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Five Tips for Staying Warm during a Winter Workout

12/12/2018

Preserving body heat is an extremely important skill for people who work out during winter. Hypothermia, frostbite, pneumonia and other cold weather health conditions can be avoided by staying warm. Here are five tips that'll help you keep your body heat, even in the freezing cold.

==> Tip #1: Start with a Good Indoor Warm-Up

Before you step out into the cold, do a good warm-up indoors. Get your heart racing and boost your body heat.

Do jumping jacks, run on the spot, jump imaginary ropes, do push-ups and other such exercises. By the time you step out into the cold, you already want to be feeling like it's too hot inside.

==> Tip #2: Layer, Layer, Layer

You're much better off layering several different layers of clothing than wearing one big jacket. Multiple layers of clothing trap heat better, as well as prevent moisture inside. You can also take off different layers of clothing should you get a little too hot outside.

That said, you should still wear a jacket on top of all your layers. The jacket you wear should be water resistant, so snow can't melt and get in.

==> Tip #3: Use a Heart Rate Monitor

Most people gauge how hard they're working out by how much they've sweat. Most of the time, this can be a decent gauge. In winter however, it's completely inaccurate.

Sweat is designed to help cool your body heat. In spring, fall and summer, that's exactly what sweat does. But in winter, sweating actually conducts coldness and causes you to lose more body heat.

Your body wisely sweats less when you work out in winter. Instead of using sweat to gauge your workout intensity, buy a heart rate monitor. Calculate your maximum heart rate and try to stay at about 80% intensity.

==> Tip #4: Work Out in the Daylight

Don't underestimate the amount of heat sunlight on your skin can generate. Even if the temperature outside is the same day and night, you'll feel a lot warmer when you have the sun on your skin.

==> Tip #5: Wait before Taking Clothes Off

Don't take all your exercise clothes off the moment you get indoors. You might feel like the room is a lot warmer, but your body still hasn't adjusted yet. Give your body 5 to 10 more minutes in your workout clothes to build up heat.

If you take all your clothes off right away, you can lose a lot of heat, almost like a vacuum sucking the heat out of your body. It can cause a shock to the system.

Follow these five tips and you'll be able to use your own body heat to stay warm, even when you're working out in freezing cold weather.

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Some Random Acts of Kindness & Why They Matter

12/5/2018

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You’ve probably been the recipient of a random act of kindness in your lifetime. Think back to an instance in which someone has helped you out of a tough situation when they could see you were having difficulty or when a friend simply paid you a compliment out of the blue. A sweet surprise like this can really make a difference. Did you also know such experiences can also be good for your health and overall well-being? It’s true. A random act of kindness can be a good deed, caring word, selfless act or small gift. Even a smile can brighten someone’s day. Take a look at some of the benefits of random acts of kindness.

Encourages Gratitude
Doing something nice for someone else can make you feel grateful for your blessings. This is especially true when the recipient of your act is less fortunate than you or in a tough spot. When you realize you’re able to give even the smallest bit of yourself to someone else, it shines perspective on the abundance you have in your life.

Lowers Stress
Stepping out of ourselves in order to focus on someone else is another great way to gain renewed perspective. Plus, doing good just makes you feel better. It releases feel-good hormones and increases your happiness. Suddenly, your troubles may seem a bit less burdensome.

Improves Mood
Numerous studies have shown a positive effect on mood when people engage in random acts of kindness. You’re bound to feel better about life in general when you do good deeds. Improved mood, less anxiety and higher energy levels have all been linked to the performance of random acts of kindness. In fact, research has demonstrated that the pleasure and reward centers of the brain actually light up in those who perform these acts in much the same way as they respond in the recipients. It even has a name, and that’s “helper’s high.”

Lessens Pain
You might even feel physically better when you practice kindness. It’s been proven that endorphins are released in the brain after doing something for someone else. Endorphins are hormones produced in the brain and nervous system. They’re often referred to as natural painkillers for their pain reducing abilities.

