Stress? What can I do to be able to counteract the stress in my life, easily?
- 2019
“Laughter is a true moral detoxifier capable of curing or at least mitigating most of our ills. And, in addition, there is no danger if the dose is exceeded. ” William Fry, American neurologist.
This article will consist of very old and well-known wisdoms, but that you have forgotten, so I would like to give you a magical and powerful tool that will help you counteract the effects of stress in a very easy, simple and economical way. It is a natural instrument and well known to all human beings, since since ancient times its therapeutic value was very clear, but we have been forgetting over the years. Sometimes the simple seems easy but it is not always the case.
I would like to start by explaining a little what stress is and then I will proceed to help you remember that tool that we all naturally possess, but that we have denied, sublimated or covered up.
What is stress?
Stress is speaking in a simplified way and leaving aside, in principle, technicalities, stress is on a physical level the constant tension, for long periods of time, of all the muscles of the organism and the lack of relaxation of them.
In relation to the mental sphere, it is the feeling or feeling of physical or emotional tension, which can come from any situation or thought that makes one feel frustrated, nervous or furious.
What is the ependres? What does it have to do with stress?
As we know the stress that comes from English stress which means fatigue, is usually related to pathological states, however the concept refers to a reaction of the human organism to threatening situations or excessive demand, and can also be responses that have to do with the survival instinct of the subject and the species. In this way, when responses are generated from the organism of the individual that are effective and controlled by him, responses that allow a better adaptation is called stress.
What is the distress? What does it have to do with stress?
We speak then of distress when the body's responses are prolonged for long periods of time, so there is an overload of the organism of tension which it cannot discharge. In this way, the organism fails to adapt to that constant stimulus, as are the current lifestyles where everything is carried out in a quick way, it is necessary to have yes or yes success in what one it is proposed, reduction of the hours of sleep, economic difficulties, labor and social demands, added to the events that are considered or lived by the individuals as negative, such as the death of a relative, the divorce, unemployment, awareness of a chronic illness, etc.
It is for all the above that, we have to know what is good to have a certain level of stress, since stress is the body's response to certain stimuli, so stress is what allows us to avoid danger or meet certain requirements . The problem appears when this stimulus is constant and the body always giving the same response to the same circumstance, which became daily and constant, begins to fail.
The importance of emotions in stress.
Emotions are involved in the assessment, in other words of the interpretation they make, of the stress stimulus, determining a subjective subjective assessment of the experience. That is why it is necessary to work with ourselves as a protective factor.
What is the natural, easy and most economical tool in the world to prevent stress?
One of the best therapies to reduce the effect of stress is to laugh, since this activity implies that the brain, our brain, has had a positive subjective appreciation of that stress stimulus, that is, our mind has interpreted in an adaptive and functional way what has happened to us, so the cognitive and emotional sphere is primarily responsible for the stress we experience today as a society.
What is laughter?
It is an instinctive and stereotyped vocalization, that is, it is a type of physiological and psychological response typical of human beings and some other primates. Response that implies a feeling of pleasure since it generates feelings of belonging to a group and is a message for the members of that group that brings with it a message that we feel comfortable and in good company. Laughter is usually contagious and has many effects at an unconscious level, such as the positive assessment of this stimulus which causes laughter. The latter is then an essential component in communication (linguistic and paralinguistic) and expression of the emotions of the human being, which is why laughter has been a topic of great interest for those scientists who seek to interpret the benefits that it has In the health.
Laughter Versus Stress
Laughter is that response that implies a whole series of processes that are directly related to happiness.
Laughter, as a physiological component of the human being, which in addition to being a form of communication that includes, as we said before, linguistic and paralinguistic aspects, allows the expression of states of Nimo, which, in a way, differentiates us from the animal kingdom (so far, we have our doubts with our pets).
Doing a little chronology, the laughter manifests itself very early, after 36 hours, HOURS, when the baby was born, being and becoming at that time one of the essential elements in the communication of that little new born individual with all the subjects that surround him. This response, which begins so early in a person's life, will later become the manifestation of emotions. It is known that a child of six years, for example, will laugh about 300 to 400 times a day, also that an adult laughs between fifteen and one hundred times, and older adults smile less than eighty times; the most laughing people, to put it in some way, get to make a hundred laughs a day and less cheerful or happy people barely reach fifteen laughs a day. Can you observe how, as the years go by, we lose the ability to laugh? Can you observe how, as the years go by, we lose the ability to give a smile or laugh in response to an unexpected event? Can you observe how not only the years but the joy, emotion, is directly related to the number of times we laugh?
What is the secret?
