CHRIS JACKSON/GETTYIMAGES
B1 April 7–13, 2016
Myths About
Cholesterol
You Need to Stop
Believing
on B3
LAUGH YOUR HEART OUT
IT’S GOOD FOR YOU
Members of the band
The Beach Girl5 laugh
at a cafe in London in
2010. Laughter has the
ability to immediately
transform us and,
often, our surrounding
circumstances.
By Carrie Ciula
“I
don’t trust anyone who doesn’t laugh,” Maya Angelou
said. Along with every notorious saying, rides a bundle
of truth.
I adore a good chuckle—not just any variety of chuckle, but a
hearty one. The kind that leaves you gasping for air, clutching
your midsection, and complaining about how much your face
hurts for minutes after. The variety of laughter that arrives
when all inhibitions are released, when there is no worry about
what’s right, what’s acceptable, what’s proper, or how or what
others are seeing.
A good, bodyinvolving
laugh
evaporates
stress and
relieves
physical
tension.
I’m talking about laughter that urges you to reach
out to someone, if only to avoid falling. Laughter that
instantaneously invites others to this special place,
even if they have no idea what you’re laughing about.
Laughter is an innate, unlearned response. Infants
begin to smile during the first few weeks of life and
begin to laugh only months into their journey. It is
awe-stirring that we are all born with this intrinsic
affinity toward smiling and making noise out of pure
delight for whatever we find funny.
For anyone who has felt incredible after a hearty
laugh, the measurable benefits of laughter won’t come
as a surprise. But here are eight of the likely many
reasons we all should lean into a good belly laugh (or
many) every day.
See Laugh on B2
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