As the nurse delivers the baby she hears one boy gasp, "Now I know where babies come from!"  His little brother responds, "Yeah, from under a car seat!"

This story makes me laugh every time I read it, so I read it often.  Laughter releases stress, tension, and endorphins (our body's feel-good medicine.)  Stanford Medical School likened laughter to a form of physical exercise.  It's like jogging on the inside.  It lowers your blood pressure and heart rate, improves lung capacity, massages internal organs, increases memory and alertness, reduces pain, improves digestion, and lowers the stress hormones cortisol and adrenaline.  It's good for chest and abdominal muscles.  Stanford said three to five minutes of laughter was as beneficial as three to five minutes of strenuous rowing.  I don't know about you, but I'd much rather laugh than row!

It's said that children laugh 400 hundred times a day and adults laugh only 11.  And some can't meet that quota!  We have lots to learn from children (besides where babies come from!)  We need to, like them, laugh freely and often-every day.

Click on the books and order today to get your copies of Chicken Soup for the Nurses Soul before Nurses Week, to thank and honor nurses in your life!