It IS a laughing matter!

There is good stress and bad stress, but it all has the same cumulative effect on your body. Stress increases your heart rate, your breathing rate, your blood pressure and your metabolism; blood vessels open up to allow more blood flow into your large muscle groups, your pupils dilate, and your liver releases stored glucose to increase the body's energy levels. Your focus, strength, stamina and alertness are heightened in response to all of these, which allows you to effectively handle the pressure of stress. This is all great, until you have too much stress - either for too long or too intense - and then we begin to overreact; little things become big things, and over time we lose some of our mental and physical capacity to handle day to day situations in a controlled and realistic manner. The trick is to minimize and manage the things that irritate or anger you, and cause you to lose sleep over - at the end of the day - things that are relatively insignificant. One of the simplest ways is to LAUGH - at yourself or the irritant. Laughing increases your adrenaline, your dopamine levels and your endorphins (remember, these are your pleasure hormones); laughing ALWAYS makes you feel good! Laughter is the lazy man's exercise - it contracts your abs and works your shoulders, and causes you to relax. Laughing changes your view of the situation - this helps you to look on the bright side, be optimistic, or shrug it off. YOU decide how you want to spend your day; surround yourself with happy people - it's contagious and refreshing! Melissa