Builds Better Relationships
When you do something nice for another person, they will naturally recall that act with fondness. Random acts of kindness promote good feelings among people and increase connections. These bonds can lead to better relationships and lasting positive interpersonal results.
These are merely a handful of the rewards that come from doing random acts of kindness. Remember, it doesn’t matter how small the gesture. Doing good always makes a positive difference to both the giver and the recipient.

Examples of Random Acts of Kindness To Inspire You
Performing random acts of kindness may be new to you, so it’s possible you have no idea how to begin. That’s okay. Coming up with ideas can be tough. That’s why this blog post is packed full of things you can do to make someone else’s day a little brighter. Some of the activities will cost you nothing and take only a moment of your time. Others will be more in-depth. Choose whatever fits your comfort level and the occasion. Enjoy these examples of random acts of kindness to inspire you.

Hold the door open for the person behind you whose hands are full.
Allow the shopper in the grocery line move ahead of you if you only have a few items and their cart is full.
Check on an elderly neighbor or shut-in.
Donate your old clothes to charity.
Tape change to a parking meter or vending machine.
Give the new employee a tour of your work area or offer to sit with them at lunch.
Volunteer. At a nursing home, a homeless shelter, a soup kitchen, your kid’s school, anywhere.
Adopt a child or family during the holidays to give gifts to.
Send a get-well card to someone, or even a card for no reason whatsoever.
Ask for donations to your favorite charity instead of presents for your birthday.
Smile at someone you meet.
Give an unsolicited compliment.
Pay for the person behind you in line at the fast food restaurant or drive through.
Let the manager of the store know when an associate gives you exceptional service.
Leave kind notes in the dressing room to encourage body positivity.
Offer to babysit for parents who really need a night away or to help with the nightly feedings for a new mother friend.
Clean up the trash in your neighborhood or at your favorite outdoor recreation spot like a park or beach.
Visit a nursing home just to spend time with those who rarely receive visitors or to bring treats for the residents.
Send a note of thanks to someone who’s made a big difference in your life.
Pay for someone’s layaway who hasn’t made a payment in a long while.
Fundraise by participating in a 5K, walk or other sponsored activity.
Shovel the driveway for elderly neighbors or those who may otherwise have trouble doing the job themselves. Mowing lawns and raking leaves are also good ideas.
Mentor a young person entering your profession
Help someone stranded on the side of the road.
Take the time to listen to someone who is having a bad day.

Hopefully, this quick list will inspire you to begin sharing random acts of kindness with those around you. Pick one from the list or come up with an idea of your own, then just do it. See how you feel. Chances are you’ll be ready to do another one tomorrow.

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Have You Tried Journaling for Health

11/28/2018

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Keeping a journal is very beneficial to your physical health, whether you are trying to figure out why you have allergy attacks, lose weight, or just manage your general health. Consider these different benefits of journaling for your physical health.

Log What You Eat
One way journaling helps with health is by looking at what you are eating on a daily basis. This is important for a number of reasons. First of all, by knowing what you eat, you can see what type of nutrition you are getting, and what you might be lacking. You might find that while you eat plenty of whole grains, you aren’t getting enough fruits and vegetables on a daily basis, or that you aren’t drinking enough water for proper hydration. Another way it helps you is by tracking what and when you eat in order to adjust your weight. You can see where your biggest issues are with food and work to improve them.

It Helps You Notice Various Ailments
There may be physical ailments you are dealing with that aren’t made obvious right away. Start a journal and write down how you are feeling on a physical level every day. Be honest and pay attention to your different body cues. Perhaps you have a headache one day, and another day your stomach hurts. Also write down what you were doing, eating, and drinking that day. You may soon notice patterns, such as always getting headaches when work is stressful.

You Can Keep a Schedule of Activities
If you are working on your fitness, the journal is a great way to keep track of your daily physical activities. Perhaps you want to do arms and legs on alternating days if you do strength training, and having a little calendar in your journal helps you keep track. You might also want to follow the trends of your regular physical activity each day by wearing a pedometer or fitness tracker and recording the data in the journal each day. There are a lot of ways to use a journal for your physical health.

