How Having Fun Keeps You Healthy
Having fun keeps us healthy, both psychologically and physically. It improves mood, self esteem, and has a positive effect on our body as well.
When we think about starting an exercise routine, we often think about activities such as running, cycling, aerobics. Many enjoy these activities and find the “fun” in them. I do not. In fact, I might say that I hate these kinds of exercise and don’t find the fun in them at all. I’ve tried all of them at one point or another in my life, but I’ve never stuck with them for very long. Why keep doing something that you despise? I’d sooner clean every toilet in an all-boys campus dorm than go to a spin class. Seriously! My idea of fun while being active is hiking, biking, walking, dancing, activities with my family such as paddleboarding and kayaking.
When we are children, fun is an all-day everyday occurrence along with frequent laughter. Children laugh more than adults preoccupied with daily concerns do (although the amount of laughter has not been studied enough). We need to be like children again, increase our fun and laughter and look at the world with anticipation, wonder and creativity. A study by Gonot-Schoupinsky and Garip in 2019 showed laughter had a positive effect on well-being in the vast majority of the participants (1). So, take a cue from your childhood and rediscover what is fun to you and gives you joy – it can improve your health in an extremely easy way!
This is how having fun keeps us healthy:
Decreased stress and promoting homeostasis
When we are stressed we often shut down and give up things that we enjoy doing, not having any energy to do any sort of self-care. We spend all of our energy just getting our day-to-day obligations completed. Cortisol is considered the “stress hormone”. A small amount of cortisol in the body helps control blood sugars, regulate metabolism, reduce inflammation, and control blood pressure. When we have chronic stress, our body releases too much cortisol which has a negative effect on our body, causing weight gain, increasing blood pressure and increasing our body’s susceptibility to infection (2). When we do fun activities, laugh, or even just relax, we decrease our cortisol levels in our body as well as increase our neurotransmitter (serotonin and dopamine) levels promoting homeostasis.
Better sleep
Serotonin is a neurotransmitter that improves our mood, digestion, and helps improve our sleep (3). It is released when we do fun activities and has a beneficial effect on homeostasis in the body as well.
Decreased pain
Dopamine is another neurotransmitter that along with improving mood, sleep and decreasing stress, has a positive effect on our pain receptors in the body. Dopamine is considered the “feel good” neurotransmitter, and is released when we have fun.
Improved memory, mood, creativity, and concentration
Taking a break from day-to-day activities allows our mind to rest. Having fun during these breaks releases those feel good neurotransmitters and also gives us renewed energy for productivity and creativity. The rest from the daily grind also helps improve our mood, by allowing us to forget about our concerns for a bit. It also helps us to improve our ability to deal with stressors in our lives and serves as a distraction from negative feelings we might be having, even if for a short while.
Improved relationships and social health
We often include friends and family when we are doing fun activities. This can improve our relationships with others, which in turn improves our own feelings of well-being. Of course, not everyone can do this for us so choose your companions carefully. Spend time with those who have a positive and playful influence on you!
Increased activity and energy, muscle tone and cardiovascular endurance
A lot of time having fun involves activities of some sort. If you find activities that you enjoy, getting fit doesn’t have to be a hardship. Think about what you love to do and make a list or try something new! You never know if you’ll love something until you’ve tried it. It also helps us to stick to an activity or exercise routine. If we hate what we are doing, we will drop it like it’s hot pretty fast. There is an excellent article written by Margret Aldrich called Are We Having Fun Yet? that can help you determine what fitness activities you might find fun, and you will want to continue to enjoy doing in the future.
Improved nutrition
Sometimes having fun means cooking. I included this because I find cooking to be fun and therapeutic, and it can be healthy. If you hate it, then skip this part. Cooking and eating healthy doesn’t mean DIET. Think of healthy eating as abundance. Healthy eating includes colourful and flavourful foods, so many great recipes to try, and new cooking skills to learn. If this isn’t your vibe, perhaps you can find a friend who would love to cook with/for you 😉
Having fun can help make our brain and body feel young again along with improving our psychological and physical health. What fun are you having in your life? And if you aren’t, where can you add some fun to your daily routine?
Please note that while I am a Registered Nurse, I am not your nurse and my opinions above do not constitute or replace medical advice. Be sure to discuss any questions or concerns with your physician or healthcare provider. Also, see my disclaimer here for more information.
Take care,
- https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1876382018308977
- https://www.hormone.org/your-health-and-hormones/glands-and-hormones-a-to-z/hormones/cortisol#:~:text=Cortisol%20can%20help%20control%20blood,the%20developing%20fetus%20during%20pregnancy
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5864293/
- https://experiencelife.com/article/are-we-having-fun-yet-2/
Photo#1 by 11417994 from Pixabay
Photo#2 by Pexels from Pixabay