Laughter Matters

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Stephen Colbert’s broadcast from Saddam Hussein’s former Al Faw Palace in Iraq this week on Comedy Central opened up a new brand of diplomacy in the world, a ha-ha-logue, which goes to show that laughing is not only a laughing matter. It’s good politics!

Swinging a golf club like USO icon Bob Hope used to do, Colbert told the audience what a thrill it was to bring his show to the brave military men and women in Iraq, “a country so nice we invaded it twice.”

Beamed in by satellite, President Obama appeared on a large screen in front of 250 U. S. soldiers and commanded bald General Ray Odierno to cut Colbert’s hair onstage so he would look more like a “real soldier.” As the General took an electric shaver to the clueless comic’s coif, the military audience laughed merrily.

Apparently, the “laughing cure” has caught on, even on the front lines of war.

Ever since journalist Norman Cousins swore that 10 minutes of uproarious laughing while watching old Marx Brothers videos brought him enough comfort for two hours of pain-free sleep, science has taken humor seriously.

He describes “the laughing cure” in his book, Anatomy of an Illness as Perceived by the Patient, saying humor relieved arthritis inflammation so much he could return to work as an adjunct professor at the University of California’s School of Medicine, studying the positive emotional effects of laughter.

“Laughter relaxes us and improves our mood, and hearing jokes eases anxiety,” reports Steve Ayan in the Scientific American Mind. Cheerfulness, a trait that makes people respond more readily to humor, is also linked to emotional resilience —the ability to keep a level head in difficult circumstances – and to close relationships.

Humor you read, hear from friends or see on film or TV causes the blood concentration of the stress hormone cortisol to drop, so it helps people feel at ease and lose weight.

Solutions to some of our world’s most pressing problems could come from laughter. Imagine! Giggle for Gaia Groups could be so cool, they would reverse global warming. Amusolutions could dissolve toxic wastes and hardened arteries. Jokes could replace the money system, which is already a big joke, according to some.

Laughing at jokes creates a cognitive distance between yourself and circumstances in a way that can be psychologically protective and help you re-frame the situation to see it in a brighter light. The humorous perspective loosens tense muscles, boosts heart rate, and increases oxygen consumption, which is probably why the Ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle viewed laughter as “a bodily exercise precious to health.”

Politics seems to have finally caught up with science, and people from the Pentagon to the White House to the Senate are getting the picture of parody. Laughter is one of a trio of tactics humans can use to counterbalance life’s troubles, according to the 18th century philosopher Immanuel Kant. The others are hope and sleep.

I say, take two jokes, a cup of hope, a belly laugh, and a good night’s rest, and call me in the morning.

Blessings, Dr. Marya

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