Identify Triggers for Emotional Eating
Emotional eating is unfortunately very common, often stemming from stress or anxiety in your life. You feel sadness, depression, anxiety, or other issues and you use food as a way to cope with it, similar to how people use substance abuse to deal with their problems. If you know you have been emotionally eating, but don’t know why, journaling every day can help you look for your patterns.

These are just a few ideas to get you started. Once you keep a health journal for a month it will be clearer what type of journaling you need for your wellness journey. One type of journal I recommend to my clients is a food and mood journal. This journal helps you know what you eat, how often and when your eating, and how does what you are eating make you feel.

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What You Eat Affects Your Focus and Concentration

11/21/2018

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Your body is like a machine with many parts working together to make that machine run smoothly.

Your brain is the central part of your machine. It’s only 2% of your body weight, but it uses over 20% of your body’s energy.

While it may carry out millions of tasks each day to keep your body running smoothly, if you don’t take care of it, it can reach a point where it starts to slow down and affect your memory and focus.

Luckily, all your brain needs is a few simple fixes that come in the form of sleep, relaxation and eating the right amounts of the right types of foods. Just as you wouldn’t put just anything in your car and expect it to run, your brain also needs the right types of foods to work efficiently.

We all know by now that processed foods are bad for your health. They increase the risk of heart disease, obesity, diabetes, and other chronic diseases. But did you also know that eating foods high in sugar, salt and saturated fats can also have a negative impact on your energy and concentration levels?

Knowing what to eat throughout the day can have such an immense effect on your ability to focus and concentrate. It can also greatly impact both your short-term and long-term mental health which can lead to an increase in productivity and efficiency.

Poor nutrition

This can be due to a diet that’s low-fat because the brain requires certain essential fatty acids to work properly. And on the other side of the spectrum, diets high in 'bad' fats also reduce memory and concentration levels.
It can also be due to eating foods high in sugar in its sucrose form and simple carbs, as white rice and flour, as they result in sugar crashes that greatly reduce concentration levels. In addition, if your diet is lacking in essential minerals and vitamins, especially vitamin B group and vitamin D, your ability to focus will get worse with time.

Hunger

The reason we get cranky when we’re hungry is that blood sugar levels drop, so does our energy levels. And when we don’t have enough energy, we feel sluggish, and hence, are unable to focus on the task at hand.

Stimulants

While it may sound crazy that caffeine causes lack of focus, it’s true for all of us, especially for those who drink more than 2 cups per day. Over time, your body gets used to the large amounts of caffeine coursing through it and decreases its production of neurotransmitters which are responsible for concentration and attention.

Dehydration

People don’t realize how crucial water is to your concentration levels. Even 1% drop in normal hydration levels can have a negative impact on how well you concentrate. Dehydration can also bring on headaches, low moods and fatigue.

Just as there are factors that diminish focus, there are many factors that improve focus, such as:

A good diet
Those who eat a well-balanced breakfast tend to have improved short-term memory, better than those who didn’t pay much attention to it or skipped it altogether.

A nutritional diet should include minerals and vitamins as:

Magnesium which is known for its anti-inflammatory properties and soothing effect on the brain

Zinc is important for the healthy production and performance of neurons; brain cells.

B vitamins are all known for maintaining good brain health. Thiamine (B1) especially helps boost mental strength and short-term memory. Vitamin B6 is crucial for keeping up focus levels. Vitamin B9 (folate) sustains memory and healthy brain function. If your body is lacking in vitamin B12, it can cause brain fog, confusion and memory loss.

Vitamin D could b a helping factor because it aids in the production of serotonin, one of the ‘feel-good’ hormones that help keep you focused and calm.

Vitamin E keeps up the brain’s energy and strength.

Protein is also very good for concentration because it’s considered the building blocks of the body. Research shows that a high-protein diet, which includes lean meat, beans, omega-3 fatty acids, beans and nuts, can help improve concentration and focus.

Dietary supplements

While supplements aren’t substitutes for real food, they can come in handy, especially when your body is lacking in certain minerals and vitamins, and you’re unable to provide them through your daily diet.

Drink lots of water

Your brain is 85% water. It can’t function without it. Neurotransmitters and hormones produced by the brain rely on water. This is why when you drink plentiful amounts of water, you’ll be able to stay focused and alert for longer.

