Comedy: Laugh More!

Laughter is a great stress reliever. It soothes tension, stimulates organs, and relieves stress. The host shares a funny story about her godmother's glasses getting accidentally put in the dishwasher. They were relieved to find them unbroken and had a good laugh. The episode encourages finding moments of laughter for better health and well-being. Hey there, and welcome back to Shape Up with Keba, a podcast dedicated to all things health, fitness, and wellness. I'm your host and wellness promoter, Nakayba Evans, and the topic for this week's episode is... comedy. Can you recall the last time something made you laugh so hard that you had literal tears coming out of your eyes? Or perhaps you've been laughing so hard that your laughter was silent? I'm sure we can all reflect on a moment like this at some point in our lives, and in fact, researchers would highly encourage it, as laughter, according to an article published by Mayo Clinic, can help serve as an excellent stress reliever. Some of the short-term benefits of laughter outlined within the article were that laughter helps to soothe tension, stimulate different organs, like our heart, lungs, and muscles, through an increased intake of oxygen-rich air, as well as help activate and relieve our stress response, helping to put our minds and bodies in a more joyful and relaxed state. Now, if you struggle to recall a funny moment at the beginning of this episode, then allow me to share a funny moment of my own to help you get into a more comedic frame of mind. It was a slow Saturday morning, and my family and I had just finished up breakfast. So, we're in the kitchen, just cleaning up. My mom is wiping down the stove and table, as I help unload the dishwasher, when my godmother suddenly asked, has anyone seen my reading glasses? Now, this is something that happens pretty often, as she had a tendency to take her glasses off after using them momentarily to read some fine print, and then forget where she left them. So, we looked around. We checked the kitchen storage cabinets, the coffee tables, and even the TV stand, but to our disappointment, we could not find them anywhere. I'm sure they'll pop up eventually, she affirmed. I probably just left them in the bedroom. With that, my mom and I continued tidying up the kitchen, her wiping off the stove, and I emptying out the dishwasher. As the dishwasher was almost completely empty, I couldn't help but notice what looked like a shard of glass, and a long piece of plastic that resembled the temple of glasses sitting at the drain of the dishwasher. I called my godmother, alarmed, that a glass might have shattered in the dishwasher, but to our surprise, no glass had shattered. In fact, the pieces were plastic. And upon looking closer, we saw my godmother's glasses, as the long piece of plastic was, in fact, the temple of her reading glasses, split apart from the frame. And I'm there thinking, how the heck did they get in there? Did she place them in the dishwasher on accident? They might be broken, my godmother started, but at least they got a good clean. We all laughed, and were thankful for her to have found her glasses, but deep down, we hoped she would never lose them in the dishwasher, of all places, ever again. And that concludes this episode of Shape Up! with Keba. I hope this episode encourages you to find and appreciate little moments of laughter throughout your week, for the sake of your overall health and well-being. Thanks again for listening, and I'll hear you in the next one.