the part left out: “Do not spray on naked…flame.” Cracks me up every time!
I read a beautiful saying once: If you can laugh at yourself, you can forgive yourself. Laughter is so intrinsically spiritual, truly a gift from God. Let us not dwell in our solemness; let us find that joy the Bible so often tells us about.
Our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy. Then it was said among the nations, “The Lord has done great things for them.” (Psalm 126:2 NIV)
Ok, I couldn’t hold out any longer, just one Dad joke:
- “My kid is blaming me for ruining her birthday. That’s ridiculous, I didn’t even know it was today!”
Okay, maybe a few more:
- I said to one of my kids, “I need a battery for my clock so I can tell the time. Is it for a clock? They asked, “I don’t know; that is why I need the battery!
- I received a pamphlet on my windscreen on anger management. I lost it.
- What did one fish in a tank say to the other fish in a tank? ‘Do you know how to drive this thing?
There you go.
Hope you had a laugh.
