Biohack Your Mood with Laughter — Biohacker’s Base
Laughter is a very powerful, and yet free and easy way to biohack your mood. It is an amazingly efficient method to deal with stress. All you need to do is laugh, so you can start right now!
Have you ever heard the saying “laughter is the best medicine”? Old sayings are usually true, and this one is no exception.
The Effects of Laughter
There are many studies claiming that you get all sorts of benefits from laughter. These range from decreasing the stress levels, reducing tension, improved creativity or increased tolerance to pain, all the way to improved immune system functioning and better sleep.
The classic health test studies are focused on the negative effects, as you want to have a great balance between benefits and risks. In case of laughter though, there are no negative effects, so the studies should have been a lot more “relaxed”. There are numerous reports of laughter benefits in geriatrics, oncology, critical care, psychiatry, rehabilitation, rheumatology, home care, palliative care, hospice care, terminal care, and general patient care.
There are many studies proving that depression, stress, and sadness decrease your immune system’s efficiency. This means that if you can laugh your way out of those states, you will automatically get an immune system boost.
Exercising Laughter
The easiest way to practice laughter is to just laugh as often as you have the occasion. Besides this, you can laugh as a biohacking exercise when you find yourself in stressful situations. Here’s how to do this: focus the thing causing you stress, visualize it in front of you, point and laugh at it.
It will most likely be difficult to have a sincere laugh, and all you will get is a fake one. That’s still good, it turns out even fake laughs work just as well. You might find it easier if you make the whole situation as silly as you can. Just do your best and make fun of the thing causing you stress.
You will soon notice that not only your body is way more relaxed after such an exercise, but you also feel a lot better mentally.
Biohack Your Mood
When you are happy, you smile and laugh. Turns out you can hack your brain by putting a big smile on your face. This simple trick can fool your brain into thinking you are happy. The brain can’t tell if you are happy or just pretending, and it will act as you truly are. This works the same way as power-poses do.
No Day Without a Laugh
Try to include in your daily routine a 10 to 15 minutes interval dedicated to laughing. The best way would be to laugh with friends, as this is a very contagious and social manifestation. Alternatively, you can also watch a funny clip (a stand-up piece, a funny short movie or whatever makes you laugh), read some jokes or perhaps join a laughter yoga class. There are so many ways to get yourself laughing so be creative and try things.
Conclusion
Your body and mind both benefit from a good laugh, so don’t forget to laugh as often as you can. If you can’t find a good reason to laugh, just fake it ‘till you make it, and your brain won’t tell the difference. This is probably the easiest way to biohack your mood.
Originally published at https://biohackersbase.com on February 5, 2020.
