Above is a coffee I'm not likely to forget. I drink coffee a couple of times a day. I like to take put the milk into the bottom of my mug before pouring the coffee. But when I was distracted making coffee one day, I put the coffee at the bottom of the cafetière, added the milk and poured in the water. And as I poured the water, I realised my error. There are a few ways I could have reacted. 

•    I could have gotten annoyed with myself, or
•    I could have thrown it in and started all over again, or
•    And this is what I did, I laughed and moved on. I didn't need to waste time getting annoyed, and  I didn't need to waste anything by throwing it out.

Laughter truly is the best medicine. We are all born with the ability to laugh. It is one of our body's natural ways of releasing tension. It can change how we react and reframe our responses, when appropriate of course. Laughter is innate – we are born with the ability to laugh.

The world we live in is serious – as we grow into adulthood, we often lose our sense of fun and playfulness. Life is serious, of course, but it doesn't always have to be taken so seriously. And it's not to undermine it or make light of it. No, it's to see if we can have a more light-hearted approach and benefit from some of the many benefits to laughter, like: 

•     Building resilience. 
•     Boosting our immune system 
•     Massaging our internal organs and invigorating our insides
•     Giving your belly muscles a work-out. 

Humour is one of my top three values and I love to laugh. Humour is a positive emotion and its outward expression, laughter, is a universal currency. In all seriousness if I don’t have some fun, humour and laughter in my day …. the cracks begin to show! Luckily, we can proactively cultivate moments of laughter in our lives.

Below are three ways to infuse the benefits of laughter, as a medicine, into your life. 

The first one we have already touched on – laughing at yourself. It isn’t always easy 

I may have a head start here because I grew up in a house where daily, Garfield told us we must learn to laugh at ourselves. Garfield may have instilled that sense of humour and fun in me.

I wonder if he was even the inspiration for me pursuing a career in ....

   ......Accountancy?!

Laughing at yourself is not always easy, it is often easier to get a bit annoyed, and it takes practice. You have to catch yourself in that moment you added the milk too soon, remember there is no point in getting angry, or crying over spilled milk, laugh it off and get on with your day. Eventually it becomes a habit and you do it automatically and bounce back quicker from minor setbacks. 

A second way is to keep a list of funny moments, things that made you laugh. And when you bring them to mind, you’ll be right back in that moment. I keep a list and I can instantly bring stories to mind that shift my mood and my thinking. As that's another benefit of laughter – it can spark creativity, put you in a more problem-solving frame of mind and leave you feeling open-minded. 

One story I use is:

Several years ago when I was in Niger with work, I went to a house party with my friend Catherine. An American woman with the Peace Corp came over and introduced herself. “Hi, I'm Jane”, she said.  “Hi, I'm Susan”, I replied. And as Catherine was about to her to introduce herself, she wiped her hands because she had been eating and as she did so she muttered under her breath “I've got greasy hands” and Jane immediately replies “Greasy Hands - that's an unusual name.” In that moment Catherine and I looked at one another stunned and silenced – before we regained composure Jane had wandered off. She probably thought we were strange, but we laughed about it, and for years after that, Catherine was in my phone contacts as Greasy Hands. 

If you don’t have a bunch of laughter moments, you can force some laughter 

• Turn that frown upside down and force a smile and once smiling maybe you can laugh. Force the laughter. The amazing thing about smiling and laughter is that it can be infectious (not like covid but in a healthy way!) You will thank yourself. Your body will. And others might too!
• Failing that try a super quick exercise: Take a pen and put it between your teeth. Then pick something up and read it. You just start to laugh because your brain thinks you want to laugh and it joins in!
• If neither of these two did the trick go on YouTube and search for goats on trampolines. 

So, learn to laugh at yourself, keep a list of moments that have made you laugh and consult with them when you need a laugh or develop some tricks to fool your brain into laughter. 

I hope I've convinced you that laughter really is the best medicine. Do you feel the benefit?

Reference: Laughology: Improve Your Life With The Science Of Laughter, Stephanie Davies