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A Few Healthy Diet Habits

11/14/2018

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Learning how to eat healthy is not as difficult as many people make it out to be. By adhering to a few simple habits it will become easier and easier to make the healthy choices you want and need to maintain the body you desire.

Eat a variety of foods
Most diets fail because most of them either cut out a food group or two, or at the least severely limit what you can eat. Over time, the body will develop a craving for the banned foods and eventually the craving will win … every time. You will find eating a variety of foods will satiate you and fill you with the nutrients you are needing for health.

Portion control
A portion control trick used by many people is to eat off of a smaller plate. Instead of using a 12-inch plate, use a 9-inch one. Your eyes will tell your brain it is a full plate of food, but it will have fewer calories than a filled 12-inch plate.
Another trick, especially when eating out, is to avoid “supersizing”. It adds calories, but not much more in nutrition.

Make vegetables and fruits your friend
By their very nature, vegetables and many fruits are higher in nutrition and lower in calories than foods found in the other food groups. As a matter of fact, some vegetables are negative foods, meaning it takes more calories to process them than what they contain.
If you are going to have fruit, eat it fresh instead of just drinking the juice. By eating whole fruit, you get the fiber that is otherwise filtered out when juiced. Fiber has shown to keep you feeling fuller longer and thus reduces the desire to snack between meals on unhealthy food.

Reduce added sugar
Sugar is a simple carbohydrate that is added to many food products. Here again, look at the nutrition label to see if sugar has been added. Sometimes companies like to hide it under different names. Look for anything ending in “ose” like dextrose or maltose.

Eat healthy fats
There are three types of fats: saturated, unsaturated and trans. Try to stay away from trans-fat as it is a “manufactured” fat that the body does not know how to handle, so it stores it as body fat. Reduce the amount of saturated fat you eat and replace it with healthy unsaturated fats, like olive oil or avocado. Also work into your diet any of the ‘fatty fish” like salmon, mackerel, tuna and herring as they have the good fatty acids omega 3 and 6.

Use these healthy diet habits to reduce your calorie intake and to start eating healthy. Just by reducing the number of calories consumed each day will aid in weight management. Add in exercise and you will burn even more calories.

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Is Self-Care Eluding You?

11/7/2018

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Do you take good care of yourself? Of course you do, or at least you think you do. However, you may not realize that the level of care you give yourself is far sub-optimal, in many cases even being regarded as neglect. Yes, circumstances may force you to spend less time on yourself than you would like, and there are usually dozens of reason why.

However, before you can make a conscious effort to improve the level of care you give to yourself, you need to realize the areas you are deficient in. Self-care may be eluding you if you find yourself doing any of the following things.

You Are Selfless

If you find yourself putting the needs of every single person ahead of your own, you are exhibiting a classic sign of self-neglect. By prioritizing the needs of everybody except your own, you find yourself being burnt out or resenting doing things altogether.

Though nobody likes a selfish hog, let’s be realistic you have to put yourself in the line up sometimes. You may end up unable to do anything for anyone if you continue at this rate, not to mention resenting all the people you give up things for. A totally unhealthy cocktail.

Your Appearance Is Sub-par

If you feel guilty for fancying up yourself, again, self-care may be eluding you. You have the right to spend time on yourself, if that means indulging in a bubble bath for an hour, or moisturizing and doing weekly pedicures, it is a necessary part of your overall care.

Another typical symptom of this is the chronic habit of dressing in “wash and wears,” which makes your appearance as cheaply dressed and not classy. Take some time every weekend to arrange your outfits for the coming week. This involves picking out accessories, shoes and steam ironing your clothes if needed. You are special- dress for the part.

You Don’t Have Friends

Not having a small circle of closely knit friends is another obvious symptom of poor self-care. Good friends are there not only through the good times, but also the bad and can be an invaluable part of your well-being. Whether this is your choice (or excuse) or something forced upon you by family, it is not healthy and ultimately affects your well-being.

You Feel Unfulfilled

You may be grown, have a home and money in the bank, but still have the sinking feeling that you have achieved nothing or not enough in life. This could be the result of personally feeling a lack of fulfillment, because perhaps you never got the chance to complete your college education, to pursue a passion or you maybe you simply do not find your career to be rewarding.

