Central Coast Home & Lifestyle Autumn 2025

LAUGHTER IS STRONG MEDICINE S ure, it’s fun to share a good laugh. But did you know it can actually improve your health? It’s true: laughter is strong medicine. It draws people together in ways that trigger healthy physical and emotional changes in the body. Laughter strengthens your immune system, boosts mood, diminishes pain, and protects you from the damaging effects of stress. As children, we used to laugh hundreds of times a day, but as adults life tends to be more serious and laughter more infrequent. By seeking out more opportunities for humour and laughter, you can improve your emotional health, strengthen your relationships, find greater happiness—and even add years to your life. Laughter is a powerful antidote to stress, pain, and conflict. Nothing works faster or more dependably to bring your mind and body back into balance than a good laugh. Humour lightens your burdens, inspires hopes, connects you to others, and keeps you grounded, focused, and alert. It also helps you to release anger and be more forgiving. With so much power to heal and renew, the ability to laugh easily and frequently is a tremendous resource for surmounting problems, enhancing your relationships, and supporting both physical and emotional health. More than just a respite from sadness and pain, laughter gives you the courage and strength to find new sources of meaning and hope. Even in the most difficult of times, a laugh–or even simply a smile–can go a long way toward making you feel better. And laughter really is contagious—just hearing laughter primes your brain and readies you to smile and join in the fun.

Storytelling with your child R eading books aloud to chil dren stimulates their im agination and helps them

John P. Smith & Co

develop and improve litera cy skills --reading, writing, speaking, and listening, and as children listen on a higher level than they read, listening to other readers stimulates growth and understanding of vocabulary and language patterns. In the early months, hold your baby close and read, talk and sing to them. By 3-6 months of age, your baby will start to enjoy looking at mirrors and pictures of faces, shapes, colours. They will begin to make

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sounds, reach out and touch the pictures. Choose books with interesting pictures and textures. Just by looking at books with your child, you can be a great storyteller and a good model for using language and books. Your child will learn by watching you hold a book the right way and seeing how you move through the book by gently turning the pages. Reading isn’t the only way to help with your child’s language and literacy development. Telling stories, singing songs and saying rhymes together are also great activities for early literacy skills – and your child will probably have a lot of fun at the same time. Sometimes your child might enjoy these activities more than reading. You might like to make up your own stories or share family stories. Your child will learn words and develop language skills from the songs, stories and conversations you share together. Bedtime, bath time, potty time, on the train, on the bus, in the car, in the park, in the pram, in the cot, when you’re in the GP’s waiting room ... any time is a good time for a story! You can make books part of your daily routine – take them with you to share and enjoy everywhere. Knowing when to stop can be just as important as finding the time to share a story in the first place. Pay attention to your child’s reaction to the story and stop if they are not enjoying it this time. You can always try a book, song or story at another time.

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24 Home & Lifestyle Magazine | Autumn 2025