Happier in 5 Minutes | Ida Abdalkhani | TEDxOhioStateUniversity

22 A cheerful heart is good medicine,but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.  https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Proverbs+17%3A22&version=NIV

We live in a society that has forgotten what it is like to have fun and laugh. Since September 11, 2001, far more people have been diagnosed with depression and anxiety than at any time in the history of mankind. The infiltration of 24-hour cable news with all of its real-time reporting of battleground scenes brings PTSD closer than ever before.

  Research indicates that children laugh far more often than adults. Some suggest that on average children laugh 300 times a day versus 17 for adults. Norman Cousins famously chronicled the effects of his self-prescribed "laughing cure" in his book Anatomy of an Illness as Perceived by the Patient (W.W. Norton, 1979, 2001, 2005). 

Cousins, who suffered from inflammatory arthritis, claimed that 10 minutes of hearty guffawing while watching Marx Brothers movies brought him two hours of pain-free sleep—and that both inflammation and pain were significantly reduced. 

Research since then has shown that laughter reduces levels of stress hormones such as cortisol, epinephrine, and dopamine; increases health-enhancing hormones (such as endorphins), neurotransmitters, and infection-fighting antibodies; and improves blood flow to the heart—all resulting in greater relaxation and resistance to disease, as well as improved mood and positive outlook. 

At the U of M Cancer Institute, we were told this same information- that contagious laughter does more to fighting disease and is something that everyone has control over. 

 Unfortunately, one of the first things that go after a traumatic loss occurs is laughter. We forget to laugh when we fixate on the anger and depression phase of our grief or when we play the martyr and believe it is bad to be happy when my loved one is dead. 

If research reminds us that we are more prone to sickness and disease if we do not laugh, then I think we have no choice to learn to laugh again. Joe Lovitt is a good friend and a very good standup comedian, as well as writer and director of plays who taught me how to laugh again after the loss of my daughter. He truly has a flair for comedy and writing.

 If you get a chance I encourage you to find out where he is appearing because I know his gift will get you laughing to good health.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIbvZiJsM9I

So, as the verse from Proverbs 17:22 reminds us, laughter really is good medicine!