Ours is a fast-paced society with a new lifestyle, haste. We tend to do more and more things in the same amount of time. We do not know how to wait. We want everything today, or tomorrow at the latest. As a result, we are increasingly impatient and more prone to stress, the disease of the 21st century, according to some analysts.

If a person does not take the necessary measures to manage stress, it can become a chronic disease. Experts are looking for new therapies to prevent and cure this problem. One of the most recent is laughter therapy. Some programs of study have found that improving mood enhances the effects of medicines.

Laughter therapy is a psychotherapeutic strategy aimed at producing mental and emotional benefits through laughter. It is a psychological therapy that uses laughter as a fundamental tool . It cannot be considered a therapy in the strict sense, but in certain cases, it achieves positive synergies with the cures practised.

The technique of laughter therapy consists of the use of different exercises and games through which a group group of people is led to a feeling of disinhibition and laughter. Let's look at one of the games at degree scroll as an example: 'Global war'. Each of the participants will have a balloon inflated around one of their ankles, so that it is hanging down. The game consists of trying to step on each other's balloon without being stepped on. Whoever pops the balloon is eliminated.

After so much laughter, with the physical effort and energy expense that this implies, a state of relaxation is reached that makes all participants forget their worries.

Laughter therapy sessions are preferably practised at group, taking advantage of the person-to-person contagion. The group effect stimulates those who would not normally laugh. UNICEF uses it to cheer up stressed children who have survived a natural disaster.

The healthiest laughter is that of cheerful people with a sense of humour. They can detect in any status the comic traits that emanate from it and use them to reinterpret events in a more lighthearted way. A sense of humour financial aid helps us to relativise problems and face them with less fear. It is a survival attitude that allows us to cope with even the most dramatic situations.

This resilience function of a sense of humour can be exemplified by a doll called a tentempié or tentemtieso with a hemispherical base that acts as a counterweight, so that after hitting it, it always returns to its initial position. A recent advertisement said: "We are looking for cheerful workers, we pay well". This denotes that cheerfulness is an occupational asset. It influences motivation to work, which is contagious and creates a good atmosphere at work.

A sense of humour makes it easier to adapt to hostile environments. It is also a factor of happiness. "As we grow older, we realise that a sense of humour is one of the most adaptive and healthy qualities that allow us to live a happy life" (George Vaillant).

In the past, psychology was almost exclusively concerned with the study of the negative and pathological aspects of human beings (anxiety, stress, depression, etc.), leaving the study of positive aspects such as humour, psychological well-being and creativity in the background. In contrast, positive psychology is now highly valued. For the American psychologist Martin Seligman, "psychology is not just the study of weakness and harm, it is also the study of strength and virtue. Treatment is not just about fixing what is broken, it is also about nurturing what is best in us" (2003).

In his book "Authentic Happiness", Martin Seligman argues that happiness is a combination of several factors: arousing positive feelings, such as joy and gratitude; aspiring to a meaningful and engaged life in the service of something bigger than oneself that improves the world and other people.

Positive psychology does not replace the psychology of the past, but complements it. This conjunction enables more balanced views of human behaviour.