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Get Serious About Aging STRONG –– With Laughter!

By AgeSTRONG by Consonus

You usually hear them before you see them. Those walking-sunshine-kind-of-people who step into a room and boom! The decibel level shoots up with laughter and joy. Dee is one of those people. The 68-year-old Oregon woman– with her beautifully freckled face, auburn hair and wide, toothy smile – is aging strong with a superpower she learned in second grade: the ability to laugh and to get others to laugh along with her, often at herself.

Laughter is a Healer

“Laughter was my way of coping. I was an only child, raised by wolves,” she says, jokingly. Laughter helped Dee through her parent’s divorce, her mother’s death from early dementia, multiple moves and new schools, her dad’s prison term, her own divorce, breast cancer, surgeries, a lawsuit, a head injury, a business fire and the transition from reading the news to running a forest product and trucking business.”

How’s Your Sense of Humor?

No matter what our backgrounds and circumstances, humor is powerful medicine that we can learn to self-prescribe. At Consonus Healthcare our concierge AgeSTRONG program promotes joy and humor through many vitality offerings including integrated wellness and rehab services.

Every day, we witness how laughter can lower cortisol levels, boosts endorphins; sharpen mental powers –memory, alertness, positivity; decrease blood pressure and stress; improve confidence and self-esteem.  Plus it even burns calories!

The power of laughter is documented in dozens of studies, from the Veterans Administration (The Healing Benefits of Humor), Scientific American (Laugh Lots, Live Longer), the Mayo Clinic (Laughter for Stress Relief is No Joke), to Harvard (A Life A Day Keeps the Doctor Away), Vanderbilt (Laugh Outload to Burn a Few Calories) and Stanford Universities. Even the stoic, National Institutes of Health (The Laughter Prescription) wants us all to lighten up!

5 Ways to Laugh your Way to Wellness

In March we’re celebrating the joys of laughter with National Let’s Laugh Day, Share a Smile Day, Act Happy Day and, on March 20, one of our favorites, Wellderly Day. Let’s all remember that wellness and being elderly are not mutually exclusive. Here are 5 ways you can live well and age STRONG with more laughter.

#1.  Be Intentional

#2.  Begin Your Day with a Laugh and a Smile

#3.  Seek Relationships that Trigger Laughter and Joy

#4.  Make Yourself Laugh and Experience Joy

#5.  Use Humor to Overcome Challenges and Enhance Your Life

About AgeSTRONG

AgeSTRONG by Consonus Healthcare is a rehabilitation, wellness, and educational program that offers concierge services to help our current residents age in place.  AgeSTRONG also provides local therapists to follow residents from skilled care to independent and assisted living and in-home assessments.