As you seek to discover, unlock and live your Godly destiny, be sure to laugh often.  As this article explains, it is good for your health, but beyond that it is all part of enjoying the purpose of your life with the One who overflows with unspeakable joy.  So laugh your way all the way to your Godly destiny.

CBN Medical reporter Lorie Johnson pens, "Laughter! It’s one of the most often overlooked ways we can, and should, live better.

Yes, the ability to laugh seems to come naturally to some people. But everyone, even the most serious personality types, can develop a funny bone. It’s a wonderful way to stay healthy!

As researchers examine the keys to longevity, they are now discovering overwhelming evidence that living long has a lot less to do with exercise and eating right than the way we THINK.

Just look at the majority of centenarians and you’ll notice they all have a zest for life, a natural curiosity and, yes, a sense of humor. You’ll notice a light-heartedness among people who’ve outlived their counterparts.

This is all about stress. Stress is far more devastating than most people realize. It literally debilitates your entire system. Anger, fear, unforgiveness and yes, a sour attitude all contribute toward stress.

Conversely, letting go of anger, resentment, and taking ourselves too seriously immediately contribute toward stress relief and an overall healthier you. Research shows:

We believe that God intends for His purposes to be accomplished through His family.  His original plan was to have a family spread from the garden and work in concert with Him to accomplish all He intends.  As such, we must value and place a high priority on family.

CBN Medical Reporter Lorie Johnson shares, "We desperately need to bring back the family dinner. Most families just don't have the time, or the desire, to sit together around a table and eat at the same time with no electronics in the way.

That sad trend has led to a number of troubling consequences that we need to reverse.

Dr. Anne Fishel is a family therapist at the prestigious Massachusetts General Hospital and a professor at Harvard Medical School. She's also a wife and mother.

In her new book, Home For Dinner: Mixing Food, Fun, and Conversation for a Happier Family and Healthier Kids, she uses scientific studies to build a solid case for making the effort to eat together as a family....whatever your family happens to look like at the moment.

Regardless of whether you have have babies and toddlers who are difficult to get sitting still, school-age kids loaded-down with homework and extra-curricular activities, sullen teenagers who don't want to participate in anything, or perhaps an empty-nesters, the scenario is the same: eating together around a table will improve your health in a variety of ways.

Researchers considered a family that "eats together" as one that gathers around the table, with food, without electronics, a minimum of five meals per week. That can be breakfast, lunch or dinner. More is better than less. Here's what they found:

CBN Medical Reporter Lorie Johnson blogs, "It's great that more people are now recognizing the harmful effects of consuming too much sugar. This bad habit leads to obesity and diabetes. Eating or drinking too much sugar also causes inflammation, which leads to heart disease, cancer, arthritis, and other health problems.

Clearly, the best way to eliminate sugar from our diets is to stop eating and drinking anything that tastes sweet. We will go through a withdrawal period from three days to a week, which can be difficult. But I'd like to encourage you to exercise self-control and stick with it, because after that, we no longer crave sweet foods, which is a joyful, liberating way to live.

Unfortunately, many people who recognize the dangers of sugar opt to take what appears to be the easy route, which in reality, is more difficult. They choose to replace sugar with sugar substitutes, which cause all kinds of problems including weight gain.

There are dozens of sugar substitutes on the market, and the number keeps growing. This is because food manufacturers recognize that people are always looking for that magic bullet: a sweetener that tastes just like real sugar, but doesn't have the consequences of sugar.

IT DOESN'T EXIST. Nevertheless, manufacturers keep claiming they've come up with a sugar substitute that satisfies all our desires, and people fall for it.

There are a number of reasons why we should avoid sugar substitutes. The most glaring is the fact that sweets are addictive. No matter what kind of sweet taste you lay on your taste buds, it's going to make you crave more sweet. So if you are drinking a diet soda, for instance, loaded with artificial sweetener, you may feel proud of yourself because you think you're beating the system: there are no calories and you still get to enjoy that sweet taste.