Well guess what there is no better time than now to get up and go after whatever it is that would fulfill you. What needs to be kept in mind is the fact that no other person can achieve this for you, so go get it.

You Don’t Exercise

This is one of the more serious symptoms of poor self-care, as it directly affects your well-being on an emotional and physical level. Lack of exercise boosts the likelihood of negative health effects developing, reduces quality of life, and harms your appearance.

Exercise performed just 3 times weekly can help you maintain a healthy body weight and body composition, and is one of the best things you can give yourself.

You Feel Life Is A Chore

The final symptom, that sums up the disdain you have for yourself is your lack of joy. Living brings you no real pleasure; you’re just going through the motions of life, without truly finding joy in the day-to-day moments.

You don’t stop to take in the views on your way to work, you don’t experience joy from little things your kids or grand kids may do, and only look forward to going to bed. Feeling as if life has no real purpose for you can be not only sad, but kick starts a cycle of negativity and can spiral into depression.

Conclusion

Though self-care should be second nature, many of us have untrained these instinctual behaviors and replaced them with “politically correct” habits and a robotic pursuit of daily living.

You need to think about yourself sometimes so you can meet your needs and desires, it can only serve to make you a happier, content, and more productive person.

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Hot & Cold Therapy for Painful Joints

10/31/2018

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Conventional wisdom holds that you use heat therapy for stiffness and cold therapy for inflammation. But our bodies are highly individual and hard-and-fast “rules” such as these will not work for everyone. The tips below will help you come up with your own hot/cold protocol.

Get to know your own body’s reaction to cold and heat when applied to your joints.
For instance, some people with chronic pain actually prefer heat when the inflammation is mild to moderate. Sometimes, joint inflammation gets to a point when you feel a burning sensation. You may then want an iced gel pack to cool the pain. Observe your reaction and replicate what works.

Hot and cold cycle
There are some who swear by an on-off hot and cold pattern. The theory is that by using both, you’re increasing blood circulation which help to reduce inflammation. You’ll need to prepare for this by having iced and room temperature gel packs on hand. If a joint flares up, try and apply heat for about 10 minutes (heat the room temperature gel packs according to the instructions).
Meanwhile, take the iced ones out of the freezer so that they lose their bite. After the heat, apply one of the cold packs to the affected area for the same duration. Follow this with a heated pack and repeat for about 20-30 minutes. Do this every day till the pain and swelling in the joint subsides.

Identify the type of pain before you apply ice or heat
This is incredibly important. If you have sore joints, you’ll probably also have stiff muscles. This is because the muscles go into spasm to allow your body to keep working.
In other words, muscles take on the job that your painful joint would ordinarily do. It may sound like a good back-up system but muscles in spasm are extremely painful and can also get inflamed.
If you apply cold to a spasmodic muscle, you will only increase the pain. What you want is to loosen and relax the muscles – heat will do that effectively. In general, before you apply heat or cold, identify whether it is the joint or the surrounding muscles that are in pain.

How do you feel?
As with any therapy, the type of treatment you get boils down to how you feel at that moment. If you’re coming in from a mid-December snowy day, even with red-hot inflamed joints, you’re unlikely to want to apply iced gel packs to your body.
Similarly, when you go through a hot, humid patch in the summer and the AC has broken down, the last sensation you’d want, even on stiff-as-iron muscles, is that of a heat compress.
On a cold day, what you could do is take the gel packs out of your freezer and let them sit while you have a quick, hot shower. Once you’re warmed up and comfortable, apply the (now) less icy packs to the tender joints.
When the weather is uncomfortably warm, applying heat may aggravate your mood, which will be no help at all for already-tense muscles. In that case, skip heat therapy till a cooler time of day or month. Instead, get a physiotherapist to work on those tight muscles and teach you some stretching exercises to afford you some relief from the pain.

There are few black and white answers as far as heat and cold therapy are concerned. Just remember that the rule of thumb is that you should not apply heat to injuries and cold to muscles in spasm. Apart from that, just take note of what works for you for the different kinds of pain that emanate from your sore joints.

