The Phenomenon called Laughter

For those who ever had the privilege to be in a car with me, will know that I have no patience when it comes to those who disregard the rules of the road. Do not even attempt to smile at me when you know you just skipped the red traffic light or didn’t stop at the stop street.

So by saying I am irritated 90% of the time behind the wheel is an understatement. This has also been a point of prayer for me. Lord teach me patience. Please!

So couple weeks ago it was the first Saturday of the new month and everyone who is everyone was in town. Half of them most probably also had the feeling of irritation with the amount of road users disregarding the law of the land.

On our way back home, there was a man driving behind me. He was obviously extremely late for an appointment as he was driving reeeaaaally close to the rear of my car and kept on swerving left and right, in a very failed attempt to make me react out of the boundaries of the road rules, to accommodate this severe urgency. I could already feel this renewed bubble of irritation being lit up in the pit of my stomach. He couldn’t pass me as we were in a single lane and his impatience persisted towards myself while I stayed in the indicated 60km/hour.

To make this a short version and to get to the point. The lane split into 3 lanes and his impatience caused him to make decision that resulted in him now stuck in the wrong lane.

As soon as I realized what happened, I burst out in laughter. A laughter that bubbled up from the deepest core of me. I could not stop. I was loud. Tummy mussels burning. Cheeks aching. The tears running down my face. I never laughed so hard and so much.

I laughed for at least 15 min straight all the way home. At home when everything was calmer, I realized I had a joy in me. It was different. I felt good.

As the weekend passed. Monday was voting day. I posted a joke and a friend voice messaged me. Her reaction was the same laughter I had on Saturday. That uncontrollable deep burst of laughter that is contagious. Unstoppable. That’s when it hit me.

My joy spilled over to her. I remained focus on this. Hoping that this will spill over into more. My wishes came true. Tuesday my Youngest Sister, Michel and I sat in the car waiting for school to come out and we just sat laughing together. Between the gasps of air and tummy aches from laughing she asked why are we laughing? And all I could get out was: “I don’t know!” Which of course made us laugh even more at how silly we must look. We didn’t care. It felt to good to stop.

The weeks following I received more messages of shared laughter. I had a smile on my face. A Joy deep in my soul that for once in a long time I was enjoying life!

I didn’t want to stop laughing like that. I felt happy with no care in the world. I knew how God answered my prayers for patience. He made it into laughter.

Now that I am on a roll with this phenomenon called laughter. I did some research on the benefits of laughter.  Well what an eye opener it was. I’m now better understanding why it felt so good.

So I came across an article from a fancy Doctor in Lynn University in Florida.  Dr. Matt Bellace. His article in short stated that laughter releases a neurotransmitter. And this wonderful transmitter is called Dopamine which is a neuro chemical. (Now I sound fancy)

So in my limited understanding once we laugh and have fun our brain generates a pleasure chemical that creates a sense of euphoria. He also noted that the benefit of laughter will improve our immune function (bye – bye ‘Rona). It will relieve stress and reduce your levels of anxiety. I also read that its good for your heart and improves tolerance for pain (be gone man-flu). And when you are faced with that bundle of washing from last week that need ironing. Your general mood will be enhanced while you laugh your way through it.

Now, how do we inhabit the art of laughing everyday. How do we find the joy in the little things so we can get those Dopamine juices flowing constantly.

Speaking from my own experience and belief, the enemy wants to rob us from our joy. If we don’t have it he has Carte Blanch on our emotions. We become vulnerable and its the perfect doorway that he can open to bring circumstances of the world into our lives to demotivate us and make things look hopeless and I dare say bigger than God.

We cower away and we only see the bad, wrong or worrisome matter in front of us and the enemy then effectively has that hold on us that we don’t even know how we got into it.

Things happen and we forget the goodness of God because we get used to bad things happening.

We forget that we are the creators of our own experiences.

Are we going to sit back and let everything pull us into a deeper darkness or sadness or are we going to choose to laugh and find joy.

The word says in Psalms 30 that Joy comes in the morning. My dear, let us look for the things in life that make us happy. Let us be conscious of our blind spots. Let us make the choice today that we are going to laugh un-apologetically. Find the joy in every moment. And yes that includes the ironing as well.

I’m going to leave you with a great quote from Dr. Seuss himself. FUN IS GOOD