But what is actually happening, is you are programming your brain to call for more sweets, such as that piece of chocolate cake in the office break room, that candy bar at the check-out counter, or those doughnuts as you drive past Krispy Kreme. Eventually, you will give in.

Several studies, including one conducted at Purdue University, conclude artificial sweeteners actually lead to weight gain, because they lead to overindulgence on real sweets.

Aside from weight gain, there are a number of other troubling health problems associated with sugar substitutes, such as that they feed the bad bacteria in the gut. Health professionals only recently discovered that the trillions of bacteria in our small intestine, also known as the gut, determine our overall health.

In fact, 70 percent of our immune system is located in our gut. That's why having lots of good bacteria is vitally important, and why taking a probiotic supplement, which increases the number of good bacteria, is such a good idea. Conversely, as it turns out, artificial sweeteners feed the bad bacteria in the gut.

Other concerns are that sugar substitutes impair glucose and insulin regulation.

Most people are confused about the various types of sugar substitutes. While, as I mentioned above, it's best to avoid all sweeteners, both real and artificial, many people reject that notion and are determined to find a sugar substitute that doesn't have the calories of sugar, but does have the taste, and in the process, want to choose the healthiest one.

So here goes:

According to CBN Health Reporter Lorie Johnson, "The apostle Paul wrote, "What I want to do, I do not do. But what I hate, I do."  Many of us feel that way at times.  Does it seem as if you are a slave to your bad habits?  If so, you're not alone.  
    
A Duke University study shows nearly half of everything we do each day is not a conscious decision, but instead, just a habit!
    
But take heart, a new technique is now available to help us take back control of our behavior.
    
A Habit in Three Parts

Scientists recently uncovered an enormous amount about how habits work in our brains. New York Times journalist Charles Duhigg compiled this information in his book, The Power of Habit. 
     
"Everything we know about the science of habits indicates any habit can be changed," he said.
     
In The Power of Habit, Duhigg points out each habit contains three parts:

• First is a cue, which automatically triggers us to start
• Then comes the routine, which is the behavior itself
• Last is the reward, which is what we crave, and is the key to our brain remembering that routine in the future

Everyone from Aristotle to Oprah talks about changing habits," Duhigg explained. "And for years, they focused on the routine, on the behavior. But what we've learned is that it's really the cues and the rewards that shape how habits function."

"And that's how you can change habits: by diagnosing and paying attention to these cues and rewards," he said.

Battling a Sweet Tooth
     
Duhigg used himself as an example. In his job at the New York Times , he wanted to break his bad habit of eating a cookie in the company cafeteria every afternoon.  That was the routine.  He needed to figure out the cue and the reward, though. 
He did some experimenting over a few days to determine the cue, knowing that a cue is always one of five things:  a time of day, a certain place, the presence of other people, a particular emotion or something you just did. 
     
"And so every day when I had a cookie urge, I'd write down those five things," he explained, "You know, where am I sitting, what am I doing.  And I realized pretty soon that the cue was a certain time of day.  It always hit between 3:15 and 3:45."
     
Then he experimented to diagnose the reward.  Did it satisfy hunger?  No, because after eating a filling apple, he still craved a cookie.  Was it getting a break from work?  No, because after walking outside, he still craved a cookie.  How about interacting with other people? Bingo.  Because when he socialized, even without food, he felt content.
     
"The cookie had become an excuse for talking to other people," he deduced. "So once I recognized that, that the cue was a certain time of day and the reward was the social experience, I could re-shape the behavior, the routine."
"So now every day I stand up at 3:30 and I look for someone to go have a conversation with, and I walk over to their desk, and then I go back to my desk, and the cookie urge is totally gone. I've changed that habit," he said.
     
Let's say you want to break your bad habit of smoking a cigarette every night.  That's the routine.  The first thing you need to do is figure out the cue.  Let's say you figure out it's finishing dinner.  Now you need to figure out the reward, let's say to determine the reward is a feeling of relaxation.  Now what you need to do is come up with a better routine that delivers the same reward, such as taking a bath.

​Why the Reward is Crucial
     
But what if, instead of changing a habit, you'd like to start a brand new one... for example daily exercise?