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Adopting a Success Attitude:
Coping with Stress Using Humor
The phrase “laughter is the best medicine” is especially true when it comes to relieving stress. Laughing relaxes tense muscles; reduces blood pressure and heart rate; exercises the muscles in your face, diaphragm, and abdomen; boosts your immune system; and triggers your body to release pain-fighting hormones. In fact, after you’ve had a big laugh, you could be free of muscle tension for as long as 45 minutes. Plus, laughter boosts your mental health by distracting you from stress.
With these advantages in mind, do the following:
1. Find a funny cartoon, joke, quotation, or picture, and put it somewhere you can easily see it when you need a good chuckle. Describe the item, where you placed it, and how often you glanced at it.
2. Explain what kinds of events made you want a laugh break. Then describe what impact, if any, these laugh breaks had on your stress levels.
3. Consider finding additional funny items and sharing them with others, or even creating a scrapbook or Pinterest board of things that make you laugh.