No Joke. Animals Laugh Too.

Life can be funny, right? Want to get a good laugh? There’s now evidence that life can be equally funny for non-human animals.

Studies by various animal behaviorists suggest that monkeys, dogs, cats, and even rats love a good laugh.

The neural circuits for laughter exist in very ancient regions of the brain, and ancestral forms of play and laughter existed in other animals eons before we humans came along with our ha-ha-has and verbal repartee, says Jaak Panksepp, a neuroscientist at Bowling Green State University.

When chimps play and chase each other they pant in a manner that is strikingly similar to human laughter. Dogs have a similar response, and cats have their own version.

Rats chirp while they play in a way that resembles human giggles. Panksepp found in a previous study that when rats are playfully tickled, they chirp and bond socially with their human tickler. And they seem to like it, seeking to be tickled more. And apparently joyful rats also preferred to hang out with other chirpers.

Laughter in humans starts young, another clue that it’s a deep-seated brain function. Young children laugh and shriek abundantly in the midst of their other rough-and-tumble activities, Panksepp notes.

Meanwhile, there’s the question of what’s so darn funny in the animal world. Science has traditionally deemed animals incapable of joy. Panksepp’s response: Although some still regard laughter as a uniquely human trait, apparently the joke’s on them.

What do YOU think about this? Has your dog, cat. rat or elephant ever laughted?

How to Feel Great Every Day

I’m about to show you how you can feel great starting right now. Sound too good to be true? Hang in  you’ve got a pleasant surprise coming. Let’s start with what makes us feel good. Well it’s not pain, right? So that leaves the logical opposite pleasure.

Hey, I can hear you protest. Where’s the big pleasure button in the sky that I can push to make me feel good? Life is not the so-called bowl of cherries.

That’s a fair question. Let’s explore it together. Remember the last time you had a really B-I-G laugh about something? Maybe it was a funny movie, hearing a really hilarious joke, or some unexpected life event just tickled your funny bone.

I’m not talking about a chuckle at some lame joke. I’m talking about downright, pxx-your-pants laughter. The kind where you slap your thighs, double-over, and tears squirt out your eyes because you are laughting so hard.

Now that’s laughter. And do you recall how good you felt afterwards? Know why we feel good after laughing really hard? Because intense laughter actually gives all of our internal organs an awesome massage. In fact, a really good gut-twisting laugh is the equivalent of 15 minutes of intense aerobics. How about that?

But you don’t have to pay $50 to get into a comedy club to get a good laugh although it may be worth it at times. I’d like to share a less expensive approach with you, because I think all of us can use a good laugh.

Get a Good Belly LaughOK.
Our goal is to get you into a good 5-minute belly laugh. Many of us have had laughter conditioned right out of us. But it’s OK if you have to jumpstart your laughter with a fake laugh. Yep, it’s silly alright. But that alone is worth a laugh.

Isn’t the promise of feeling great worth feeling a little silly? Besides, the aerobic exercise means you can skip the exercise bike today. Right? So go ahead and start with a fake laugh if necessary. No chuckles laugh as big as you can. Here’s where some amazing things come into action. You know how natural it is to laugh when someone else is laughing? That’s due to a natural brain response. Well your brain is going to respond to your own fake laughter by producing the laughter neurochemicals that tell you to laugh even more.

Hang in with your fake laughter. Very soon you’ll find you’ve gone from fake to genuine laughter. And this is really worth a good laugh.

Laughter-Based Problem SolvingNow here’s where the REAL fun comes in. In the middle of your uproarious laughter, think about a problem or something that is bothering you. Then go ahead and laugh about it. Remind yourself that you have survived up to this moment, and this too shall pass. It will, you know.

Know what you’ve just done?
You’ve just conditioned your subconscious mind into linking deep pleasure and confidence with your ability to solve your problem. You’re going to have the pleasure of feeling your attitude toward that so-called problem shift … helping a positive solution fall into place.

Done laughing?
Pull in a couple of deep breaths and appreciate the extra flow of oxygen into your brain. You are about to have a fabulous day — with stress running off of you like water off a ducks back. Quack, quack.

There you have it. A proven-effective BRAIN-SMART SECRET of how feel great every day for the rest of your life. Do it, and you’ll get hooked. Guaranteed.

By the way, are you aware of the huge health benefits of laughter? Remember Norman Cousins book Anatomy Of An Illness in which he described how he laughed himself free of a so-called terminal illness just by watching funny movies and laughing hard?

Why Laughter is Good Medicine

Tired of all the gloom and doom? Try getting a good laugh.

Back in 1995, Dr. Madan Kataria, a physician from Mumbai, India, created a club whose members gather every day to laugh. He called it Laughter Yoga. Sessions begin with participants clapping rhythmically and chanting “Ho-ho, ha-ha-ha. This faked laughter soon becomes real laughter.

Laughter Yoga combines yoga deep breathing and simulated laughter exercises. Does fake laughter have the same benefits as real laughter? The doctor says even if you pretend laugh, the same set of happy chemicals (endorphins) are released in your brain. Today there are over 5,000 laughter clubs in more than 50 countries.

Laughter brings important health benefits. Pent up negative emotions like anger, sadness and frustration are released in a healthy way, and humor can help us view stressful events as challenges rather than threats. As Bill Cosby has said, if you can laugh at it, you can survive it.

Laughter may even help to prevent heart disease, according to a study at the University of Maryland. When you laugh you improve the function of the innermost lining of your blood vessels, and this is important to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease.

In the study, viewing laughter-provoking clips from movies was found to relax blood vessels in 19 of the 20 study volunteers, and increase blood flow an average of 22 percent. While film clips that caused stress were found to narrow blood vessels in 14 of 20 volunteers, and decrease blood flow by an average of 34 percent.
Other studies by Dr. Lee Berk of California’s Loma Linda University School of Medicine show that laughter may also strengthen our immune system and decrease our stress hormones.

There are lots of easy ways to get more laughter into your life:

• Watch funny movies or TV shows.
• Read funny books.
• Hang out with happy, upbeat people.
• Use brainwave training to instantly bust your stress

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