Laughing

I have a friend who says, “Laughing: it’s like jogging for your insides.” Indeed! Few things are better than a good guffaw. While there are many different types of laughs, any laugh is a good sign of happiness.

Take the song I Love to Laugh from the Disney version of Mary Poppins. It outlines many of the various ways people laugh: through their noses, hissing, blasting, fast, “twitter like birds”, and a myriad of other ways. I've seen people laugh with their entire body!

Have you ever laughed until you’re crying? How about laughing so much your stomach hurts? See…laughing like that is a workout! I’ve laughed so much that I’ve been sore the following morning. What a great feeling!

And a couple years ago health scientists at Vanderbilt University found that 10 to 15 minutes of hearty laughing per day can burn up to 50 calories! That’s about 1.5 calories per minute (in comparison, jogging burns 10 calories per minute). That means, if you laugh 15 minutes a day, you lose the caloric equivalent of four pounds per year!!

So every time something strikes you as even slightly funny…laugh. Hard. (Unless you’re highly asthmatic). It’s highly contagious!

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