Friendship Means Laughter

Friendship means unexpected and explosive fits of laughter, the kind that you can’t contain, even though so many people are still staring at you, with tears rolling down your cheeks. The kind that can ease your worries.

Friendship has many benefits, but the most healing benefit is without a doubt the pleasure of laughing with someone. Just as crying out loud is always better than crying in silence, laughing out loud is always better than simply smiling.

In fact, there is no better form of pain than a pain in your stomach from laughing. Because this feeling reflects social cohesion and happiness, and because friendship is also a way to turn tears and disappointment into laughter and wisdom.

Laughter that eases the pain

Humor is the most admirable thing that can come from adversity, and we have the privilege of sharing it with the people who mean the most to us. In the case of women, friendship is the best daily support we have and promotes emotional relief and healing.

According to a study published in Psychology Today , friendship between men is much more instrumental and less emotional than friendship between women, and while the bond can be just as close and meaningful, they don’t reach the same deep level of understanding, intimacy and intuition that women do. with each other and with which they provide each other with genuine moral support.

During difficult times , we can often count on our friends to say something that brightens our darkness, clears our thoughts, and eases our tension. Soon someone will take it one step further and move on to the ironic, the absurd. This paves the way for the true medicine for the soul when it comes to human need: fits of laughter.

Laughter, glue for the brain

Laughter may seem trivial, sometimes short-lived, other times chaotic, explosive or absurd, but it really is like glue to the brain. There is always a meaning behind it, and rarely does an emotion have such great social implications and impact.

Greg Bryant, a professor at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) conducted an interesting study that showed that by listening to the laughter between two people for just a few seconds, we can find out whether they are friends or not, and how close their friendship is. is. The research was conducted in many different countries and cultures, showing something that anthropologists already knew.

Laughter is part of our evolutionary development and is also an instinctive mechanism that promotes cooperation between people. The brain reminds us that social bonds are good, that they are necessary for survival, hence the fact that laughter acts like a great emotional magnet. From the intensity, musicality and intonation of the laughter, we can determine what kind of relationship it is.

However, fits of laughter that accompany the understanding and intimacy of eye contact, where two people can read each other and feel each other from the heart, are one of the ingredients of the recipe for the most enduring relationships. These are the emotional bonds that get us off the ground, the sugar that helps us digest the bitter day, the magic formula that convinces us that the world will always be worth living as long as these special people exist.

Laughter helps us survive and unites us together. It is pleasant to the brain, which in response releases endorphins that relieve stress, tension and anxiety.

However, as we said at the beginning of this article, it will take more than a simple smile or a few held back tears for healing to take place. Crying is what heals, and roaring laughter is what makes our hearts happy.

To conclude, we’ll leave you with a joke that Richard Wiseman, a British psychologist and LaughLab researcher , often used in his surveys to determine his participants’ sense of humor. As they read these lines, the participants were reminded of something essential that we should never forget: the best time to laugh is always now.

“Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson went camping. They pitched their tent under the stars and went to sleep. At one point in the middle of the night, Holmes woke Watson and said, “Watson, look up at the stars and tell me what you see.”

Watson replied, “I see millions of stars.”

Holmes said, “And what do you make of that?”

And Holmes said, ‘Watson, you idiot, it means someone stole our tent.’”