Did you ever have a day where one thing after another happened and all you wanted to do was go back to bed and try again.
Well I had one of those days during the Family Day weekend, hahaha!
I refer to that day as the “Triple Whammy!”
First I found out I owed CRA money from 2021 and on top of that I was going loose some of my pension due to an overpayment …….. ARGGGGG!!!! What did I do, I forced myself to laugh.
Then later when I arrived at the Royal Botanical Gardens to take in a family event called, “Under the Canopy”, (I wanted to laugh with the Sloth on exhibit) when I discovered I had a flat tire. More forced laughter. 
After waiting an hour and a half I had my car towed by the big gun. Then later in the evening I fell on black ice and sprained my wrist, hurt my back and neck and now I have a sore bottom.
Regardless of the little setbacks that day I still remembered to laugh.
Even though my laughter was forced my body didn’t know that. I was able to release vital hormones in my body that helped me retain my happy disposition and to help with the pain.
As it turns out, based on a 2018 study conducted in New Zealand, on the cardiovascular effects of simulated laughter (when we make ourselves laugh for no reason) versus spontaneous laughter (when laughter is stimulated by something humorous), the heart responds slightly differently when one is taking part in simulated laughter than when they are taking part in spontaneous laughter…so perhaps the heart does recognize the difference between real and fake laughter?
In a nutshell, this indicates that the heart gets a slightly more vigorous “workout” from simulated laughter (forced laughter) than it does from spontaneous laughter. In turn, the same cardiovascular benefits that we get from exercise, such as increased heart health and a reduced risk of cardiovascular disease, may be experienced through laughter yoga, and since laughter yoga is simulated and sustained laughter, say up to two minutes at a time, those benefits may be more pronounced than they would be in someone relying on spontaneous laughter for those same benefits.
T
he happy part of my setback was that I got to spend 4 hours with my grandsons laughing till my tire was fixed.
So the moral of the story is to “Fake it to you make it”!
Until we meet again,
Keep laughing!