If April showers bring May flowers, what do May flowers bring? Pilgrims! That’s one of the earliest (and corniest) jokes I remember from childhood that still makes me chuckle, which as it turns out is a good thing. Numerous studies have shown a link between laughter and better health. A good, hearty laugh can boost the immune system, elevate mood, lower stress levels, reduce pain, relax tense muscles, and improve heart and brain function. As a result, in addition to exercising regularly and eating a balanced diet, health experts are now beginning to recommend we add some humor to our daily routines.
If you have access to the internet, good sources of humor are just a mouse click or finger tap away. There are numerous joke sites on the web and countless humorous videos on www.youtube.com. For those of you without internet access, there’s ABC’s long running TV series, America’s Funniest Home Videos that is often good for a laugh or two. While the jury is still out as to whether laughter actually prevents disease, we do know that at the least, it can help improve the quality of our lives and enhance our overall sense of well-being. In the words of songwriters Richard and Robert Sherman as sung by Ed Wynn and Dick Van Dyke in Walt Disney’s Academy Award Winning 1964 movie Mary Poppins:
“The more we laugh, the more we fill with glee. The more the glee, the more we’re a merrier we.”
