Laughter – Finding Relief for Chronic Pain

Job 8:21 - He will yet fill your mouth with laughter and your lips with shouts of joy.

Did you know that seventy-five percent of our daily conversation is negative? It’s like instead of there being a “global warming,” instead we have a “global wining.” Everybody is finding reasons to be just plain grumpy. And there’s no sign of laughter anywhere. However, laughter can provide relief for chronic pain.
 
If we center our focus on the negative we will feel the way we think. You start to look at how you suffer. We all know we will suffer at some point in our lives, so why do we practice?
 
For example, if you say throughout the day, “I’m so tired,” it won’t be long if you weren’t really tired before you will be now. And your chronic pain will be worse if we keep thinking about it all day.
 
We can’t seem to even enjoy things these days. There are too many pessimists. Pessimists are accurate, but they don’t live as long as optimists.
 
Or then there are times when we someone asks us how we’re doing, and we answer, “I’m feeling fine.” So why don’t you tell your face your find? Take a look at this:
 
•A four-year-old:  laughs 400/day
•An adult: laughs 14/day
 
Most of us are just dying for relief from stressful thoughts and would love to find some laughter along the way.
 
You ever wonder why zebras don’t worry?  It’s because their whole life boils down to six seconds. A large lion starts his approach toward a zebra. The zebra lifts his head and senses the lion’s approach. Now he has six seconds in which he’ll either escape or become dinner. Humans tend to keep thinking about their worries and not act on them. This all adds to more stress and less laughter.
 
So why don’t we laugh? Why do we forget to enjoy ourselves? One big reason – the committee. I saw them coming. They were all loaded up in the mini-van. And they were coming to watch me.
 
We’re so worried about what others think of us. But if you really knew just how much people think about you, you’d realize that most people are too busy thinking about themselves to think about you, and you’d stop worrying about what other people think of you.
 
Just one more thing. Here’s an exercise prescribed by me:
 
Smile big
Raise your eyebrows
Open your eyes
Hold your belly
Laugh hard for 30 seconds
 
Thirty minutes of laughter can produce 2-3 hours of pain relief.
 
And as a bonus, laughter is documented to relieve pain. So, get yourself a funny video to watch or go visit a friend who can make you laugh. You’ll get some needed social interaction and you just might lift someone else’s load too.
 
Helpguide.org in their article, “Laughter is the Best Medicine,” provide us some ways that laughter benefits our bodies. One of the ways is that laughter protects the heart by improving the function of blood vessels and increases blood flow. It also can add joy to life, ease stress and tension, and improves your mood.
 
Isn’t it time to enjoy life? The Bible verse above states that God will fill our mouths with laughter and joy. Laughter is a gift. Why not use it? And find some relief from chronic pain.
 
Key words: laughter relieves pain, get rid of negative, stop being pessimist, what you think matters, relief from stress

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