How Fitness Makes you Feel

It’s no secret laughter has a profound impact on happiness and well-being After all, as the old adage goes, “laughter is the best medicine.” Here at SlapStik, we re dedicated to providing a good laugh. But for this issue of our magazine, we’ve got our crosshairs locked on health, fitness, and family How are these topics connected? Well, it turns out that modern science supports the view that laughter is medicinal. Laughing for fifteen minutes a day can burn up to forty calories, which is enough to lose four pounds a year! In addition, as the American College of Healthcare Sciences points out, laughter reduces your body’s level of the stress hormone cortisol This, in turn, makes you happier and lowers your metabolism, making fitness more achievable. Clearly, a good laugh is a panacea for the body and the soul.

Getting moving makes you happier, of course, and feeling happier and more energetic makes it easier to laugh and joke around. I always feel that getting out and going for a run clears out some of the cobwebs in my brain, sweeping away those old and dusty thoughts that I don’t need anymore And what better way to ring in the new year than clearing the old out and welcoming in the new? One almost can’t help but circle back to laughter here.

After all, it clears out your stress, encourages deeper breaths once you finish, and gets your body moving What s not to love about it? So, if you are one of the many people who has improved fitness on your list of new year's resolutions, consider practicing humor while you run, or every time you hit the gym. Laughter, if you let it, can be a part of a healthy new dynamic that will expand your happiness and fitness to an entirely new dimension

It’s also easier to maintain your fitness goals when you re happier Stress makes you more tired and disrupts your sleep By exercising, and of course, by laughing, you begin to break that vicious cycle and start a positive feedback loop in which you feel happier and happier.

Sometimes I didn’t even know what the other person was laughing at, and yet it became a fond memory for me all the same .

It’s quite literally viral; you spread your happiness and fitness through the community by laughing

Of course, laughter is not sufficient all on its own There are many benefits to getting enough exercise, and they extend beyond just improving your mood and helping to maintain a healthy weight. These require more regular and planned exercises Regularly getting your body moving not only reduces anxiety and depression, it also lowers your risk of heart disease, several cancers, stroke, and diabetes. It also improves the health of your bones and muscles, increases your chances of living longer, and helps manage some chronic health conditions

There are also several health benefits that stem partially from improving your mood, one of which I know from personal experience. I often have quite bad eczema on my hands and wrists It turns out that the primary stress hormone cortisol can dry out your skin, making conditions like acne, eczema, and inflammation worse! So, if you struggle with any of these conditions, it can be immensely helpful to go out and get some exercise Sweating a lot can also help with skin conditions like acne and eczema It clears out the pores, preventing them from getting clogged and infected.

Another of the many benefits of fitness-vialaughter is that it’s infectious! I’m sure all of you have had the experience of being overcome by laughter simply because someone around you was laughing. I certainly have, and my moments of greatest happiness are when I laugh so hard that I couldn’t focus on anything else

Getting some exercise can also provide other health benefits that are not directly tied to physical activity, particularly if you choose an outdoor activity like running or biking. Exposure to sunlight is one source of vitamin D, a vitamin with several health benefits For example, it promotes healthy bones and the proper functioning of the immune system Running can be one of the best ways of getting vitamin D. It exposes you to sunlight of course, and it has several other health benefits. Cabin fever is a well-documented phenomenon, one that running outside goes a long way to combatting Running also gets your blood pumping, improving blood flow and the health of your circulatory system. This supports your general health, and it also improves your body’s temperature regulation, particularly in the extremities such as your fingers and toes Another benefit of regularly running is improved heart health And of course, going out for regular walks provides all of these health benefits as well.

The heart is of particular note in my opinion, being the organ that is colloquially associated with emotion, therefore looping us back around to where we started: with laughter and improvement in your mood. Many medical conditions are psychosomatic or influenced by both the mind and the body This is particularly true of mental health conditions such as anxiety or depressive disorders While not a cure-all, regular physical exercise can reduce the symptoms of depression and anxiety, which in turn will have an effect on your physical health, as stress and depression both affect it negatively Your immune system functions worse when you are overly stressed for instance. I’ve personally found that regular physical exercise helps manage my own symptoms of ADHD Getting fresh air and moving my body as part of a run helps quiet my thoughts which otherwise tend to be overwhelming and omnipresent It helps me to relax, and particularly to sleep.

The benefits to sleep are not particular to those who are neurodivergent Regular physical exercise generally improves the quality of one’s sleep. This is also another benefit that will improve the health of the immune system, as poor sleep negatively impacts the functioning of the immune system and increases one’s susceptibility to disease and infection Good sleep also reduces stress and irritation. The fourth phase of the sleep cycle, REM sleep, can have a profound effect on your mood

Frequent interruptions in REM sleep will leave you more irritated and make them more prone to anger

Because good fitness helps sleep, this is yet another way in which fitness helps one s mood

And, with this fact, we once more circle back around to laughter. Laughter improves your mood and has incredible fitness benefits And fitness, in turn, also improves your mood, which makes humor and laughter easier to come by Fitness and your mood are deeply intertwined. So, this new year, see about moving your body more, through laughter or any other exercise It just might turn your frowns upside-down

Sable Hawkins