Put A Little Laughter In Your Life

I was listening to one of my favourite comedy shows on the radio as I drove up to my Tai Chi lesson this evening. It had me smiling and laughing out loud. I don’t know how it translates to other countries and cultures – you sort of need to know some of the politics to understand some of the wit but if you’d like to take a listen – you can find it on the BBC Radio 4 website and listen again.

We all know how good it can be to have a good laugh and, as the saying goes, “Laughter is the best medicine”. It’s known to relieve stress by reducing stress hormones and releasing feel-good endorphins into the body. It improves circulation, breathing, health and the immune system.

How much do you laugh on a day to day basis or even once a week? Human beings love to laugh, and the average adult laughs 17 times a day. Mmm – not sure where they got that statistic – I’m not sure I laugh that much every day – perhaps because I spend much of my time on my own. I do get a giggle every now and then when someone sends me one of those amusing emails but I’m not about to suggest that we start sending those on to everyone we know. I’m not sure the stress of dealing with the added volume of email could be counterbalanced by the de-stressing effect of the laughter.

What’s funny to one person won’t even raise an eyebrow for someone else, never mind a laugh. Some stand-up comedians can cringingly awful. As I mentioned, comedy doesn’t necessarily translate across cultures and countries. Some comedy programmes just totally bemuse me. Then there are others – two comedians in particular (Billy Connolly and Robin Williams) – who will have me crying with laughter.

What amuses you – and has you creased up with laughter – TV, Radio, comedians, books …?

Get yourself some laughter this week – either watch a good comedy on TV, hire a DVD or go and watch a live comedy show.