You have achieved everything to which you had aspired: a super career, great family and many other pleasures of life that money can buy. But think about this - are you laughing less these days? If yes, you have company, as psychologists say today's busy executives are taking their self-importance a bit too seriously. In short, without them realising, laughter is going out of their lives.
If this sounds like a concept that has been rehashed over and over again in a billion self-help books, hold on. A Harvard study found that laughing actually reduces the risk of getting a heart disease by 50 per cent. And people who don't laugh enough are three times as likely to develop health problems as they age.
Sanjay Gupta, a neurosurgeon and host of a popular CNN programme, In Pursuit of Happiness, quotes another study that says "only 8 per cent of heart patients who laughed daily had a second heart attack within a year, compared with 42 per cent of others". In general, laughing strengthens the immune system.
Gupta, who travelled to the world's happiest nation Denmark, for a programme that was aired last week, says Danes laugh more than others for one simple reason: apart from life expectancy, gross domestic product and low corruption, Denmark is a happy country also for things such as "generosity, social support and the freedom to make life choices". In fact, 96 per cent of people there said they know someone they could rely on in times of need. This sense of security helps keep stress levels down, and happiness levels up.
This insight is particularly relevant for people who are at the top professionally and, therefore, mostly lonely at the workplace. By being social and laughing with others, these busybodies can slow down their biological age, living longer, and happier - something that no amount of running on a treadmill facing a wall can give them. For, laughing doesn't just signal happiness, it produces it, as stress hormones decrease and endorphins increase. Endorphins are the same brain chemicals associated with the "runner's high" you get from exercise.
One of the famous brand ambassadors of "laughter is the best medicine" is Norman Cousins, an American journalist, author and professor who laughed his way out of a fatal illness. Cousins' doctor told him in 1964 that he had only a few days to live and had a one in 500 chance of survival. Cousins, however, decided to fight back. Apart from getting Vitamin C injections, he spent a great deal of time watching funny films and laughing. Cousins added 26 years to his life and is the subject of a movie, called Anatomy of Illness.
In his book, Human Options: An Autobiographical Notebook, Cousins wrote, "I made the joyous discovery that 10 minutes of genuine belly laughter had an anaesthetic effect and would give me at least two hours of pain-free sleep."
There is no proof of whether Cousins' claims are true, but medical researchers have found that laughing deceases stress hormones that constrict blood vessels and suppress immune activity. If nothing else, laughter offers a powerful distraction from pain. And the best part is that it doesn't cost anything and has no known negative side effects.
There is also a misconception that laughter has to come naturally if it has to have positive effects. As Mohan Kataria, a medical doctor and founder of the Laughter Club of India, says: "Fake it until you make it". At first, you may feel your smile is fake, but you'll be surprised by how quickly you begin to feel happier when you try to smile even when you're not feeling it. In the early days, Kataria would begin club meetings with jokes to get people laughing, but he soon discovered that by just pretending to laugh or simulating laughter, real laughter would soon follow.
Kataria should know since his club now has 6,000 establishments in over 60 countries. These clubs bring thousands of people together to laugh for 40 minutes each day to belong to a community dedicated to creating more joy in the world.
Kataria's work, captured beautifully by director Mira Nair in an award-winning documentary, explores the power of laughter on people from all walks of life - shopworkers laughing to relieve stress and widows cackling to forget their grief. In the documentary, Kataria says he had a flash of inspiration when he watched his patients' immune systems improving following bouts of laughter.
Kataria, who authored a book, Laugh for No Reason, has conducted his laughter sessions even in maximum-security prisons and at schools for homeless children and the blind. As Albus Dumbledore says in the movie, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, "Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light". What about you?
To get started, here are some questions for the Mr or Mrs CEO. When is the last time you read a book, saw a movie, or had a fun conversation with your family or friends? My own interactions with quite a few of them show most can't even remember when. But thankfully, there are a few exceptions. One of them said she couldn't stop laughing while watching the idiotic scenes in the latest blockbuster in town, Bang Bang.
Disclaimer: These are personal views of the writer. They do not necessarily reflect the opinion of www.business-standard.com or the Business Standard newspaper