Let's laugh more!
Hasn't it happened that they see a person of advanced chronological age or rather several years old and that when that person says the number of his age in years lived is surprised by how jovial it is? Has it ever happened to you?
To me, thousands. And when I start to inspect a little more or ask a little more about his life, or just as the conversation unfolds, that person usually delights me with smiles, anecdotes that provoke laughter and most importantly, when that person comments to me unfortunate events that his interpretation of it has experienced is usually, so to speak, positive, functional or adaptive. That is, many times one does not usually take everything to joke but in the long run, when the effusive moment of the situation passes, one can interpret it in a very different way and keep it in memory and later reproduce it highlighting the pleasant, good aspects, and even funny of it. This key, secret or ability of some people makes that emotional load that we usually carry on our shoulders, disappears. And not only that weight is relieved from that person's mind, but also that makes moments with other people, a delight to the soul, a moment of joy and pleasure. As Pablo Neruda once said, "Laughter is the language of the soul"
Some of the countless benefits of laughter.
In this way and, according to the research carried out by Lourdes Velázquez (2005), we can say that laughter, thinking and defining it as a positive emotion, has millions of benefits, such as the release of endorphins which, when released, produce a certain effect. of relaxation, of calming, it enhances the decrease of pain (physical and mental), euphoric and as a great stimulation of the immune system.
They will surely ask themselves , how are the effects of laughter integrated into our body? (Lourdes Velázquez; 2005)
All effects from laughter are recorded in the brain, through the action of sight and hearing and influences the respective areas mentioned actions that are intended to recognize stimuli from both external (from the surrounding world) and internal sources ( own of the organism) and in this way produce unconsciously or mechanically, laughter . In this way, it is from the thalamus, more specifically from certain nuclei (lenticular and caudate) of the brain, that the impulse of laughter comes out, which has the necessary strength to reach the facial nerves, which in turn stimulate the muscles laughable and zygomatic . The stronger the impulse, the farther it goes, to the diaphragm and the muscles of the abdomen . At the end of the laughter process, a state of relaxation begins that is experienced by the organism as a very pleasant and beneficial sensation, a state that even influences the composition of the blood, in other words, the concentrated biochemical energy that permeates us, change
Thus, we can classify the benefits of laughter, according to the apparatus of our body that is directly influenced by it, according to the research carried out by Lourdes Velázquez (2005):
Muscle apparatus: laughing moves a large part of the body's muscles, from the muscles of the face (about fifteen) to those of the lower extremities, thus passing through the diaphragm and abdominal muscles. Laughter is then the most pleasant and simple of gymnastics. This is why, with only twenty seconds of laughter, you can increase heart rate and amount to three minutes of intense physical exercise.
Respiratory system: laughter cleanses and releases the upper respiratory tract due to the forced expulsion of air that is in reserve. Therefore, blood pressure decreases, lung changes increase and liver mixture tends to lower blood cholesterol. This is why it is said that laughter also has a function of prevention of arteriosclerosis.
Digestive system: laughter improves digestion and is a natural and effective method against constipation, because it causes a notorious abdominal gymnastics thanks to the movement of the diaphragm, stimulating the liver, pancreas and all the organs of digestion.
Neuroendocrine system: laughter releases cerebral endorphins, so it is considered as those natural morphines that act against pain. Endorphins have all the advantages of analgesic substances but not their side effects.
Neurovegetative apparatus: laughing reduces stress due to the excitement of the sympathetic system and leads to the activation of the parasympathetic, ensures a regeneration of the organism, an improvement in sleep and the functioning of all self-healing mechanisms of the body.
Psychic apparatus: laughter is a great psychic stimulant because it builds a moral barrier of optimism, expels small worries, anxieties, and causes true moral detoxification.
It is for all the above that I invite you to laugh more, enjoy and enjoy more. You just have to try! Laugh safer and invite and spread to everyone around you to do it.
If you liked this article I invite you to share it with your acquaintances, friends and family. Remember what P. Neruda once said "Laughter is the language of the soul"
Editor: Gisela S., editor of the great family of the White Brotherhood.
Bibliography consulted:
What is laughter
https://medlineplus.gov/spanish/ency/article/003211.htm
Valdés, M., & De Flores, T. (1985). Psychobiology of stress. Barcelona: Martínez Roca, 2.
https://www.infobae.com/tendencia/2019/02/11/los-increibles-efectos-de-la-risa-una-poderosa-her tool-para-enfrentar-el-estres/
Velázquez, L. (2015). The therapeutic power of laughter. Bioethics Update, 1 (2), 130-142.
