Dual Dove
When we are stressed, our body releases cortisol. To impair the cortisol side effects, we need to train our body to release endorphins. And we can do so by laughing. Laughter is essential!
Cortisol and the stress response have known deteriorating effects on the immune system. High levels of perceived stress and increases in cortisol have been found to lengthen the wound-healing time.
Endorphins contracted their name from endogenous morphine. It is a kind of natural drug. They are released from the pituitary gland in response to pain.
For example, endorphin release is responsible for producing the euphoric state in cases such as runner’s high, sex, orgasm, listening to music, and eating appetizing food such as chocolate. And laughter. It is the healthiest way to make the body produce it. So, the specialists say there are three ways to laugh more.
Laughter can boost health
Make provisions
It’s funny, right? It should be. Like the joke with the guy on the bus laughing by himself. Asked why he is laughing, he answers, “I’m telling myself jokes.” After a time, he stops laughing. Asked why he doesn’t laugh anymore, he replies, “Oh, because I know these!”.
You need to stock things that make evade from stress. Funny videos, funny tv series, joke sites. Oh, and keep close the clown in your group. You shouldn’t try to make him more like you. Maybe you tray becoming a bit more like him. He is on an endorphin spiral, which is way better than the cortisol spiral you experience.
Follow your taste and train it
It might seem foolish: how can one train laughter? Well, laughing is not such a natural process. It is a reaction triggered by an exterior event. It might feel natural, but it is very particular. It is the result of intrinsic emotional education.
What makes an event funny for some and lame for the others? The particularities of the receptor. To some extension, laughter can also be a coping mechanism. When reality is hard to bear, one might find relief by laughing at it. And it’s better than raging at it.
So, to start training, we need to find out what kind of humor triggers our endorphins and go with it. We don’t require approval, and we don’t need everyone else to laugh just because we do. It’s like falling in love. We don’t want everybody to fall for the one we love. We might want them to like him/her, but we shouldn’t need it. We should trust our own humor and let it be.
Don’t hold it back
Run from judgmental people. Especially if that’s you, the one being judgmental! Rewire your pattern if you are the one thinking about the others, they are shallow or even untrustworthy just because they laugh. Search yourself and see if you don’t believe that about yourself too. Because that is just sad. And stressful for your cortisol-endorphin balance. It is an inadequate coping mechanism because you feel laughter being dangerous.
A situation must be treated seriously, you might think. But too severe triggers splashes of paranoia also. And it’s all because of the cortisol. See the laughter power of rising above a situation. You might find that the situation is not that bad, and you might see the way out of it laughing.
