Laughter has been recognized as a healing power for many years. Remember Reader's Digest's column, Laughter, the Best Medicine? And Norman Cousins wrote about his recovery from cancer, using laughter, in Anatomy of an Illness.

Still, many of us don't feel it's necessary to laugh all that often or all that much. Mind you, I am not one of those people. I laugh at any opportunity. I guess you could say I'm easily amused; you could also say I enjoy the way laughter makes me feel. I've been known to sit in a room by myself finding jokes online and hilarious YouTube videos and cackling for an hour or more at a time.

I'm not sure that laughter has that much effect on my physical well-being. I've heard that people who laugh a lot are healthier, but I don't have any statistics to either back that up or prove it.

What I do know is that I can be having a positively horrible day, or hour, or whatever, but if something makes me really laugh, from down deep, I feel better. Laughter is the best medicine for my emotional health.

I believe the person I'm becoming, as I work through my life, loves to laugh. I think I'm more myself when I laugh, than at any other time. I think laughing puts me in touch with my true essence, and that's one reason laughter is so pleasurable.

I also just happen to think that having fun and laughing is a lot more fun than being sad or angry. If you ever see my picture on my web site, you'll probably think, "Gosh, David looks really happy."

I am really happy. I have a life I've designed around the way I want to live. I have a family I love and have time for. I have the situations I want in my life, and very few that I do not. I know what it means to be happy, and I've chosen to do so. And I love to laugh because I know that there is another alternative, and laughing is just honestly more fun.

Laughter won't solve all of your problems. But what will? There are many ways to work through, wait out and otherwise overcome problems. But there is only one way, as far as I know, to feel so much joy and pleasure that it literally bubbles out your mouth. That is to laugh.

Good for your health? Maybe. Good for your mind? Definitely. And why not laugh? What reason do we have for going around without laughter in our life, when a real belly laugh feels so great?

How can you add more laughter to your life, increase your fun quotient and enjoy your life more?

• Read a joke book this week.
• Tell your five favorite jokes to five different people.
• Find a favorite joke of all time and try to fit it into your conversation this week.

What do I like to laugh the most about?  Myself.  I've been given the gift of finding my fallibility, vulnerability, and humanness absolutely riotous at times.