Laughter is the sound of freedom

Symbolically as well as physically, laughter is the very opposite of holding your breath. Physically, we involuntarily contract and expand our chest when we laugh. Our arms move. Our heart-beat speeds up. Blood flows more rapidly. We feel so much livelier that, for the moment, we are free.

Curiously, laughing involves functions which have little to do with the biology of survival. Some have called laughter the luxury reflex because all it seems to do is relieve tension. A genuine laughter feels wonderful. It certainly relieves tension, but it does more.

In the aftermath of laughter, we experience physiological relaxation. Breathing and heart rate slow; muscles relax, and blood pressure drops; we feel calmer.

People who regularly rely on humor to cope, can more easily let go of anger, fear, anxiety, hostility, and a host of other negative feelings that often accompany crisis.

Laughter is the sound of freedom. Laughter is a common reaction to the unexpected, the unpredictable. Laughter is unique to the human species, and we all laughed naturally as infants without needing to be taught. All we need is receptivity; expression will come on its own. Laughter and tears are intimate partners. At some moments we laugh until we cry; at others we cry until we laugh. Sometimes it is hard to distinguish between them. One seems to make a seamless shift into the other. We laugh at the most absurd and at the most earnest moments.

Laughter is a gift we sometimes forget to use. If we have forgotten how, it will take a bit of patience to relearn what once came naturally.

A smile, even in retrospect, fosters healing and quickens our pace in the upward spiral.