Stress has a huge impact on your skin health – and on many other aspects of your health too. When you’re stressed, your body releases hormones like cortisol, which impact the function of your immune system. This can trigger inflammation, leading to a skin flare. That’s just one of many ways that cortisol affects your body.
If you want to have healthy skin, then it’s essential to control stress. Of course, stressful situations happen to everyone – it’s impossible to have a life with no stress. But we can control how we respond when stressful things happen.
One fantastic tool you can use for managing stress is humor. Research has shown that laughter can help to relieve stress.
How can laughter help to relieve stress?
If you’ve ever been in a situation where you’re feeling anxious or depressed, and then a friend made you laugh and you started feeling better – then you’ve experienced the power of laughter for relieving stress. Most of us have felt this in our own lives. But why is laughter so effective at helping us cope?
Research has uncovered a few different ways that laughter helps with stress:
Releases endorphins. These are signaling chemicals created by the nervous system. They reduce pain and produce feelings of pleasure and happiness. It’s been shown that laughing with friends increases the levels of endorphins in a person’s brain.
Lowers cortisol levels. Cortisol is a hormone that your body produces when you’re stressed. It affects systems throughout your body, redirecting energy away from things like tissue repair and immune system function. Laughing reduces the levels of cortisol in your blood.
Reduces blood pressure. Although your blood pressure temporarily increases while you’re laughing, the longer-term effect is that your blood pressure and heart rate go down. People who laugh more often have lower blood pressure than those who seldom or never laugh.
Releases feel-good neurotransmitters. Laughter triggers the release of neurotransmitters and hormones that are associated with an improved mood, including serotonin, dopamine, and oxytocin.
Improves blood flow. Studies have found that laughter increases the body’s production of a signaling molecule known as nitric oxide, which causes blood vessels to relax and open. This improves blood flow throughout the body, delivering more oxygen and nutrients to your tissues.
These changes can help to lift your mood, improve your immune system function, promote tissue maintenance and repair, and keep systems throughout your body healthy. In turn, this can promote better skin health and reduce the chance of a flare.
How to incorporate laughter into your life
If you’re looking to use laughter as a way to relieve stress, the good news is that there are tons of ways to do this – and almost all of them are low-cost or free.
Spend time with friends who make you laugh. Some studies have shown that we get the most benefit out of social laughter – meaning that we’re laughing with others who we know, like, and trust. This is why it’s really important to find friends who you can laugh with. Make a point to spend time regularly with those who make you laugh.
Call a funny friend. If you’re feeling stressed, call up a friend who usually makes you laugh. You could simply talk on the phone or on videochat, although it’s even better if you’re able to get together in person. Let them know that you need some cheering up, and see if you can get each other laughing.
Create a “laugh list”. Whenever you find something that really makes you laugh, add it to the list. This could be anything – a comedian, a movie, a TV show, even a YouTube channel of funny cat videos. Then, when you’re feeling a bit stressed or down, you can choose something from the list to watch.
Try laughter yoga. Despite the name, this practice really has nothing to do with yoga. You get together with others, and then you do a few silly exercises to get each other laughing – like speaking in gibberish or making funny animal noises. The idea is to get a wave of laughter started – once people start laughing, the laughter just keeps building on itself. You can find laughter yoga classes in many areas, so just search for one near you.
Practice noticing the funny things in life. As with so much of life, it’s often the little things that make the most difference. Funny little things happen around us all the time. Take the time to notice those things and to giggle at them. You can even laugh at the jokes that you make up inside your head – even if you don’t want to share them out loud.
The more you incorporate humor into your life, the better your mood, immune system function, and skin health are likely to be. Laughter truly is medicine.
Making your own plan to laugh more
As we often do here in this community, we’ll use journaling to help you find the best ways to incorporate more laughter into your own life. Grab your journal and a pen, and write freely, using the following prompts to get you started.
Remember the last time you laughed really hard. What made you laugh?
Out of all the people you know, who makes you laugh the most?
What are some of the funniest movies you’ve ever watched?
How can you incorporate more laughter into your life on a daily basis?
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