Excerpt from a SunLive article published 27 October 2021:
Tauranga City Council wants to hear from people about community centres in the city. Tauranga currently has 10 community centres and halls and the Council wants to know how it can make them better and what people would like to see in new, planned centres. “Without people our community centres and halls are just buildings, that’s why we want to know what our communities think,” says Spaces & Places Planning Team Leader Ross Hudson. “At the moment they’re mostly used for play and recreation, which is great, but there’s room for so much more. How else can we support the wellbeing needs of our communities?” Trish Baars is no stranger to the power of community when it comes to wellbeing. Ten years ago, laughter wellness sessions at her local community centre literally saved her life. “In 2011, I was at a very low point in my life; living in Christchurch, contending with the ongoing earthquakes, a relationship that was failing and a boss who was a bully, my nerves were wrecked. I was then introduced to laughter wellness and for one hour each week I felt like I could just let go,” she says. Trish now runs the LOL Laughter Wellness Club at Arataki Community Centre so others can experience the benefits she has from taking part in laughter exercises. “Laughing is so incredibly good for everybody. It releases all sorts of feel good chemicals in our body like dopamine and serotonin but a lot of people don’t have the opportunity to laugh much in their everyday lives,” she says.
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If you go to a weekly laughter yoga class, that’s great. But there are many opportunities to up your dose of laughter medicine throughout the week as well. Consider these three:
Smile at people Smiling is a precursor of laughter, and like laughter, it’s contagious. When you sit on the bus or wait for your coffee to be served, don’t look down at your phone. Look up and smile at people next to you. The effect will surprise you. You may not end up bursting into laughter, but you will have made friendly contact. And maybe you can even strike up a nice conversation. Inject some humour into your conversations Instead of using the corny “Nice weather today, isn’t it?” conversation starter, ask something unexpected such as: “Tell me what’s the funniest thing that happened to you today.” If the person hasn’t had anything funny happen to them yet, you can expand: “So how about this week?” You never know what stories you may hear, and what new connections you may make. Join the laughter Sometimes laughter is private, but often it is not. If you hear a group laugh, e.g. at your workplace or a social club, don’t feel shy to approach them and ask: “What’s so funny? Can I share in your laughter?” In most instances they will be happy to include you. This wonderful, three-page article about laughter yoga was published in "essence", a weekend lifestyle magazine supplement to the Bay of Plenty Times on Saturday, 7 August 2021.
The author, Carly Gibbs, attended a session in Te Puke. She summarised her experience as follows: "The initial ridiculousness of it was a tad uncomfortable. However, like participant Eunice Williams [see Testimonials], I found laughter contagious. Jaws were hurting, and it was energising and a good way to lose your inhibitions." Gauging people’s intentions is difficult if you don’t see their full facial expression. At least, if you laugh behind your mask, people will hear it; they don’t need to see it.
But what about a smile? If you smile to signal friendly intentions, people will still recognise it because a lot of information is conveyed through the eyes and eyebrows. A real smile shows up in the crow’s feet or laugh lines area of the face, with the eyes narrowing and crinkling. This is because a genuine smile engages the orbicularis oculi muscle around the eye. A fake smile does not. So smile and make eye contact when you have to wear a mask that covers your mouth and nose . And, of course, laugh out loud if it’s funny. Did you know what happens inside your torso when you laugh? Fits of laughter are real belly sports!
The diaphragm is a muscle that separates our abdominal cavity from our chest cavity and is the only muscle in our body that is attached to other muscles. When we laugh, our diaphragm convulsively pulls on our side muscles and shakes up our stomach and other vital organs. We get an internal massage, which leaves our organs invigourated, juicy, pumped-up and alert. So you just laugh. Voluntary, fake laughter that may or may not turn into genuine laughter. And you know that you can fake it ‘till you make it. But did you know what actually happens when you laugh? It’s a most complicated process that our bodies produce. Below is an excerpt from a BBC Bitesize article. It all starts in the brain We don’t choose to laugh [that is unless you practice laughter yoga]. Even if we’ve paid to watch live stand-up from a favourite comedian, we’re actually taking a gamble. If we laugh at a joke during the show, it’s involuntary, based on how our brain processes what we see and hear. It’s very difficult to pretend to laugh or force a guffaw - try it for yourself. It doesn’t sound genuine, does it? There is no scientific consensus on what makes us laugh, but it is thought the frontal lobe at the very front of the brain, which determines our emotional responses, plays a part, along with the limbic system. The frontal lobe is split into two halves, the left and the right. The left is the practical side and works out if the sounds and images we’re experiencing are a joke or not. The right side is the creative half and determines if we actually find the joke or situation funny or not. The frontal lobe cannot start our laughter off though. That’s up to the limbic system, located beneath the cerebral cortex. The limbic system handles basic emotions such as fear, anger and pleasure, and once it gets the message from the frontal lobe that we need to laugh at something, it sends another message out which sets the physical process of laughter in motion. Too complicated? Never mind, just laugh!
It is amazing what can be found in scientific research papers about the benefits of laughter – beyond those already known among “laughers”.
In Japan, healthy elderly people have shown significantly increased bone mineral density and improved moods after once-weekly therapeutic laughter exercise sessions of 30-minutes for three months. Here is the abstract: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22672359/ Should you ever - sometime, in a currently inconceivable, post-Covid era - visit Vancouver, make sure you pay a visit to these 14 patinated, cast-bronze figures in Morton Park. They stand an impressive 259cm tall and weigh 250kg.
A-maze-ing Laughter, created by Yue Minjun (born 1962 in China), is the most beloved sculpture of the 2009-2011 Vancouver Biennale exhibition, captivating throngs of visitors and inspiring endless playful interaction. A-maze-ing Laughter has been nominated in the Great Places in Canada Contest 2013. It is the only work of public art to receive a nomination in the country. What a great idea to create a monument to laughter! Robert Levinson, psychology professor at the University of California Berkeley, invited couples into his lab and asked each partner to discuss something that irritated him or her about the other partner. The couples who tackled the stressful situation with laughter not only felt better in the moment, but had higher levels of relationship satisfaction and stayed together longer than couples who didn’t crack a smile.
Here is more about laughing and humour in relationships. Below is a poem, written by one of my regular laughers, Janette Barclay. She has MS and is confined to a wheelchair, but this doesn't prevent her from enjoying a really good laugh.
Laughing exercises at Arataki My friend popped in this morning, Shortly after I’d gotten into my chair. She was on her way to have a laugh, Thinking I would like to be there! Ten of us meeting together to laugh, A most ridiculous thing on this earth, We each introduced ourselves, then, Not to be shy with our style of mirth! Quite clever, the simplest of things, For exercising our laughter muscles, Followed on, whooping hilarious hoot, No inhibitions just tingling corpuscles! We changed places around the room, Belly laughter as deep as we could go, My face was aching, so was my tum, Great to be ‘going with life’s flow’! JGB 13.01.2018 |