I’ve always believed, like the saying says, that laughter is the best medicine.  If you were to talk to someone who barely knows me, they would still say that a personality trait of mine is humor.  I spend probably 30-40% of my day literally just laughing.  I read a recent study that compared endorphin levels in people who laugh and don’t laugh.  The subjects were then tested for their pain tolerance. Subjects who had just laughed had a higher pain threshold than those that had not laughed.  Not only did I find this study interesting, but it actually recommended laughter for people with chronic pain.  I know that disabilities are largely different, but most of my friends with physical disabilities have chronic pain issues.  It’s not always easy to find humor in our day-to-day lives, but it pays off to find the little things that make life funny.  This study also talked about how laughter is a great form of exercise.  For someone with limited movement, like myself, laughter can be the perfect medicine and exercise routine.  So take a step (or roll) back in tough situations and try to find a little humor in everything.

Here are a few websites to help start you laughing:

Laughing yoga (besides a good chuckle, it is a great ab workout for people like myself who can not do the traditional ab workouts)-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2xYLUQSFHE , http://laughteryoga.org/

Someecards- http://www.someecards.com/