COMEDY AND LAUGHTER (Its Abilities and Inability) ~ Precious Victor Akah

I love comedies and I watch the good and decent ones once in a while just to laugh. However, the sad thing is that, some people try to 'laugh away their sorrows' using comedy. I said "try", because you can only try; you can't successfully use comedy to laugh away your sorrows. When the comedy ends, your sorrow remains. Why? Proverbs 14:13 says, "Laughter can conceal a heavy heart, but when the laughter ends, the grief remains." Comedy wasn't meant to drive away your sorrows. It was rather meant to evoke laughter in you. Laughter does have some health benefits which I'll list shortly, but it nonetheless lacks the power to actually take your sorrows away.

Look at this for a moment: the opposite of laughter is not sorrow. The opposite of laughter is crying. That's why there is a way you would laugh (because of how funny a joke or something is) and your eyes will be filled with tears. Laughter and crying are observable with the physical eyes (they're visibly noticable). When someone is laughing, you can see it and even hear the sound of their laughter; the same goes for crying. You know when someone is crying simply looking at their teary eyes and hearing/listening to the sound they're making. You can't really conceal laughter and crying.

Sorrow on the other hand has joy as its opposite. You can't really tell if someone is filled with sorrow or joy by just looking at their face (especially when they decide to conceal the emotion). So joy and sorrow is concealable. If you're gifted a large sum of money you weren't expecting by someone you consider to be your junior at a time when you're financially down, even though you're so full of joy inside, you may not want to show it to preserve your respect, dignity and honor, you may conceal the joy and still show your gratitude. But once you're home, you let it all out. I hope I'm making sense to you.

So you can't tell that someone is joyful or sorrowful by merely looking at them. These are emotions that can be concealed. You'd only know that someone is sorrowful or joyful if they decide to show it - by perhaps crying or laughing. This too isn't hundred percent reliable because someone can use laughter to conceal a sorrowful heart and another crying to conceal a happy heart. But the point is, sorrow and joy is internal, while laughter and crying is external. Therefore, to treat or deal with a sorrowful heart which is internal, you cannot use an external tool like laughter. It won't be effective. You need an internal tool to provide an internal treatment. And since joy (which is internal) is the opposite of sorrow, hence its antidote, the presence of joy will automatically obliterate sorrow (drive sorrow away).

By the time you finish reading this, you would know how to get and retain joy and successfully expunge your sorrows.

Like I earlier mentioned, laughter has some health benefits listed below:

• Boosts immunity and lowers stress hormones: Laughter boosts the immune system. Laughing can help you stay safe from viruses by improving your immune system. Laughing releases more anti-infection antibodies to help protect your body from infection. Laughter decreases stress hormones and increases immune cells and infection-fighting antibodies, thus improving your resistance to disease.

• Relaxes your muscles: Laughter relaxes the whole body. A good, hearty laugh relieves physical tension and stress, leaving your muscles relaxed for up to 45 minutes after. Some studies show that just the act of laughing—without having humor in it—can have positive stress-relieving effects.

• Prevents heart disease: Laughter helps your heart by increasing the amount of oxygen in your blood and kicking up your heart rate, which can help protect you against a heart attack. It also decreases arterial wall stiffness–a link to cardiovascular disease.

• Laughter burns calories: One study found that laughing for 10 to 15 minutes a day can burn approximately 40 calories.

• Laughter may even help you to live longer. A study in Norway found that people with a strong sense of humor outlived those who don't laugh as much. The difference was particularly notable for those battling cancer. Even 15 minutes a day to do something that makes you laugh or force a fake laugh could help you live longer.

•  Lightens your mood

Laughing helps lighten your mood. It can lessen chronic depression and anxiety as well as make it easier to cope with challenging situations.

• Decreases/relieves pain: Laughter triggers the release of endorphins, the body's natural feel-good chemicals. Endorphins promote a sense of well-being and can even temporarily relieve pain.

Another effect of the release of this hormone is that it increases pain tolerance. One study had participants watch 15 minutes of a comedy show in a group. Their pain tolerance increased 10% more than before the laughter. For those who watched a comedy show alone rather than with others, their pain tolerance also increased, but it was slightly less than 10%.

Why did I share these benefits of laughter with you? One, to encourage you to laugh often if you're someone who never laughs or think that you cannot laugh with the amount of challenges facing you. Two and most importantly is to show you that, even though laughing is good and medicinal, you should never resort to comedies to try to get rid of your sorrows.

One thing apparent from the benefits aforementioned is: not one benefit promises that it can expunge your sorrows and fill your heart and life with joy. One benefit says it can TEMPORARILY relieve pain and increase your pain tolerance (give you more fortitude to bear the pain), it does not totally remove the pain permanently. So you'll still continue living with the sorrow. It manages the pain but not make it go away permanently. Is that how you want to live? When there is a proven and tested way to live free from sorrows. Does this sound familiar: The blessing of the LORD makes a person rich, and he adds no sorrow with it (Proverbs 10:22)? That, my friend, is hundred percent true.

The even bigger irony is that many comedians and comediennes are actually living in depression, and some have died from depression. If laughter and comedy can drive your sorrows away, why are some comedians and comediennes neck deep in depression? They ought not to be susceptible to depression since they get to laugh more often than their audience. But unfortunately, they are.

We'll delve deeper into this and understand how you can get and retain joy in your life and keep sorrow away in the next post coming up next week Monday. Be sure to come back for it.

Stay blessed. Jesus loves you.

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