We’ve all heard the phrase, “You have to laugh to keep from crying,” but that makes laughter seem so desperate, like a last-ditch coping mechanism to avoid hitting absolute bottom. Laughing is actually wonderful as a preventative measure in your daily life to ease anxiety and give you perspective, and it’s pretty fun, too.

Almost everyone has had a time in their life when bad thing after bad thing happened, and nothing seemed to be worth smiling about. Laughter, of course, won’t make those things go away, but it can help you get some balance back. It may seem outside your reach to find anything funny, but laughter has a way of being contagious, and if you place yourself in contexts where people are laughing (funny movies, comedy shows), it’s bound to rub off. Sometimes a bout of laughter can be a huge tension-breaker, allowing some sense of relief to flood into your thoughts, where before there was only worry and darkness.

Laughter has actual, measurable health benefits. It releases endorphins into the body, which help both with pain relief and with feeling instantly happier (that euphoric feeling you get buzzing around your head after a hard laugh is due to endorphins). It also helps circulation, and can even boost your immune system. It also lowers anxiety and irritation, which can in turn have a profound effect on the way you react to potentially bad situations. Other benefits can include lowered blood pressure, increased metabolism, and more efficient respiratory function. In short, laughing is a kind of wonder drug — it doesn’t cost anything, you can take as much of it as you like, and it has nothing but good side effects.

Sharing laughter with someone is a fantastic way to build social bonds. If your memories of being with a particular person involve laughter and good times, you are more likely to remember them fondly, and want to spend more time with them in the future. In fact, if you ask just about any woman what her top requirements are in a romantic partner, “good sense of humor” is usually in the top three.

Children, as well, enjoy being around adults who aren’t serious all the time. They love to laugh, and we should take a cue from them. As we get older, the seriousness of living life as an adult really starts to weigh down on us. Simply put, being a grown-up isn’t easy. It’s also not easy to remember to laugh, especially since laughing is such an unpredictable, spontaneous response. There are, however, ways that you can make yourself more likely to laugh, and that of course entails purposely setting up situations in which laughing will be likely.

Whatever things you normally find funny, make it a point to see or do those things as often as you can. In our house, we have an unofficial regular appointment every week to watch a few of our favorite sitcoms on the television. It may not be the most sophisticated comedy in the world, but it’s relaxing and effortless to watch, and the laughs come easily. I also follow some web sites and blogs that are humor-based and have regularly updated funny content. It sounds silly, but that’s kind of the point. A bit of silliness can be healthy, and it can help you deal with situations in a much more level way than you might have otherwise.