A laugh a day keeps the doctor away

How often do we laugh? For most people, not nearly enough.

Yet laughter is one of the best things we can do.

If you are in pain, laughter produces endorphins that are stronger than morphine. Remember Norman Cousins with his incurable illness -- such excruciating pain that they couldn't even cover him with a sheet? But ten minutes of belly laughter while watching comedies gave him hours of relief -- totally pain-free.

If you want a closer bond, laughter produces a sense of joy that draws people together. You automatically like someone you laugh with. Laughter is one of the six languages of love, all of which produce oxytocin that bonds us with loving feelings to others.

If you are stressed out, remember the cockney east-end Londoners. During the blitz of 1941-2 when London was bombed night after night, they were renowned for their sense of humor. One video showed two wardens who had managed to herd people into the underground station to safety, but didn't manage to get in there themselves. Buildings were falling around them and one of them was lost. His friend keep calling for him. Finally, the rubble moved and the second warden emerged smiling, "Don't worry mate," he said, "I had all me fingers crossed" and he put his two hands in the air with all his fingers crossed over each other. And they laughed.

Nothing to laugh about?  Stressed out, depressed, life is deadly serious? This means we need laughter even more!  Watch the video clip below! I bookmark it and watch it on a regular basis and I always end up laughing.

Find any excuse to laugh, even to smile. 
Share your funny stories here, so when you need a good laugh you'll know where to find it.