Laughing why

Laughter provides powerful, uncensored insights into our unconscious. It simply bubbles up from within us in certain situations. Very little is known about the specific brain mechanisms responsible for laughter. But we do know that laughter is triggered by many sensations and thoughts, and that it activates many parts of the body. When we laugh, we alter our facial expressions and make sounds. During exuberant laughter, the muscles of the arms, legs and trunk are involved. Laughter also requires modification in our pattern of breathing.

We also know that laughter is a message that we send to other people. We know this because we rarely laugh when we are alone we laugh to ourselves even less than we talk to ourselves. Laughter is social and contagious.

It can even make exercise more fun and productive. Plus, hearing others laugh, even for no apparent reason, can often trigger genuine laughter. To add simulated laughter into your own life, search for laugh yoga or laugh therapy groups.

Both you and the other person will feel good, it will draw you closer together, and who knows, it may even lead to some spontaneous laughter. An essential ingredient for developing your sense of humor is to learn not to take yourself too seriously and laugh at your own mistakes and foibles.

Instead of feeling embarrassed or defensive, embrace your imperfections. They fall into the gray zone of ordinary life—giving you the choice to laugh or not. So, choose to laugh whenever you can. Laugh at yourself. Share your embarrassing moments.

The best way to take yourself less seriously is to talk about times when you took yourself too seriously. Attempt to laugh at situations rather than bemoan them. Look for the humor in a bad situation, and uncover the irony and absurdity of life. When something negative happens, try to make it a humorous anecdote that will make others laugh. Surround yourself with reminders to lighten up.

Keep a toy on your desk or in your car. Put up a funny poster in your office. Choose a computer screensaver that makes you laugh. Frame photos of you and your family or friends having fun. Remember funny things that happen. If something amusing happens or you hear a joke or funny story you really like, write it down or tell it to someone to help you remember it.

Many things in life are beyond your control—particularly the behavior of other people. Find your inner child. Pay attention to children and try to emulate them—after all, they are the experts on playing, taking life lightly, and laughing at ordinary things.

Deal with stress. One great technique to relieve stress in the moment is to draw upon a favorite memory that always makes you smile—something your kids did, for example, or something funny a friend told you. Think of it like exercise or breakfast and make a conscious effort to find something each day that makes you laugh. Set aside 10 to 15 minutes and do something that amuses you. The ability to laugh, play, and have fun not only makes life more enjoyable but also helps you solve problems, connect with others, and think more creatively.

People who incorporate humor and play into their daily lives find that it renews them and all of their relationships. Life brings challenges that can either get the best of you or become playthings for your imagination.

But when you play with the problem, you can often transform it into an opportunity for creative learning. Playing with problems seems to come naturally to children. When they are confused or afraid, they make their problems into a game, giving them a sense of control and an opportunity to experiment with new solutions.

Interacting with others in playful ways helps you retain this creative ability. Here are two examples of people who took everyday problems and turned them around through laughter and play:.

Roy , a semi-retired businessman, was excited to finally have time to devote to golf, his favorite sport. And we know this because studying baby laughter is an actual job , too. Laughter clearly serves a social function. It is a way for us to signal to another person that we wish to connect with them.

In fact, in a study of thousands of examples of laughter, the speakers in a conversation were found to be 46 percent more likely to laugh than the listeners. Young children between the ages of 2. Evolutionarily speaking, this signal of connection likely played an important role in survival. Upon meeting a stranger, we want to know: What are your intentions with me? And who else are you aligned with?

In a study that spanned 24 different societies and included participants, scientists played short sound bites of pairs of people laughing together. In some cases, the pair were close friends, in others, the pair were strangers. Participants in the study were asked to listen to the simultaneous laughter and determine the level of friendship shared by the laughers.

Using only the sound of the laughter as cues, they could reliably tell the difference between people who had just met and those who were long-time friends. Another theory, which takes the person-to-person connection provided by laughter a step further, is that laughter may be a replacement for the act of grooming each other. At the time I thought well, this is odd, even by my standards, but I can see now I was just grabbing for something, anything, that my mum and I could laugh at.

We can often remember things we laughed at, or the people we were with, but we really do not notice how much we actually laugh. So in short, we do laugh because of humour and jokes, but we laugh mostly because of love and affection. We laugh to share meaning and understanding, to make ourselves feel better, to reaffirm relationships and to make new ones.

This article is more than 6 years old. Sophie Scott. Why is nicotine addictive? Read more.