How Funny Helps You During Heart Palpitations

Be a funny guy. It helps a lot to ease frustration and desperation when you've been suffering an illness like heart palpitation. And it makes so much sense, instead of wallowing in gloom or hopelessness. I know the very sad feeling when you have palpitations or are feeling you are about to have one. But I tried hard to fight them off when I used to have them and being funny helped a lot. Not just watching something funny or enjoying jokes, but being funny yourself. A funny guy.

Photo above by OurWhisky Foundation on Unsplash.

We all know the health benefits of laughter, how it helps relieve stress and anxiety. So we look for something to make us laugh. But being a funny guy is different. You don't need to look for funny stuff--you are the funny stuff. Anytime you want to laugh you can, on the spot. No need to wait for something funny to happen. So start laughing at yourself, even at your mistakes. Always find something funny in everything---anything to laugh at.

How to be happy even with palpitations. Click here.

Preventive and Pacifying

Being a funny guy serves both to prevent palpitations or pacify yourself if it happens. I'm speaking from experience. When your mood is light and the atmosphere where you are is light, there's less stress and less likelihood of palps being triggered. Compare that to a mood that is tense, pressured and depressing. In my case, stressful things built up gas in my tummy that caused bloating. It made me easily susceptible to heart palpitation. So I avoided stress, aside from trying to avoid food or anything that caused bloating, like laughing too hard. So don't laugh more than you need to because air might go to your tummy. Just be happy and a little bit funny.

During palpitations, being funny helped me relax. It got my mind off negativity and worse scenarios. Especially when palpitations seemed to go on forever, being funny pacified and eased me up, helping me easily think positively. During palpitations, keeping positive is among the hardest things to do. It worsens difficulty in breathing. But this doesn't need to happen. Practice being positive daily--and being funny.

I once posted on my FB:

Wasting a day figuring out problems? RELAX. There's always tomorrow. And even with no tomorrow, don't stress yourself on your last day on earth.

Practice Being Funny

I know how hard it is to be funny when you're suffering palpitations. It's easier to focus on your heartbeat and worse scenarios than on funny things. So I practiced being funny while I had no palpitations to make myself naturally funny when palpitations happened. I did it once at the ER. I didn't really act like a clown but I made people there who were waiting for treatment smile and relax. I saw them feeling better. I found most ER doctors love funny patients, but not some out-patient doctors. I don't know why. Do you?

Below are some excerpts from HelpGuide,Org on the health benefits of laughter that might help you:

• Laughter triggers the release of endorphins, the body’s natural feel-good chemicals. Endorphins promote an overall sense of well-being and can even temporarily relieve pain.
• Laughter protects the heart. Laughter improves the function of blood vessels and increases blood flow, which can help protect you against a heart attack and other cardiovascular problems.
• Attempt to laugh at situations rather than bemoan them. Look for the humor in a bad situation, and uncover the irony and absurdity of life. When something negative happens, try to make it a humorous anecdote that will make others laugh.

MY PALPITATION JOURNEY AND TRIUMPH OVER IT.

Here are my own suggestions:

1. Join a lot of FB groups dedicated to laughing and funny matters. Just type "funny groups" on the search box and you'd get everything.
2. Watch funny movies. 
3. Read anything clean and funny.
4. Talk to funny people. I'm sure there are plenty around.
5. Own a pet, either a dog or cat. Watch them do funny things.
6. Cultivate a mood for laughter by often responding with a laughing or smiling emoji on social media.
7. Dwell on funny past events, if you must remember the past.
8. Collect funny pictures or videos. One of my favorites is a short video of me doing silly dances.
9. Communicate on Messenger with funny friends. 
10. Lessen watching drama on TV or movies.

Remember that worrying or thinking of worst scenarios will NOT help you any, not your palpitations or your health condition. So why bother? Instead, look for ways to be happy and laugh. I know this is easier said than done, but take it from me. I was a long-time sufferer of heart palpitations and I know too well what it's like. I know the depression, anxiety and hopelessness. I know the questions you ask to which no answers are clearly given. But you have to decide not to help the sorry situation get even sorrier by being worried, sad and sullen.

THREE THINGS YOU CAN DO WHEN PALPITATING.