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Happy April Fools Day! Yes today is the day when pranksters get their moment in the sun and everyone becomes a little silly. While these antics can be a little much, if you give into them and have a good laugh it can actually be good for your health.

Laughter is healthy in many ways that might surprise you. The first benefit is it decreases the hormones that cause stress and boosts your “immune cells and infection-fighting antibodies, thus improving your resistance to disease” (Mayo Clinic) So by laughing we are happier both mentally and physically!

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It might surprise you to learn that laughter is also good for your organs. By enhancing your intake of oxygen, laughter stimulates your heart, lungs, and muscles to work more efficiently and create endorphins which lead to overall better health. The more endorphins we have, the less muscle pain we should have and the more quickly we will bounce back after a tough work-out.

Being quick to laugh is also beneficial socially. Naturally when we are laughing we are happy, and happy people are more attractive and fun to be around. Also, when others laugh at our jokes we feel valued and have more self confidence. While laughter should never feel forced, being quick to laugh is a quality worth developing.

The question then remains how do we get the full benefits of laughter without appearing false or embarrassing ourselves? For starters don’t take yourself too seriously. Being willing to laugh at ourselves usually puts everyone else at ease and helps everyone else laugh more. Also, try to gauge the room and situation for the humor that is appropriate and listen to a few comedy albums to see what type of humor makes you laugh the most.

Life is stressful so learning to laugh is a wonderful skill to possess. It ensures even if you are all by yourself you can be happy and entertain yourself. It makes you pleasant to be around and increases endorphins for better mental health. It even improves your organs and muscles for great physical health.

Here at Zim’s we wish you all a Happy April Fools and hope you have a funny day full of laughs!