Laughter - Bringing a smile to your day!
“A joyful heart is good medicine but a broken spirit dries up the bones”
(Proverbs 17:22,CSB )
I want to write…I think I must get on and do it. Then the minutes turn to hours and the hours turn to days and I just haven’t written anything...( sigh). I think about the funny moments in my life, the laughter, the smiles the moments you just want to capture and share with others so that they can laugh too. Then the thoughts come flooding in…how would I capture them in writing? The pauses… the comic timing… the irony… how can I translate this to paper to make you roll with laughter the way we have just done as women together, sisters, mother and daughters, cross-generational, culturally rich. I think I just have to start.
My sister is one of the funniest people I know. What makes her so entertaining are the things she says, at the times she does, and in the way she says them. The thing is she never realises how funny she is until we point it out to her and then we all just roll around laughing. My daughter is always telling her she ought to have her own You Tube channel, which is hilarious really as I can’t think of anyone more avoidant of social media- Twitter ( I don’t think I’ll ever get use to calling it X), Instagram, Facebook nuh, nuh, nuh, I won’t even mention Tik Tok. The thing about my sister is she is brutally honest and packed full of wisdom and it’s hard to find many others like her. She delivers her pockets of truths and nuggets of wisdom with such sharpness and in a matter-of-fact way that when the laughter is over your thinking and life is better for being with her.
So what brings the laughter?
When family members or friends meet up, and are able to laugh together at sometimes the simplest of things it is so often taken for granted. We laugh together because of the synchronicity in the way we have been raised. We laugh at our similarities as well as dis- similarities. We laugh at the distance between our generations, when we get together intergenerationally. We laugh because there is a through line that connects us and makes us all the same, understanding in similar ways and thinking similar thoughts. We laugh at the things that ring true to us when said by one who never holds back, or delivered in a culturally familiar accent which brings more punch and hilarity. Those moment where little things are said that harps back to the past which we are all connected to, so we all get it. Or it harps back to an experience which we’ve all shared which we can look back at and laugh, even if it wasn’t particularly funny at the time, we can use it as a reference point, where we make jokes. We tag in a reference from the past that everyone can understand. It’s a lot to do with context, our shared culture, our shared lived experience together, shared history. Someone else listening wouldn’t necessarily find it funny but for us it’s so funny. A simple picture of a car parked too close to the wall sent from a husband to a wife. Even now in recollection produces such laughter. It’s not the picture per se but the layers. No.1 He took the picture, No.2 He sat next to you knowing he took that picture and not said a word and No.3 Why did you park so close to the wall?
Inter-generationally
As mother and daughters together, we often laugh analytically at a distance at what we are living and doing and layer spiritual wisdom and guidance on top as we laugh. A particular skill of storytelling and humour is happening as we take part in these moments of laughter that takes a certain type of thinking to understand what we are laughing about. Those outside of our family and even those outside this female circle in our family don’t always get it. The women in our family have grown up in it and watched it and now are able to take part in it.
Reflecting...
I’ve been thinking about laughter and how , especially during this time as I am recovering from cancer, it has been medicine. The laughter shared during hospital visits with my sister, daughters and niece was like medicine. Laughter has been such an important part of my healing whether it’s a time of physical healing, as I lay on a hospital bed or recovered at home or emotional healing as I worked through feelings of frustration, disappointment and at times anger. I have often laughed out load during difficult emotional times, as I’ve taken myself away and allowed my mind and emotions to rest as stress is relieved through a comic movie like ‘The devil wears Prada’ or a comical sitcom like ‘Only fools and horses’ or as I’ve read a good allegory such as C.S. Lewis’ ‘Screwtape letters’. And how can I not mention the audiobooks. Just remembering listening to a Trevor Noah’s -‘Born a crime’ brings a broad smile to my face as I reflect on the many humourous moments.
Happy people live longer – fact
Haven’t we all been in situations where laughter has ‘broken the ice’ diffusing anger or conflict in a moment? Do you remember those times when you eventually, and perhaps even reluctantly, looked at the funny side of that frustrating situation. As laughter broke the tension and brought a fresh perspective you were able to let go and moved forward without holding on to bitterness or resentment.
While writing this, I came across several studies that confirmed something many of us have probably felt, laughter really is good for us. It doesn’t just lift our spirits; it actually reduces stress hormones and helps our bodies relax. In fact, laughing regularly has even been linked to a lower risk of heart disease in older adults. It turns out laughter improves blood vessel function, boosts circulation, and helps protect the heart.
Have you ever noticed how your muscles seem to loosen and tension fades when you’re truly laughing? It’s not just in your head. That joyful feeling is connected to real health benefits—like the release of endorphins, our body’s natural feel-good chemicals, which can even help reduce pain. Laughter can also support the immune system by increasing the number of infection-fighting cells and antibodies.
One study from 2025 really stood out to me—it explored laughter therapy and how it helps ease both physical and emotional symptoms in cancer patients. It’s incredible to think that something as simple and natural as laughter can have such a meaningful impact on our well-being.
So laughter really is the best medicine
Laughter is good for us. So let’s regularly ask ourselves
What brings us deep joy?
Who are the people in our lives that we enjoy laughing with?
What do we find really funny?
Then let’s do our best to make time to immerse ourselves in these things and spend time with these people.
Harold Benjamin, PhD, founder of the wellness community once said “The more laughter there is, the higher the quality-of-life, and the higher the quality-of-life, the greater the will to live”
For me laughter has been and will continue to be medicine as I do believe what was written by one much wiser than me…
‘A joyful, cheerful heart brings healing to both body and soul. But the one whose heart is crushed struggles with sickness and depression’ (Proverbs 17:22, TPT)
So I am saying…
Laughter is GOOD for us!
…so let’s have much more of it in our lives!
© June 2025, Pauline R Young
