mind, body, soul: Laughter Therapy
By Roz Lewis
First published 26/01/2006 © Weight Watchers website
Laughing is good for you – its official. Researchers have shown that laughing has positive effects on every aspect of your health – so why not giggle the pounds away and enjoy yourself?
It's said that American Norman Cousins paved the way for laughter therapy by curing himself of terminal cancer in the 1960s. After receiving his diagnosis, and not faring very well in hospital, he checked himself into a hotel room, where he watched his favourite comedians and discovered that laughing helped him sleep and boosted his immune system.
Feel-Good Factor
Here in the UK, a Laughter Clinic was set up in Birmingham on the NHS by Happiness expert Robert Holden, to get sick people to use their laughter to get better. In 2003, a study in Austria showed that laughter therapy helped stroke patients recover better by lowering their blood pressure. The immune system improves too, when you learn to laugh at the things that are scaring you. Recent research has shown that people who laugh when ill improve their white blood cell count and the number of anti-cancer cells.
Chuckling Makes Sense "It's a natural way to get the brain to release endorphins, the feel-good chemicals in the brain," says Joe Hoare, a laughter therapist from Bristol. "Plus it gives the body a physical workout. It's also been shown to be good for weight loss – apparently 5 minutes of belly laughing burns the equivalent calories of 15 minutes on the cycling machine! 15 minutes of laughing burns off a medium square of chocolate."
And if you need any further encouragement, why not join a laughter club and learn laughter yoga, which is a blend of yogic breathing and laughter therapy developed by an Indian physician Dr Madan Kataria in March 1995. In his classes, you first fake laughter and then let it spontaneously erupt around you; then lie down, do some breathing exercises and again, fake it to make it happen. According to St Albans-based laughter yoga teacher Lotte Mikkelsen: "It's great fun. I have lorry drivers, postmen, housewives, students, all coming along learning to do 2-3 hours of laughter yoga." Laughter clubs are also great ways of meeting people and boosting confidence, says Joe Hoare.
So if you want to learn how to laugh while losing weight, then try the following:
- Cultivate a sense of humour – every day, find something small to have a smile about.
- Learn to laugh at yourself – if you can take yourself lightly, you can put most of your worries into perspective.
- Be spontaneous and playful. Allow some fun into your life.
- Make friends with people who bring out the playful side of you.
- Try and do something a bit foolish or silly every day.
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