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5 Ways to Boost Your Digestive System

10/24/2018

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Having a healthy digestive system can make such a difference to your overall health. Not only will you feel better, healthier and less bloated, but you'll find it easier to keep active. Here are a few ways you can help to support your digestive system.

Drink plenty of water
Water, whether you're drinking it fresh, from the fridge, or after it's been boiled in the kettle, will work wonders for your digestive system. It will keep you hydrated as well, and will clean out your internal organs, promoting even better digestion.

Exercise more
The more consistent you are with exercise, the better your digestive system will be, and the better it is, the more you'll be able to exercise and feel comfortable doing so.

Fiber is your friend
One of the best foods to eat for your digestive system is fiber. This can be found in vegetables, fruits, legumes, and grains. Get a good daily dose of fiber to ensure your digestive system keeps working at its best throughout the day.

Maintain a healthy weight
If you're at a healthy weight, your digestive system will be able to work better. Maintaining a healthy weight requires eating well, thereby improving your digestive system, and you'll feel a lot better. Many of the things which help you to have better digestion will also help you to maintain a healthy weight, so it's a win-win situation for your digestive system and your waistline!

Don't eat too quickly
People can eat all the right foods, but if they're eating too quickly or eating at the wrong times, such as just before an exercise session, they will feel awful. Slow down when you eat – a good way to do this is to eat with other people and have a conversation over dinner. This will force you to slow down since you'll be concentrating on the conversation at the same time your eating.

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Calm Your Nervous System with Deep Breathing Exercises

10/17/2018

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Nerves, what can you say about them? They perform so many important functions in your body and are related to every movement you make and even your thought patterns.
However, nerves can really mess you up at times when they get out of control. Things such as anxiety, stress and depression can impact your nerves severely which in turn will negatively affect your entire body

When this happens you need to find a way to calm your nerves down and one of the best ways to do that is with deep breathing exercises.

Negative Breathing Patterns
Breathing patterns definitely play a role in how your nervous system reacts to the current state your body is in.
People that are suffering from stress, depression, and anxiety exhibit the following poor breathing patterns:

Shallow breathing – this results when you take short breaths that are often taken using your chest muscles instead of your diaphragm.
Monitored breathing – this is when you are very aware and focused on your breathing and often times it leads to further anxiety.
Over Breathing – this is taking in too much air. It actually causes people to believe they are not getting enough oxygen when quite the opposite is actually happening.

All of these types of breathing can lead to increased stress, anxiety, panic and further disruption of your proper nervous system functioning.

Why Deep Breaths?
Now that you know some breathing patterns that can make you more anxious and affect your nervous system in an adverse way, you need to know how to counteract that. The answer lies with deep breathing.
Deep breathing, or what is sometimes also known as ‘abdominal breathing’, is when you use your large diaphragm muscle near your stomach to take a breath. It tends to pull much more air into your lungs in a longer and smoother way that has a calming effect on your body and your nerves.
Deep breathing impacts the body in the following positive ways:

Your metabolism slows down
Your heart rate decreases
Your blood pressure is lowered
Your breathing slows
Your muscles relax
Your nitric oxide levels increase – this increases blood and oxygen flow in your body

You can see from the list above that deep breathing has many benefits for your body including the calming of your nerves.

Popular Deep Breathing Techniques That Will Calm Your Nerves
Here are some deep breathing exercises to help with stress and calming your nerves.

Roll Breathing
Hand placement shows you that you are doing it correctly. If done correctly you will use up your entire lung capacity.

Begin with your right hand placed on your chest and the left one on your abdomen.
Relax your shoulders and inhale through your nose deeply.
Your left hand on your abdomen should rise first as you inhale. As you inhale deeper your left hand will fall slightly and your right hand will rise. This is what will give you the rolling effect this breathing exercise is named for.
Make a whoosh noise while exhaling. Your left hand will drop slightly and your right hand will not drop much at all.
Practice doing this for 3 to 5 minutes at a time. You will come to find it is very close to an instant nerve calming tool.

Quieting Response
This is a deep breathing technique that combines deep breathing with visualization.

