It is said that laughter is the best medicine. And many would agree that being a woman comes with more than enough problems to require a good dose of meds. It’s easy to want to cry in the face of our girl problems, but according to science, there’s no harm in laughing instead. In fact, your physical and mental health might thank you for it.
When you laugh, you stimulate some of your organs. “Laughter enhances your intake of oxygen-rich air, stimulates your heart, lungs and muscles, and increases the endorphins that are released by your brain,” notes MayoClinic, adding that a good giggle also activates and relieves your stress response.
As per the medical site, laughing “fires up and then cools down your stress response.” It can also increase and then decrease your heart rate and blood pressure, leaving you feeling more relaxed than you were just before you scrolled through a hilarious list of memes.
Perhaps best of all for those battling through “that time of the month” is the fact that laughter soothes tension and helps reduce pain. It stimulates circulation, aids muscle relaxation, releases endorphins, and increases serotonin and dopamine, which means less stress and soreness.
Over the long term, laughter strengthens your immune system, helping to keep you healthier and alive as a woman for longer. “Negative thoughts manifest into chemical reactions that can affect your body by bringing more stress into your system and decreasing your immunity,” reads the MayoClinic site. “By contrast, positive thoughts can actually release neuropeptides that help fight stress and potentially more-serious illnesses.”
While we’ll always recommend looking through Bored Panda’s extensive archive of funny memes when you need a pick-me-up, experts say you shouldn’t forget to laugh at yourself too. Psychologists call it “self-directed laughter” and, like any other kind of laughter, it’s good for you.
Among the potential benefits, reveals VeryWellMind, are improved mental health, stress management, and self-expression. "Making light of your shortcomings can help you cope with stress and negativity, making it a valuable tool for managing mental health," notes the site.
"Gently poking fun at the things that bring you down can take the hurt and stress out of them. It won't make those challenges vanish, but it can make them easier to deal with."
“Maintaining a sense of self-deprecating sense of humor while I faced whatever it was life threw at me allowed me to reframe challenges, get out of my head, and maintain my mental health during some of the most trying times in my career,” revealed award-winning business leader and keynote speaker Dr. Magie Cook. “When we learn to embrace challenges and our struggles in a humorous way, we shift our negative thinking into a more optimistic outlook.”
Cook, who grew up in an orphanage in Mexico before moving to the U.S. on a basketball scholarship, has seen her fair share of adversity. She found herself homeless at one point and has faced many other obstacles on her way to building a successful salsa-making empire.
She says human beings are tuned to recognize the negative. They're more likely to see a stressful situation as threatening, without any ability to see a silver lining. "When we start poking fun at our own mistakes, stressors, and challenges, we disarm that threat," said Cook. "Suddenly, this stressed out world has no more power, and we can find humor in the chaos that lets us reclaim our control over whatever situation we find ourselves in. We remind ourselves that mistakes are inevitable, and no one mishap defines us."
