Sunday, November 28, 2010
Play and Laugh
Infuse a sense of play into your life. Laughter heals. A sense of play can help you and your clients remember that life need not always be so serious. What about bringing in a Magic 8 Ball to work – even if only to the breakroom for you and your colleagues. I have a playful little wire figure of a girl sticking out her tongue that reminds me that humor is healing. Clients love this little figure and have commented that her silly irreverence inspires them to speak their mind and see the humor in situations. I love to laugh. I’ve attended a few laughter yoga classes – and had an absolutely fabulous time! Even if you cannot find a laughter yoga class in your area, you can make up your own “laughter practice.” It’s a whole lot of fun in groups, so gather some people together and start by making big bellied “Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha” sounds. Maybe bounce up and down as you do it – or make some other physical motions that feel entertaining at the moment. Start making up different laughter sounds and doing them in unison: the snort laugh, the high pitched squeal laugh, the deep voice laugh, anything that comes to mind. If this sounds ridiculous, that’s because it IS ridiculous! That’s the point! Soon, you’ll be laughing for real and having a ton of fun. Enjoy!
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Great post. I agree that laughter is a wonderful way to heal and let go. The well known author, editor and publisher, Norman Cousins used laughter as a tool for healing. Here is an excerpt from Wikipedia:
ReplyDeleteCousins also served as Adjunct Professor of Medical Humanities for the School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he did research on the biochemistry of human emotions, which he long believed were the key to human beings’ success in fighting illness. It was a belief he maintained even as he battled heart disease, which he fought both by taking massive doses of Vitamin C and, according to him, by training himself to laugh.[3][4]
He wrote a collection of best-selling non-fiction books on illness and healing, as well as a 1980 autobiographical memoir, Human Options: An Autobiographical Notebook. Late in life Cousins was diagnosed with a form of arthritis then called Marie-Strumpell's disease (ankylosing spondylitis), although this diagnosis is currently in doubt and it has been suggested that Cousins may actually have had reactive arthritis. His struggle with this illness is detailed in the book and movie Anatomy of an Illness.
Told that he had little chance of surviving, Cousins developed a recovery program incorporating megadoses of Vitamin C, along with a positive attitude, love, faith, hope, and laughter induced by Marx Brothers films. "I made the joyous discovery that ten minutes of genuine belly laughter had an anesthetic effect and would give me at least two hours of pain-free sleep," he reported. "When the pain-killing effect of the laughter wore off, we would switch on the motion picture projector again and not infrequently, it would lead to another pain-free interval."
Thank you for sharing that information on Cousins. He is wonderful. I look forward to hearing your additional thoughts on this blog and having you as a follower. Thanks for participating!
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