Laughter, the Best Medicine

Do you have fun in your marriage? The world seems to want us to believe that marriage is a, “life sucking”, rather than a “life giving” institution (Mark Gungor, Laugh Your Way to a Better Marriage). Fun is essential for the health and betterment of any marriage.

Studies have shown that humor helps people cope with stress and adversity aiding in healthy emotional adjustment over the years by people who use humor and amusement. According to Psychology Today’s author, Dr. Peter McGraw, humor also has physical benefits to circulation, lungs and muscles, especially when hearty laughter is involved.

As with any good thing, humor can be taken to extremes and can actually drive wedges in marriages especially when used inappropriately or too often. When a spouse is seen as never being serious it can cause frustration in the other spouse rendering feelings of anger, guilt and mistrust. In today’s world though, healthy amusement and humor can be hard to come by resulting in marriages rarely exposing themselves to rich enjoyment.

With the crazy lives we lead, we need to ensure we can laugh with our spouse. Have fun with each other and encourage one another through purposeful, humorous encounters. Find a funny song you both enjoy or go to a healthy comedy show or movie and laugh together for a few hours. Play games with one another and “step out” and get a little “crazy” once in a while. Your life long partner is the best one to let your hair down with and find something to laugh about.

As Tim Hawkins once stated, “If you can’t laugh at yourself, than laugh at someone else”. So who can you find better to laugh with than your spouse?

Sources

Mark Gungor:

https://markgungor.com/collections/dvd-cd/products/laugh-your-way-to-a-better-marriage-1

Psychology Today

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-humor-code/201109/the-importance-humor-research