De-stress your heart and laugh!

This report suggests that watching a funny movie that makes you laugh has a positive impact on vascular function whereas a movie that causes mental stress has the opposite effect and causes your blood vessels to constrict. The research was conducted at the University of Maryland, Baltimore. 

Volunteers watched segments of a funny movie one day and segments of a stressful movie the next day – thus acting as their own controls. When the volunteers watched the stressful movie (eg Saving Private Ryan) the blood vessels narrowed, called vasoconstriction, whereas with the funny movie the blood vessels dilated or expanded, enhancing blood flow.

They suggest that laughing on a regular basis could be used as part of an overall healthy lifestyle to prevent heart disease although they point out that more studies are needed. 

From an esoteric perspective these findings are not surprising. It is quite clear from an energetic perspective that mental stress is not good for one’s health and that the emotions in general are harming to the physical body. Why is this? Our true nature is to be joyfull, to be love, so when we are emotional, stressed etc we are introducing an energy to the body that is not of its true nature and is in fact harming to it. Hence the harmful consequences on the vascular system. When we are joyfull, fun and playfulness, even silliness are all quite natural and laughter is part of that. When we are Joyfull we are expressing with our true nature and that is harmonious for the heart and the body. So it is good not to take oneself too seriously, to be lighthearted, joy-full and play-full when possible – go on have a laugh and open up your heart!