Decrease Your Stress by Laughing!

Inspiration

Posted By National Wellness Institute, 3 hours ago

April is National Humor Month. This month’s Inspiration is intended to decrease stress by using laughter to enhance the quality of one’s life. Incorporating daily humor improves mental and physical health and releases endorphins (feel good hormones) that boost optimism and state of mind. Try the following to increase humor in your life. · Take a humor break. Keep jokes, funny stories, or anything that causes a smile on hand for stressful situations. This will help ease tension and allow for clearer thinking. · Create a folder for what makes you laugh. Know and understand what makes you laugh and research humorous pieces to add to your folder. Also, writing down past embarrassing experiences that are now funny can help change your perspective at stressful times. · Be able to laugh at yourself. This does not mean you should regularly put yourself down, but be able to laugh at your mistakes and remain self-assured. Instead of focusing on what you did wrong, remember everything you did right. · Share laughter with others. Spend time with friends who make you laugh to improve your mood and decrease stress. For more information on National Humor month, visit Association for Applied and Therapeutic Humor. References: Mayo Clinic. (July 23, 2010). Stress relief from laughter? Yes, no joke. Stress management. Retrieved on March 21, 2013, fromhttp://www.mayoclinic.com/health/stress-relief/SR00034/NSECTIONGROUP=2 Wilde, L. (2006). Humor Rx for Alleviating Stress in the 21st Century. Retrieved on March 21, 2013, from http://www.larrywilde.com/rxstress.htm