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Laughter Therapy – Do it yourself!

Guest articles > Laughter Therapy – Do it yourself!

by: Ronit Baras

I hardly consider myself a funny person only because I do not remember jokes. The good thing about this is that people can tell me the same joke more than once and I still enjoy it. I think laughter is a great tool in personal growth. Laughing is a wonderful vehicle to happiness.

I remember, when we were kids, that we had moments of laughing so hard we cried. It was especially true when we went camping, or when we slept over with a group of friends or cousins. We would be in bed and our parents would desperately try to make us fall asleep. In those moments, even the silliest thing would make us burst out laughing until our stomachs ached.

There is a whole new science now dealing with the importance of laughter to our wellbeing. Terminally ill people watch funny movies to heal themselves. There are courses where you can learn to laugh. Think about it - learn to laugh. This natural thing that we do from birth is something we need to re-learn as adults. Do you think that when we were born everything around was funny and when we grew older nothing was funny anymore or is it that we just can’t recognise the fun in life?

Do we stop laughing because we grow old or grow old because we stopped laughing?

I love writing about children because I believe they hold the truth about life. We have all been born with that truth, but we have lost it over time. If we want to get back to it, we need to watch kids and learn from them. If we want to learn about laughter, we need to look at kids or look back at us when we were kids.

Children laugh a lot. One of the greatest joys is to hear a baby laugh. More people find that irresistible. Children do not need a “real” reason to laugh. They laugh at things that seems silly. What do you think? Is it better to laugh over millions of silly things or only to laugh at rare “seriously funny” things? Who has more fun in life? Kids or grown-ups?

There are two ways to get back to this truth. One way is to invest in personal development. Grow, evolve and attract more fun into your life, which will give you more reasons to laugh.

The other way is to laugh more and thus attract more fun into your life. It works well both ways. The second way is called “fake it till you make it”.

Hold a pen with your teeth. Did you know that when you do that, your brain thinks you are smiling and starts pouring “happy” chemicals into your body? Faking laughter works just the same and is the focus of what is called “Laughter Therapy”.

Laughing has great benefits like:

• It strengthens your immune system
• It enhances your cardiovascular flexibility
• It increases your motivation
• It helps you think more clearly and increases your intellectual performance
• It improves your information retention (memory)
• It increases your creativity
• It changes your emotional state to the positive
• It releases and transforms your emotional pain
• It develops your abdominal muscles

There are so many other benefits to laughter that it makes you wonder why we do not laugh more. If you want to enjoy a wonderful personal growth technique, start laughing. If it is something you do naturally, start your own laughter therapy course at home following these simple instructions:

• You do not need a reason to laugh. Just do it
• If you feel uncomfortable laughing around others, do it alone
• Hang around people who appreciate laughter. Laughing in a group is easier to start, especially if you feel comfortable with the group (family, friends, work colleagues)
• Aim for 5 minutes twice a day
• Start saying to yourself “Ha, ha, ha, ha” non stop or “Hee, hee, hee, hee”. At the beginning, it is going to be weird, but keep doing it. All of a sudden, you will start laughing and from that point onwards, there is no return. When it happens, you cannot stop it and everything anyone says or does will seem funny
• Keep practicing until you get the hang of it. It will get easier over time

After a laughing session, notice your feeling. It is a happy, uplifting feeling. I hope it is going to encourage you to laugh at how easy it was.

With laughter

Ronit

Ronit Baras is an Educator, Journalist, Author, Life Coach and a presenter specializing in Emotional Intelligence. Ronit is the founder of the Be Happy in LIFE program

For more information visit www.behappyinlife.com or www.ronitbaras.com

Contributor: Ronit Baras

Published here on:

Classification: Development

Website: www.behappyinlife.com

MSWord: Laughter Therapy.doc