From Anxiety to Excitement ~ How to bring more joy and laughter in our daily life!

1. Why is community essential?
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Humans are social creatures. Studies show that being socially connected increases happiness and leads to better health and a longer life.  It helps overcome feelings of loneliness and isolation that easily come up when anxiety strikes. Sharing our stories back and forth can be a huge relief and an opportunity to help others by mutually providing and finding hope and encouragement. Realizing that we are the same allows us to put down our burden and feel more easily protected and strong together than alone in the face of adversity. It becomes easier to develop resilience!
We can then enjoy the camaraderie that often arises from our common humanity. We can bond and support each other to keep going by sharing what works: positive stories, mindfulness tips, pets as companions, mood diaries, sleep tips, healthy diet, exercise, coping with difficult emotions and thoughts, and much more!
With this common understanding, it is always much easier to shift perspective and allow ourselves to see situations in a more constructive light and even possibly laugh together!

2. Why is laughter essential?

- Laughter can be a powerful outlet for stress and primal fear based emotions. It allows us to release the excess of nervous energy stored. We’ve all experienced how relieving laughing can be after a stressful event!
- Humor shifts and opens our perspective. A humorous perspective creates psychological distance, which helps us avoid feeling overwhelmed and diffuses anxiety. It allows us to experience other perspectives on the same given situation, therefore training us to respond in a more mindful, resilient way than the primal stress “fight or flight” knee jerk reaction. Besides overriding distressing emotions and anxiety, laughter boosts our mood and opens us up to feeling more confident that we can handle it somehow. It allows us to build up in courage and resilience, whether it be to find new sources of meaning and motivation or to stay focused and accomplish more.
- As a result, laughter strengthens our immune system, diminishes pain, rebalances our nervous system, body and mind, helping us to relax and recharge, which in turn gives us so much more energy!
- Emotional bonding and collective resilience: laughing together in the face of adversity is one of the most effective way to develop strength and resilience in the face of any situation!
Laughter draws us closer to each others, and conversely we are way more likely to laugh around other people than when we are alone. 
This combined benefit has a profound effect on all aspects of our mental, emotional and physical health. It comforts us in feeling that we are not isolated in the face of adversity, that we are together all the more stronger and resourceful to overcome it!

3. How to bring more joy and laughter in our daily life
- Start with smiling! Smiling comes with a softening of our heart whether it be from compassion, joy or the beginning of laughter! It is known to be contagious. 
- Develop a gratitude practice: acknowledging everything we can be grateful for makes us gain in awareness of all the positives around us. It is like pouring sunlight and water on to a plant: it makes it grow! And in turn, it brings us that much closer to humor, enjoyment and laughter!
- Spend time with fun, playful people. Playful point of view and laughter are contagious. Even when we don’t feel lighthearted, we can seek out people who like to laugh and make others laugh. Every comedian appreciates an audience!
- Try and see the funny sides of life and bring humor into conversations. Ask people, “What’s the funniest thing that happened to you today? This week? In your life?”
- Find a Comedy channel, comedians you enjoy!