Start by closing your eyes, smiling and releasing the tension in your shoulders.
Next imagine there are some holes in the bottom of each foot.
Inhale deeply through your nose and imagine you are sucking steam in through the holes in your feet. Visualize it as comes up your legs into your lungs.
Exhale out of your mouth while imagining you are pushing the steam back out of your lungs. Down through your legs and back out of the holes in your feet again.
Do this for 5 to 10 minutes at a time and you will notice most of the tension go out of the muscles in your body and you will rapidly calm your nerves too.

You don’t think properly or move properly when your nerves are in a bad state. So the next time you feel yourself anxious and stressed take a few minutes and try some deep breathing techniques to calm you and your nerves back down.

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Humor, Laughter And Play For Health

10/10/2018

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The idea that you can use humor, laughter, and play to promote your health probably seems too simple to be true. However, it really is true and that simple.
A sense of humor, laughter and play all have a part in keeping us healthy. Here are a few benefits to increasing humor, laughter, and play into your life that will affect you mentally, physically and socially.

Humor And Laughter
The sound of laughter is infectious. Have you ever heard a belly laugh of a young child and been able to resist smiling in return? The sound of a roaring laugh is far more contagious than a sniffle, sneeze, or cough.
When laughter is shared between people, it binds them together and increases happiness and intimacy. Laughter is beneficial physically, mentally and socially.

Some of the physical benefits include:
• Boosted Immunity
• Lower stress hormones
• Preventing heart disease
• Relaxing your muscles
• Decreasing pain

Some of the mental benefits include:
• Easing anxiety and fear
• Improving mood
• Adding joy and zest to life
• Stress relief
• Enhancing resilience

Some of the social benefits include:
• Enhancing teamwork
• Helps to diffuse conflict
• Promotes group bonding
• Strengthens relationships
• Attracts others to us

What About Play
Play is an important part of ensuring you stay healthy. We are often encouraged to make sure our children play, and are told of the benefits to children being out playing. However, what we often forget is that it is just as important for adults to incorporate play into their lives as it is for children.
There is no age limit to the advantages of play. Physical play is important for the elderly to ensure help delay or prevent cognitive decline. While the studies are still in the early stages, the studies that have been done have shown that physical play definitely plays a part in prevent cognitive decline.
There is also no situation that is too serious for play to be included. Playing at work is essential for getting through stressful situations.
Play gives people the emotional distance to rally from a hard day. This is true for people who have a dangerous job, such as a police officer, as well as for people who work in an office or from home.

Some of the benefits of play include:
• Stress relief
• Improved brain function
• Boosted creativity and productivity
• Improved relationships
• Helps you feel younger
Play is also great for relationships
It brings joy, vitality, and resilience to our relationships and also helps us learn how to trust one another and feel safe.

How Can You Incorporate More Play, Laughter And Humor Into Your Life
• Be more spontaneous: Being spontaneous helps you to get out of your head and away for your troubles.
• Smile: Smiling is the beginning of laughter. A smile is also just as contagious as laughter is. When you experience something even mildly pleasing, practice smiling. Smile at everyone you pass in the street, you will feel happier just by sharing a smile, even with a stranger.
• Watch comedy: Comedy shows, either live or on television or DVD are a great and effortless way to laugh more. There are tons of comedians to choose from, so there is something for everyone.
• Count your blessings: By making a list of all the good things in your life, you will see all the reasons you have to smile. Making a list of all the good in your life will also help you focus more on the good and forget about the bad.
• Spend time with fun, playful people: These are the people who find humor in everyday events. Their laughter is contagious. These are also the people who are more likely to be willing to play a game with you.
• Dance whenever you can: It sounds silly. However, letting your body moves gets your blood flowing and increases endorphins.
• Set up a game night: Game nights take minimal effort and will encourage laughter, play, and emotional release. Playing games together is a great way to stay connected and engaged with your family and friends.
Incorporating more play, humor, and laughter into your life isn’t difficult and yet brings a multitude of benefits to your life.
Taking even just fifteen minutes, a day to implement some of the above tips into your life is enough that you will begin seeing the positive effects.

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