How Laughter Relieves Stress

by Sierra Skelly

Stress can take a huge toll on your mental health.

Whether you’re a corporate executive, a student getting a graduate degree in nursing, or a coffee shop barista, we’ve all experienced stress at some point in our lives.

Balancing things like work and school while still trying to maintain your personal life can be taxing—and it’s all too easy to become burnt out. 

Although stress is a normal part of life, it’s still something we want to minimize as much as possible.

Stress can affect you both mentally and physically, and it’s important for your overall health to keep your stress levels down. 

One of our favorite ways to relieve stress is through laughter.

Keep reading for some research-backed ways that laughter can relieve stress and improve your overall well-being…

Physical Benefits

There are several physical health benefits of laughter.

In addition to relieving stress, it can even help prevent you from getting sick and relax tense muscles.

• Relaxes your muscles: When you stress, your muscles can tense up and cause strain. Laughing relieves physical tension in your body for up to 45 minutes.
• Boosts immune system: When your mental health suffers, your physical health can suffer too. Laughter releases infection-fighting antibodies and neuropeptides that can help improve your immune system and prevent you from getting sick. 
• Reduces blood pressure: When laughing, your body releases endorphins that help counteract the stress hormone cortisol, in turn helping to reduce your blood pressure. 
• Helps you lose weight: Weight gain is an all-too-common side effect of chronic stress. In turn, weight gain can lead to even more stress. Laughter can reduce the stress hormone that causes weight gain and even burns some calories. 

Mental Benefits

While there are clearly a ton of physical health benefits of laughter, there are several mental health benefits as well. 

• Improves overall mood: Laughing can help boost your mood and provide an overall feeling of well-being.
• Increase endorphins: Laughter produces endorphins, the ‘feel-good’ hormone, which helps put you in a good mood and fight off stress hormones. 
• Reduce stress hormones: Cortisol levels in your body rise when you’re feeling stressed. When you laugh, it helps your body fight off these hormones by increasing the oxygen levels in your blood. 
• Provides distraction: When you’re laughing with someone, you can get your mind off of the stressors of everyday life. Additionally, laughter can help strengthen your bonds with other people to help you feel more in tune with them. 

No matter how you choose to add laughter to your life, it’s most important to maintain a healthy mindset for your mental well-being.

Making a daily effort to laugh has a multitude of benefits, and is a simple way to improve your overall mood.

It’s clear that laughter can significantly benefit your physical and mental health.

For more ideas on ways to add more laughter to your life, check out the infographic below to find ways to reduce stress, improve your mood, and maintain a healthy mindset. 

Author Bio

Sierra Skelly is Senior Content Marketing Specialist with SiegeMedia

The views and opinions expressed in this post are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect all or some of our beliefs and policy.  Any links on this page does not necessarily mean they have been endorsed by Defying Mental Illness.

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