Why Are We Laughing?
Historically, psychological science has devoted a lot of time and effort to study the pathological and negative aspects of the human being, such as anxiety, stress, depression, etc; Normally ignoring the study of those more positive aspects such as creativity, emotional intelligence, wisdom, resilience, humor … The determining driver for positive psychology to become a science was Prof. Martin Seligman from the University of Pennsylvania and former Director of the American Psychological Association.
The question in essence is: Why are people happy? Such a simple and complex question at the same time gave rise to studies on the origin of happiness instead of disease.
One of the fundamental elements to provide well-being to our lives is a sense of humor and laughter. As shown by numerous studies of scientific rigor, laughter is a unique reaction of the human being, not other species have it. Laughter itself is one of the most pleasant sensations we experience.
Understanding the most emotional part of humor, that is, humor as a state of mind, as defined by Seligman, this is an ability to experience or stimulate a very specific reaction : laughter.
A sense of humor is a strength of our character that provides us with tools to face difficulties with a healthier attitude.
Laughter is observable, we are positive, friendly … and most importantly: it is contagious!
Why is laugh contagious?
Laughter is contagious because there are so-called mirror neurons that drive us to smile; We can see that when we smile at a baby, he, from an early age, smiles back at us. It is because our brain is prepared to favor interaction, empathy and shows an innate tendency to show and receive positive emotions.
What are the benefits of laughter?
1. It reduces the presence of cholesterol in the blood, since it is equivalent to an aerobic exercise
2. It favors digestion by increasing the contractions of the abdominal muscles
3. It helps to appease anger
4. It contributes to a change of mental attitude that favors the decrease in diseases because: it increases the heart rate and pulse and when we laugh we release endorphins (the hormones of happiness)
5. It lowers blood glucose
6. It frees us from negative emotions such as fear and anguish
7. It enhances the social relationships
Can we practice laughing?
Laughter goes from the outside inside, if we train ourselves and create a predisposition to laugh, we will be able to feel more smiling inside, at the same time that we will infect others with our laughter. We can achieve this by starting each day with a smile in front of the mirror, a smile is the simplest and cheapest way to improve our appearance, at any age.
It is a simple practice: smiling at ourselves, leaving the house with a smile on, will make the people around us perceive from the first moment that our mood is friendly, therefore they are more likely to treat us in a more pleasant way. pleasant and this makes our smile become more and more real and true and accompanies us to the following interactions.
As Oscar Wilde said: “Life is too important to be taken seriously.”
