He will once again fill your mouth with laughter and your lips with shouts of joy. Job 8:21
My best friend suggested listening to Stuart McLean after we attended a wonderful tea for the ladies of our church, so I decided to share him with you as well. At the tea my friends and I listened to a fabulous speaker, Dr. Arlene Taylor, who spoke on the topic of the benefits of laughter on our brain. She was hysterical to say the least, and her material was fascinating! Did you know that you can actually lose weight while you laugh? When you actually allow yourself to have a good belly laugh for an extended period of time, you burn the same amount of calories as a medium chocolate bar! I don’t know how long you would have to laugh, because I didn’t ask, but I wanted to!
Making laughter a priority
We took full advantage of the information, and laughed more during that presentation then we normally do in a whole week! It turns out you need to laugh 30 times a day to get the full benefit for your health, which can include the lessening of depression, and even the curing of many diseases including cancer. It can even add years to your life! Laughter sets off our own pharmacy of feel-good endorphin’s that help the body to reduce stress and heal itself.
God gave us laughter
It’s astounding how perfectly God made us! He created us with the ability to heal ourselves, and science is finally recognizing this fact. Dr. Taylor has skillfully put all this research into practical use, to show us how to use our God given resources. She has a wonderful website http://www.arlenetaylor.org which is a treasure trove for anyone interested in the power of the brain and how to use it to its fullest.
The health benefits of laughter shouldn’t come as a surprise to us since the Bible has been promoting it since the days of King Solomon.
Proverbs 17:22
In Proverbs 17:22 it says: A merry heart does good, like medicine, But a broken spirit dries the bones.
So even God himself is telling us that if we want to be healthy, we need to laugh. For those of you asking, who is God? or who is Jesus? They are part of the trinity that makes up the God head of Christian theology. They created the you and everything in the world we all live in. This may be an aspect you never thought was part of their persona’s. So many denominations have painted pictures of such an austere and serious God, that some don’t think you can laugh if you’re a Christian. Nothing could be farther from the truth. God and Jesus are love, light, happiness, joy and laughter.
Jesus loved to laugh
Jesus loved to laugh, He loved children and He said that unless we become as children, we have no place with Him in heaven. Part of that has to do with the faith and trust of children, but it also has to do with the joy, laughter and love for life that children possess. As Christians, one of our main goals is to become more like Him every day, so if He loved to laugh it’s definitely OK for us to laugh too.
Our pact
My friends and I decided to make a pact to laugh every day, and to remind each other to laugh too. Stuart Mclean will be part of my laughter plan, so feel free to add him to yours. The important thing is to find something that makes you laugh and then go ahead and indulge yourself. The more the better. There are not many things in this world that you can say that about!
Blessings for a wonderful week!
Finding your own coach
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