Laughter and pain

 

Laughter is a tranquilizer with no side effects. ~ Arnold H. Glasgow

Laughter is a powerful antidote to pain. Time and time again it has been shown that the old adage Laughter is The Best Medicine really has a grounding in the truth.

One possible explanation could be that humor activates the release of endorphins and relieves muscular tension.  This means it has an effect on pain both a mentally and physically.

"...humor helps to reflect pain, thus helping both the patients as well as their carers to deal better with stress," said Professor Willibald Ruch, Zurich University. "Humor can be used specifically as a cognitive technique, for example in terms of a distraction to control the pain and increase pain tolerance."

The idea that laughter reduces pain is not new. Dr. James Walsh, an American physician, noted in his 1928 book, Laughter and Health, that laughter appeared to reduce the level of pain experienced following surgery.

More recently research has found that people who had recently experienced belly laughs were able to withstand up to 10% more pain than they had done before watching comedy videos.

Professor Robin Dunbar of Oxford University, who led the research, believes that uncontrollable laughter releases chemicals called endorphins into the body which, as well as generating mild euphoria, also dull pain.

The ability to have a really good belly laugh is unique to humans. Apes can laugh but only humans can guffaw. 

"It's exactly what happens when we say 'I laughed until it hurt'. It seems to be extremely painful and it's that pain that produces the endorphin effect." Professor Robin Dunbar.

Now I'm not saying that the following jokes will send you into wild guffaws but maybe they are just a humorous distraction for a few minutes. 

Also I am collecting all the chronic illness/ fibromyalgia humor I can find on a Pinterest board called Fibro Funny. 

Don't forget to share your on Fibro humor on Twitter every Monday with the hashtag #FunnyFibro to be shared to over 10,000 Fibromyalgia people. 

Fibro Friday week 195

Fibromyalgia is a complex condition. 
Its symptoms are varied and impact our lives in many ways. The pain and fatigue alone can be enough to change your life. To take control of your symptoms, you have to take control, when you are feeling overwhelmed, and work out what helps your symptoms. 

Most people find that a multi-disciplinary treatment plan works best and use medications, physical activities, and psychology, to help mental and emotional wellness.

Last week at the link up there were articles about social wellness, group therapy, becoming your own health advocate, headaches, grieving, coping with pregnancy, anger, and pain, meditation, becoming a warrior, first signs of fibro, housebound activities and 10 fast facts about Fibromyalgia. What more could you ask for? Check them all out ... after you've joined in here at this week's Fibro Friday. 

Fibro Friday week 194

In last week's Fibro Friday there was something for everybody including parenting, depression, sex, comfort, joy, opoids, fatigue, diagnosis and children with Fibromyalgia, please have a look here.

We would love anyone who knows about fibromyalgia, or wants to know about it, to join in. You can share articles and visit some of the other participants.

Fibro Friday is open all week so please use the social media buttons, below the post, to spread the word. 

Using Pinterest to get traffic to your blog

Pinterest might be the most sustainable way to grow your audience—without burning out. Unlike fast-paced social media platforms, Pinterest is a visual search engine where your content can live on and be discovered for months (or years) after you post it.

I consider Pinterest Low-Energy Marketing

You don’t need to post daily. You can batch-create pins, reuse old blog posts, and schedule content using free tools like Pinterest's own scheduler. It’s a slow-burn strategy that respects your energy.

Updates

Since creating the video, below, Pinterest has made changes to its algorithm. So what does that mean to you? 

1. Pinning every day is still worthwhile. (or whatever you can do consistently.)

2. Pinning to every folder is no longer appropriate. Pinterest now appreciates "Fresh" pins and sharing the same pin to many accounts may now mean you are penalized by Pinterest.

WHAT IS A FRESH PIN?

That is a term that is used by content creators on Pinterest to mean a brand new never before seen pin. You can create a fresh pin or even revamp an old pin to make it fresh. You can either change the image or the font. If you are changing the font you can change the actual words or the font that you use eg change Helvetica to Georgia etc.

Below is the video which takes you 4 basic and relevant points.

Please ignore the 5th point as it is now considered spam by Pinterest! 

"Duplicate content will be shown less and possibly considered as spam" according to Pinterest Partnership Manager, Lucy Matthews, who is one of their representatives.

TRANSCRIPT: Today I am talking about Pinterest for bloggers. 

PINTEREST is not a social media platform where we talk to others and connect...

it is actually a search engine just like Google! 

It's a free way to drive traffic to your blog or website. 

You can use your pins to drive traffic to your opt-in pages or a specific post.

So how can we do this?   

Pinterest has the smart feed which rewards people who are better pinners. It now displays the best pins not the newest pins. So how can we be one of those better pinners and get seen by more people?

1. Have a high re-pin rate. 

When you pin something, Pinterest is looking to see how many times that pin is re-pinned. Basically, it thinks that if it is re-pinned more than once then people like it. 

2. Use keywords.

Pinterest is looking for keywords just the same as Google, so you need to use keywords on Pinterest as well. It helps if you know what people are searching for in your niche. When you create a pin in the Description box put the 3 or 4 keywords or keyword phrases that people might use if they were searching for that pin. 

3. PIN every day.

Yes every single day... even if it's just once a day. 

4. PIN in your niche. 

You need to appeal to your audience. Forget house design and flowers except if that is your niche. Create boards in your niche.

This is the content of the video that is now irrelevant from 2021...

(5. PIN to multiple boards. 

Pin it to every board of yours that is relevant to that pin. 

Start by pinning it to your main board and then re-pin it to your other boards. 

Hopefully that will get some re-pins and more traffic. 

I suggest creating your main board to be titled after your blog.

It is important to pin the 1 image to multiple boards because your followers may not be following every single board of yours. )

Bonus Tips for Pinterest

• Create multiple pins for each blog post with different headlines or quotes.

• Create pins from your content that provides Fibromyalgia coping tips. (This is what many people are searching for)

• Visual pins with clear titles help readers with cognitive fatigue quickly decide what’s worth clicking on.

• Create large vertical pins - 1000 x 1500 to get noticed. Small pins just don't stand out or get many reshares.

Final Thoughts

Pinterest isn’t just a traffic tool—it’s a way to gently amplify your voice. For those of us navigating pain, fatigue, and emotional complexity, it offers a slower, more intentional path to connection. Your blog deserves to be seen, and Pinterest can help make that happen—on your terms.

Look out for my other PINTEREST posts:

Pinterest Tips and Tricks: manual pinning and fresh content

Check out the other posts to help bloggers:

• What should I send in my emails?
• How to start an email list today (Just 3 simple steps)
• How to promote your blog post.
• An easy to follow guide on How Often To Share On Social Media
• What is a pillar post?
• Monetize your blog - 12 suggestions
• Your Pre Publish checklist (or what to do before you hit the Publish button)
• How to revamp your old blog posts (with step by step instructions)