Laughter begins during infancy and continues to be a part of daily life through one's years as an adult. It is a universal language of its own, able to be interpreted by every culture known to man.

People may underestimate laughter's importance and see it as something slight and irrelevant to success in life. However, these small and seemingly insignificant bursts of relief and happiness result in the compilation of many astonishing benefits for the mental, physical and social aspects of a person's well-being.

Laughter provides a plethora of physical benefits to the body. It is profusely beneficial to heart health. A good laugh decreases the release of dopamine, which can cause elevated blood pressure and an increased risk of stroke. Laughter provides good cardiac exercise, improving the health of one's heart, as well.

A rise in respiration rate during laughter results in more oxygenated blood getting to the brain and an increase in memory, causing an immense impact on your thinking and ability to learn. Laughter has also been shown to relax your body, reducing the chance of getting ulcers and arthritis, as well as strengthening the immune system. Laughter has demonstrated an increase in tumor and disease fighting cells, proving that mom just may have been right when she said, "laughter is always the best medicine."

One of the most valuable aspects of laughter is the general happiness that ensues. It triggers the release of endorphins, which gives you an overall "feel good" type of result. It is impossible to laugh and feel depressed, sad, guilty, upset, angry, or have overall negative feelings at the same time.

This means that laughter encourages positive thinking and replaces thoughts of fear and anxiety. Laughter can help increase one's self-esteem and a positive outlook on life. Laughter is a factor that has been shown to greatly reduce a person's stress and enable creativity and ideas to run freely as they relax. An abundance of laughter promotes an excess of happiness.

Laughter can help you land a few new friends. When someone is constantly laughing and smiling, it helps attract people. Others like to surround themselves with the positive energy that a person who laughs a lot brings.

Laughter can also carry joy and resilience into relationships, which causes them to strengthen and improve overall. It lets a person be more open and outgoing, as it frees him or her from limits and social restrictions that were a result of prior anxiety or generally negative thoughts.

Laughter can also encourage and enhance teamwork, forming powerful group bonds and relationships with others. Being consumed by conflict is hard when you're allowing yourself to laugh at any situation and laugh at yourself. This decrease in clashes with others increases your social success.

The importance of laughter is something that can often be overlooked and underestimated. It is so common among us that many have lost sight of just how significant laughter is to our success and happiness.

With the benefits laughter brings socially, mentally and physically, the importance of its presence in a person's life is no laughing matter.