“Humor, on the other hand, helps your brain function in a healthy way.”

A thought by H. Norman Wright DMin. from his book, A Better Way to Think: Using Positive Thoughts to Change Your Life (p.15). Baker Publishing Group (Click on the book title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.)

Norman starts this section in another direction.  He says, “Thoughts can create stress in our life. And it’s been well documented that stress negatively affects health in many ways.”

He then says, “Humor, on the other hand, helps your brain function in a healthy way. In reacting to humor, both sides of the brain are activated simultaneously. When you tell a joke, the left side—the part responsible for thinking—starts firing. When you ‘get’ a joke and start laughing, your right side becomes active.

“Research indicates that people tend to be more creative when they see something as funny. Other studies suggest that laughter helps increase the flexibility and creativity of thinking. Humor even has been used to help strengthen the immune system.”

“He goes on, “Thoughts create emotions that can have a lasting physical effect on your body. For example, when we dwell on old hurts and wounds, we build a mental habit. Every time we think about that pain from the past, stress—and its toxic effects—surfaces with increasing speed. Each time we think that negative thought, we build a stronger pathway to that negative emotion, and we’re more likely to express ourselves in a negative way.

He says, “Consider this, from Dr. Caroline Leaf’s Who Switched Off My Brain?: Research shows that around 87% of illnesses can be attributed to our thought life, and approximately 13% to diet, genetics, and environment. Studies conclusively link more chronic diseases (also known as lifestyle diseases) to an epidemic of toxic emotions in our culture. These toxic emotions can cause migraines, hypertension, strokes, cancer, skin problems, diabetes, infections, and allergies, just to name a few.”

Norman says, “Chemicals released by negative emotions can affect your brain’s nerve cells, causing difficulty in retrieving memories. That, in turn, suppresses the ability to remember and think in a constructive way. Chemicals released in the brain as a result of positive thoughts don’t cause this kind of damage, research shows.”

He also says, “The good news is that our thoughts also can create a calmness that helps control our emotions, reining them in before they spin out of control. Every positive or happy thought spurs your brain to action, releasing chemicals that make your body feel good.”

I want to feel good, don’t you?

Yes, yes!