A few years ago a learned physician wrote an essay entitled, Why Laughter Is the Best Sauce to Serve with Food, explaining how laughter aids digestion. He said that it "stirs the blood, whips up vitality, expands the chest, tones up the heart muscles and the muscles of the stomach and elementary canal. And not only that, it creates a better mental state, which is itself an aid to digestion."
"Generally speaking," he said, "there is no better health tonic than laughter." But the value of mirth and laughter to good health was known long before it was discovered by modern medical science. Thousands of years ago Solomon said, A merry heart doeth good like a medicine.
Columnist John R. Gunn writes that, "It is important to keep the heart merry. Gloominess, despondency, hate, anger...all such emotions are enemies to health."
Many of our physical ailments are the result of bad mental moods. Many times what is most needed to cure these ailments is not a dose of medicine, but a dose of mirth. And you don't need a prescription for a dose of mirth. You can produce it yourself by laughing.
William James and his psychology declares that it is a mistake to suppose that one feels glad and laughs. He says, "One laughs and then feels glad." Suppose you try it. If you can't laugh, smile. If you can't smile, grin. Even a grin will soon filter into the soul and help you into a better mental mood.
Try a dose of mirth. Solomon, modern doctors of medicine and modern psychologists all recommend it.