Humor And Laughter Create Wonders

Humor and laughter create wonders. Especially in a world withdrawn look to its face. A world is full of stress going for anti-depressants. It is also beyond belief that life offers only rosy happiness, life has its seamy sides also. Everyone has one’s own misery and left-handed compliments. A job may be lost, a most cherished relationship may suddenly drop to a break-up, the death of those one loves most, long-drawn poverty, and hundreds of such catalysts ready to introduce depression. Once caught in the snare of depression, in a world propped up with medicines, we go for drugs. A report of the Centers for Disease Control of United States says the third most commonly prescribed drugs in the United States are the anti-depressants!

Patient Dependent On Medicines

So with such a scary scenario, you will not like to be a patient dependent on medicines for the problems you could not solve on your own. But before going to a viable solution, let us see how depression is caused. Depression is nothing but neurochemical reactions within the brain. When we turn into a melancholic mood, when we are depressed, certain imbalances occur in the brain and the neurotransmitters- serotonin, norepinephrine, and dopamine. These three are custodians of our mood, happiness, anxiety, sleep, alertness, blood pressure, motivation, perception of reality, and the ability to experience pleasure. There are certain catalysts as said in the beginning which take us to the realm of depression and start the neurochemical reactions resulting in the imbalance in the three guardian neurotransmitters. The symptoms appear. And then we go to doctors, drugs, antidepressants.

Make Wonderful Changes In Our Brain

Can we go for a solution free of doctors, drugs, and the traumatic condition of being branded a patient? The answer is a big YES. We can make wonderful changes in our brain chemistry. And we can do it intentionally. Elisabeth Perreau-Linck is a neuroscientist at the University of Montreal, who has carried out a study. She says, “In essence, people have the capacity to affect the electrochemical dynamics of their brains by changing the nature of their mental process. This is a kind of ‘positive emotion therapy’ that anyone can use to modify chemical functioning of the brain.”
And how can we do it?

We can come out of the state of depression deliberately by inviting humor. And by laughter, the physiological response to humor. Laughter sets an anti-inflammatory effect. This effect protects blood vessels and heart muscles from the negative effects of cardiovascular disease. Then laughter helps in the reduction of certain stress hormones. Anti-body-producing cells are also enhanced by laughter. So the immune system becomes stronger.

So the long and short of this is you need a little will and a lot of humor and laughter. The will to change the track of your thought process from negative to positive during adverse situations. Watch comedy movies, read humorous literature, crack jokes and every day laughs a lot. The whole world will change and the scenario will not be that depressing. And if you do not find any other option right now go before the mirror, make queer faces, and laugh to your heart’s satisfaction. (written by Sanjay Kumar Kundan)