Why Laughing at Yourself Can Boost Your Health

Hey! How are you dealing?

Today we are going to learn how important it is to laugh at oneself !

1. Please read the following article and summarise in a T-chart the key points

Why Laughing at Yourself Can Boost Your Health

The ability to laugh at your mistakes (and yourself) boosts your physical and psychological health.

July 10, 2017, 5:16 PM CEST / Updated July 10, 2017, 5:16 PM CEST

By Vivian Manning-Schaffel

NBC News

"It’s happened to everyone: you walk down the street, trip, stumble and fall. Assuming you aren’t seriously injured, you might peer around to see who bore witness to your foible and either a) be completely embarrassed and horrified that you took a tumble in public or b) have a good laugh at yourself, dust yourself off and resume whatever it was you were doing.The world seems to be divided between two types of people — those who find it easy to laugh at themselves, and those who take themselves a little too seriously. Believe it or not, the science of good health tilts in favor of those who crack up when they fall. As it turns out, the ability to laugh at yourself is not only a healthy attitude — it’s a healthy attribute.

1. It’s good for your heart — literally

A 2009 study conducted by cardiologists at the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore revealed that laughing, along with an “active sense of humor,” can protect against a heart attack and prevent heart disease. According to the study, people with heart disease were 40 percent less likely to laugh in a variety of situations compared to people of the same age without heart disease — a little more evidence that lightening up can lengthen your life span.

2. It means you can can handle life better

Dr. Beermann says happier people are also more resilient, meaning they can better handle life when things don’t go their way. “According to (Swiss humor expert from the University of Zurich) Dr. Willibald Ruch, a cheerful person seems to be more resilient against negative events, and is more able to face adversities in life with a smile,” she says... the stress experienced by less resilient people produces chemicals in the body that cause inflammation. Chronic inflammation can lead to a variety of illnesses, including diabetes, cardiovascular disease, arthritis, cancer, dementia and depression.

3. You can manage pain better We’ve established that laughing at yourself indicates resilience. And a recent study published in the Journal of Pain demonstrated that higher resilience is associated with a higher pain threshold in otherwise healthy adults. Another article in Scientific American attributes the endorphins released during laughter to pain relief. 4. It boosts your short-term memory Science says the more you laugh, the better you remember. Loma Linda University researchers conducted a study examining the stress levels and short term memory of 20 healthy adults in their 60s and 70s. They asked one group to sit in silence without means of communication, and let the other group watch funny videos. Wouldn’t you know it, the “humor group” had “much higher improvement” in the ability to remember things, 43.6 percent, compared with 20.3 percent in the other group. Additionally, the humor group had lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol floating around their systems, while the other group only showed a slight drop in their stress levels.

So the next time you take a tumble or trip on the sidewalk, have a laugh.

You’ll be all the healthier for it!

2. Once that you have summarised the text, think of how to apply these arguments to our current situation (having to stay home for who knows how long...!) Many people have published videos in social networks to cheer us up:

3. Can we use humour to make us and other people feel better? How? Explain.

4. Now do Think Values on page 123 from your books.

Don't forget to send me all the exercises to my mail. Thanks, enjoy your day! :)