“Laugh when you can. It is cheap medicine.” – Lord ByronAs a caregiver, you can experience emotions such as depression, anxiety, sadness and hopelessness on a daily basis and it's easy to become bogged down. How can you avoid being swept up in all of this emotion and lift your spirits? Laughter! Laughter and caregiving is something that we have touched upon in past posts, but we want to reiterate for a couple of reasons.
It’s important for you to have a sense of humor while caregiving. Full-time caregiving can be a rollercoaster of emotion, and, that being said, you experience very emotionally charged and intense situations. However, throughout the day, there will always be an opportunity for laughter and joy. We don't mean laughing at the expense of your loved one, but being able to recognize the comedy in a situation can be a great opportunity to diffuse some of the stresses involved with caregiving. Something that creates stress in your life now could be a good opportunity for laughter.
If you find that you aren’t finding any opportunities to laugh during the day, find a way to create laughter during your day. You can put on your favorite t.v. show, search on to YouTube, browse social media sites for something funny, or call up a funny friend. Why? It’s incredibly important and good for your health.
Laughter can do all of this and more:
Reduce stress hormones
Lower Blood Pressure
Increase blood flow
Increase infection-fighting antibodies
Relieve pain
Put laughing every day on your list of things to do, and you’ll feel the emotional and physical benefits.
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