Laughter: The Power of Joy and Happiness

This article explores the positive effects of laughter on emotional and mental health. It also tells a humorous high school story.

Laughter
Student’s Name
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Laughter
There are so many things that have been said concerning laughter. There also several
sayings that people and communities around the world have formed using the term laughter.
For instance, it is often said that laughter is medicine. A professor of psychology was recently
joking that a laughter a day will keep the doctor away. When thinking about laughter, it is
hard to find something negative associated with it. Laughter is usually a sign of joy and
happiness1. It is almost impossible to find people laughing because of bad/ negative things.
Psychologists argue that laughter helps in achieving great emotional and mental health2. This
is because it helps in relaxing many muscles and organs of the body. Extensive research also
reveals that laughter considerably helps in lowering blood pressure3. Therefore, it would be a
good remedy for people with hypertension and all people in general. This however does not
mean that a person with hypertension should stop taking their medication. This paper will
focus on a story that had laughter as an element.
Most high school students are adolescents. Due to this, they are very energetic and
engage in various activities that almost seem dramatic in nature. This narrative is going to
focus on a real event that happened when I was in high school. The event took place on one
Tuesday during evening preps. The preps usually started at 7pm and ended at 10 pm. During
this time, there was only one 10-minute break at 9pm. During this particular prep, one of our
class mates could not keep quiet. He kept on talking with the students seated near him even
when it was obvious that these students did not want any such thing. After some time, he
1. Eastman, Max. Enjoyment of laughter. Routledge, 2017.
2. Foot, Hugh. Humour and laughter: Theory, research and applications.
Routledge, 2017.
3. Mindess, Harvey. Laughter and liberation. Routledge, 2017.

realized that no one was interested in his unending ‘speech’. He therefore decided to keep
quiet. It seemed as if nature worked so hard to make sure that he did no read. Every time he
took a book and started reading, he would find himself distracted by other things. Therefore,
most of the times he found himself not having revised well for the exams. It is as though fate
had determined that he will never have quality time for reading. Almost every time he
attempted to do something would pop up and distract him. Things seemed different today.
After realizing that no one was interested in listening to his unending stories, he decided to
focus on studying. In fact, he announced to the class that he had decided to study and this
time he would make it. His failure to study had always made him appear among the last in
class performance. After he had announced that he is now going to study, he also added that
his performance would greatly improve. We just listened in silence and waited to see whether
he would fulfil his promise.
The time that he made the announcement was about 30 minutes to 9. This means that
it was half an hour to break time. After perusing through his book for about 10 minutes, he
started dozing off. As noted earlier, it is as if fate had decided to separate him from the books.
After noticing this, the class broke to laughter after remembering the promise that had been
made just a while ago. Students near him woke him up in an attempt to make him realize the
goal that he had just announced needed seriousness. He woke up and started perusing through
his book again. After about 2 minutes, he dozed off again. He was not woken up by anybody
this time. Just about two minutes to the break, the principal appeared. The whole class went
dead silent. Nothing could be heard apart from the snoring of our classmate. The principal
tactfully went to where he was. He slowly tapped his back and said, “Hey, have some
breakfast.” He woke up yawning and replied, “Hey, sure mum, I am very hungry.” The whole
class burst into laughter. Just then, the bell for the break went. There were two things that
made the students laugh. One was that the response that the student gave the principal.

Secondly, it was that our class mate was caught sleeping just two minutes to break time and
just shortly after laying out his goal on how he would greatly study. The principal told him to
wait outside. It was obvious that he was going to receive a punishment. Fate had once more
decided to lead him far from the books.

References
1. Eastman, Max. Enjoyment of laughter. New York: Routledge, 2017.
2. Foot, Hugh. Humour and laughter: Theory, research and applications.
New York: Routledge, 2017.
3. Mindess, Harvey. Laughter and liberation. New York: Routledge, 2017.