Warning: You Can And Will Catch Laughter.

Laughter can elevate the entire mood of a group of people, because it being highly contagious. It has been proven that far more can be achieved through laughter, than any other method. Connectivity is improved, social interaction heightened and stress levels lowered. In a world reeling from financial crises, laughter is one of the few commodities that is still free.

When the world is plummeting down around your ears, laughter plays a very important role in keeping your sanity. Laughter turns your focus off the negative emotions such as anger, guilt and stress. It is so important as human beings that we learn to embrace both tears and laughter.

It is a well known fact that illogical situations causes us to laugh, while logic is terribly boring. Many a catastrophic circumstance has been turned into gales of laughter, as an incident is retold as entertainment, at a later date, to friends and relatives. It is truly a case of 'look back and laugh' at the illogical elements of a particular incident. Laughter makes the difference between choosing to see a situation as a threat, or a challenge. Laughter completely alters our perspective.

Look how infectious a happy person is. Knowing someone who is happy makes you 15.3% more likely to be happy yourself, a recent study revealed.

A researcher of University College London, Sophie Scott, says "We often mimic a person we are talking to and mirror their behavior?" Perhaps it would be a good idea to spend some time in front of a mirror looking at how you present yourself. You may discover it would be an advantage to lighten up your general presentation.

Dr. Nicholas A. Christakis, a physician and medical sociologist at Harvard, says "Your emotional state depends not just on actions and choices that you make, but also on actions and choices of other people. Many of which you don't even know".

While laughter has many healing properties, finding laughter in daily life profoundly enhances healing and the quality of life. Laughter can be used to assist in the reduction of symptoms of allergies, abdominal pain and digestive problems. Laughter also can be used to help you manage emotions of anger and fear. As well as all that, a good belly laugh exercises the diaphragm, contracts the abs and even works out the shoulders. It also leaves muscles more relaxed afterward and provides a good workout for the heart. Many say a good ten minute laugh is considered better than a 20 minute jog. Perhaps the old saying should be altered to: 'a laugh a day keeps the doctor away'.

Laughter is something you can catch without even asking for it, even when you don't feel like laughing. Ever tried to remain serious while everyone around you is crying tears of laughter?

Laughter is high on the list as a stress relieve, along with sex, prayer and meditation, music therapy, and progressive muscle relaxation. It is trust that if you laugh, the whole world laughs with you, but weep and you weep alone.

Here are some people's private thoughts on laughter.

Laibl Wolf, Rabbi and educational psychologist
We laugh when the soul tricks the mind, bypasses it and short circuits the thinking process. It is one of the most mystical expressions of human beings. When true laughter flows from the intuitive self it reveals the most beautiful expression and purpose of the joy of creation.

Lama Choedak
To experience happiness through laughter brings us closer to the basic values of our existence.

Jenny Thompson Richards (working in a terminally ill hospice)
II work in a place where people really value laughter because of their very special situation. These people know their life is limited. We encourage humour that allows people to embrace the deep things o f life and to be connected together with each other. It is still the best breaker down of barriers that there is.

Diane Bodein Walters
There is a fine line between laughter and tears. I often see people move quickly from one to the other. There's a quote of Oscar Wilde 'Where there's sorrow there's holy ground' so we have to be prepared for people to want to either cry or laugh. I feel they come from the same place, deep within the heart.

Bill Beagley, Anglican Priest
Humour by its very nature asks you to look beyond the logical realities. A joke is funny simply because you realize it's impossible.

Narr
Humour met its ultimate challenge in the horror that was the Holocaust, when reality was subverted through humour. Auchwitz survivor Abraham Ckyiert humour found it was only a way of enduring the horror of the moment, but it was ultimately the means of his survival.

Dr Fry, a psychiatrist at Stanford Medical School,
The average child laughs an average of 300 times per day, though they cry as often as they laugh. For a lot of people there is no closer link to the innocence of childhood than that evoked by the vision of a clown.
It is time to begin to concentrate on having and creating more fun in your life.