Grandma Might Disapprove, But Laughter is the Best Medicine

If too much bad stress can kill us, wouldn’t you rather die of laughter? There’s a new movement practiced in more than 100 countries called Laughter Yoga. Developed by Indian physician Dr. Madan Kataria, Laughter Yoga combines laughter with breathing exercises and is said to be packed with as many benefits as clowns in a phone booth, bringing more oxygen to the body including the brain, calming the central nervous system, lowering blood pressure, reducing stress hormone levels, and boosting the immune system. And we just thought we were having fun!

Children instinctively know that laughter is good. Research shows that kids laugh 400 times a day, while adults can barely muster a giggle 15 times in the same 24 hours. Seriously, growing up in a houseful of mischievous siblings and laughing at our older brothers at inappropriate times, like in church or during dinner, before church or after dinner, or almost any time grandma was around, was actually doing us good, increasing our circulation and releasing endorphins. If only our parents required us to laugh first thing in the morning instead of swallowing that weird brown liquid by the spoonful in the ‘60s, we might all live longer!

In my family, we had Charlie. Our oldest brother had one of those faces that always looked like he was keeping a hilarious secret. I remember that smirk well. It was like a dam that was about to burst and get us all in trouble.

Charlie’s smirk showed up in places like the backseat of our Lincoln Continental as we were crossing the U.S.-Mexican border. Stress always seemed to show up there. My mom would make us eat however many bananas that were still in the car as we re-entered the U.S. My dad would quiz “the boys” about any fireworks they might be trying to smuggle home. And grandma would sit up straight between my parents and set a good example for us to follow.

Grandma Esther was extremely WASPy and principled. She had the fairest skin of anyone I’d ever seen –

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