Statistics show that little kids laugh 400 times a day. One study showed that grownups laugh only eleven, and yet another said only four... and we’ve all had shifts when we couldn’t even meet that quota!

Proverbs tells us, “Laughter is good medicine, but a broken spirit dries the bones.”  Now there is medical evidence to corroborate that theory.  Volumes are written today on the therapeutic benefits of laughter.

Dr. William Fry of Stanford University Medical School likened laughter to a form of physical exercise.  It’s like jogging on the inside.  It lowers your blood pressure and heart rate, improves lung capacity, massages internal organs, increases memory and alertness, reduces pain, improves digestion, and lowers the stress hormones, cortisol and adrenalin.  It’s good for the muscles involved in laughter, your chest and abdomen, and it exercises those muscles not involved.  Dr. Fry said that laughing 100-200 times per day is the cardiovascular equivalent of rowing for 10 minutes.  I don’t know about you, but I’d much rather laugh than row.

Besides physical benefits, laughter also has psychological gains.  It teaches us to be out of control, brings us into the moment, helps us transcend our problems, brings us closer to people and helps us think more clearly.

One of the biggest reasons grownups don’t laugh more is fear of looking foolish.  It’s a primary fear.  We are more afraid of looking foolish in public than of a nuclear attack, which came in second.  What’s wrong with this picture?  One reason we don’t laugh more often is because we’ve been conditioned not too.  What did you hear as a child?  “Wipe that smile off your face.”  “This is no laughing matter.”  “Is everything funny to you?”

We need not only to allow ourselves to laugh often and freely, but we also need to create occasions to do so.  Here are a dozen fun ways for:

Creating Laughter in Your Life 

• Make a list of things that make you laugh and incorporate them into your everyday life.
• Record, replay and rent funny movies, shows, cartoons, bloopers, and watch them often.
• Listen frequently to the comedian who makes you laugh until you wet your pants.
• Plan a regularly scheduled comedy night.      
• Throw a party funded by money put into the laughter pot every time someone is caught being grumpy.
• Write FUN on the top of every meeting’s agenda and start with something funny. 
• Tough times at work and home?  Each day, put a piece of tape on your sleeve indicating where you’ve had it up to.
• Surround yourself with funny pictures of you, friends and family. 
• Create a laughter bulletin board at work and home where everyone contributes cartoons, baby pictures, jokes, etc.
• Challenge others to have a best joke contest.
• Buy funny greeting cards.  Stop while you shop and read a few.
• Listen to kids laugh.  It’s contagious.

Nurses, let’s reclaim the laughter of our youth.  It’s a gift to ourselves and to those around us.  And you deserve it! 

About the Author: LeAnn Thieman LPN, CSP, CPAE is in the Speaker Hall of Fame and coauthor of Chicken Soup for the Nurse’s Soul and Chicken Soup for the Nurse’s Soul, Second Dose. She is an expert in nurse recruitment and retention. To learn more about her books or presentations, visit www.NurseRecruitmentandRetention.com.

Click here to read more on LeAnn Thieman. 

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