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23 February, 2015 by Cris Popp

For People Who Don’t Take Laughter Therapy Seriously

The movie Patch Adams starring Robin Williams popularized the use of laughter in combination with other medical treatment. Laughter therapy also known as humor therapy is the use of the laughter process to improve wellness and health. In recent years, the use of laughter therapy has become endemic.

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According to the Cancer Treatment Centers of America (CTCA) humor therapy has been around for many centuries. For instance:

In the 14th Century Henri de Mondeville renown as the “Father of French Surgery” advocated for the use of laughter to help surgery patients convalesce. He notably advised his colleagues to allow the patients’ friends and relatives cheer them up anyway they could including by telling them jokes.

16th Century English scholar and author of “The Anatomy of Melancholy” highlighted laughter/humour as the remedy for melancholy. Martin Luther also in the 16th Century encouraged people who took part in his pastoral counselling to surround themselves with happy company.

William Beattie, a famous English physician of the 18th Century used humour in treatment of his patients. Starting in the mid 80’s clown doctors have been used in numerous children’s hospitals around the world.

Laughter therapy is a composite of various techniques including:

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  • Fake laughter
  • Appropriate jokes
  • Laughter greetings
  • Funny videos/props

Is Laughter Therapy’s Efficacy Proven?

For a long time scientists have been conducting studies to determine the effect of laughter on health and the body.

When we laugh we stretch our body and face muscles, we breathe faster, and our blood pressure as well as our pulse goes up. Some people believe that a good dose of laughter has the same effect as an easygoing workout. Steve Wilson, a consulting psychologist and laugh therapist says that the effects of exercise and laughter are very similar, a view that is held by William Fry, who has pioneered laughter research. According to Fry, it takes only one minute of laughter for the heart rate to reach the level it would after ten minutes spent on a rowing machine.

What’s more, 10-15 minutes of laughter burns 50 calories according to research conducted by Maciej Buchowski of Vanderbilt University.

How Laughter Affects Our Bodies

Blood sugar levels. A study conducted by Keiko Hayashi, a professor at the University of Tsukuba in Ibaraki, Japan shows that laughing after a meal lowers blood sugar levels naturally.

The study had a total of 19 subjects each suffering from type 2 diabetes and whose blood-sugar measurements were taken two hours before and after a meal. On the first day all the respondents attended a boring 40-minute lecture after dinner. On the following day the patients attended a manzai (Japanese stand-up comedy) following dinner. Their blood sugar levels went up after the comedy as compared to their measurements after the lecture. The study’s conclusion was that people with diabetes should laugh daily.

Immune Response. The lymphatic system in the human body plays a crucial role in aiding the immune system to get rid of waste product and excess fluid in interstitial spaces between the cells. It also acts as a delivery system that transports nutrients from the digestive tract and to the cells where they are needed. Since unlike with blood flow there is no natural pump involved, the lymphatic system makes use of exercising and breathing to remove waste from the body.

According to doctors, deep breathing is characterized when the diaphragm flutters up and down at a quick rate. This causes the expulsion of lymph from the bloodstream at a rate 15 times higher than the normal rate. When you laugh deep from your belly, the diaphragm acts as a powerful pump that assists in the removal of waste from your body. By increasing the flow of lymph through laughter more antibodies are produced by the body and hence an enhanced immune system.

Blood Flow. Scientists from the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore carried out a study that proved that laughter and healthy blood flow are linked. According to their research laughter causes the endothelium (tissue lining blood vessels) to expand hence increasing the flow of blood.

A group of 20 healthy volunteers with an average age of 33 were shown two movies each at its climax. The opening scene of Saving Private Ryan caused the group to have reduced blood flow while those who watched King Pin (a comedy) had relaxed blood vessels thus had a smoother blood flow. According to Michael Miller, Director of Preventive Cardiology at the University of Maryland Medical Center, laughter has the same effect on the endothelium as aerobic activity without the muscle tension, pains and aches, of course.

Laughter at the Workplace

What we’ve always known is right! There’s a correlation between laughter and workplace productivity. According to Chris Robert of the University of Missouri-Columbia’s Robert J. Truslaske Sr. College of Business having a light atmosphere at work can have a positive effect not only on output but on employee retention as well.

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According to him the ability to be humorous is linked to creativity and intelligence both of which are highly valued in any workplace. There seems to be a strong link as well between humour and positive emotions. Likewise there’s a link between workplace performance and positive emotions.

Even though there’s not sufficient research showing that humour directly affects employee performance there’s evidence to suggest that individual performance in the workplace is enhanced by the positive affect. This not only increases productivity but also the ability to communicate well with others; customers, boss, and co-workers. There’s increased cohesiveness between members of the team as well.

To understand how humour and creativity go hand-in-hand you need to recognize the fact that humour succeeds based on incongruity. For instance a punch line usually links together things that wouldn’t normally be considered to be related. In essence that’s what creativity is too; uniquely putting things together.

In fact a number of studies have shown that there’s a possibility of a funny person being a creative person. Now, this doesn’t mean that you should go for the class clown during the hiring process many hiring managers would be justified in having valid concerns about that not to mention that such a person would serve as a distraction to other members of his team. However, if you are able to pick up on indicators during the hiring process that someone finds things funny or appreciates a sense of humour they may be the right candidate for the job.

There’s a theory that we are less likely to quit if we have positive emotions about our jobs. A contributing factor to this may be the fun that we’re having in the break room. Even though a worker may receive a better job offer it will take more than that to draw them away from where they like working as well as the team they like working with.

Humor is also a great medium for employees who want to get their voices heard by management. In case the supervisor or business owner is not open to suggestions or challenges coming directly from employees, workers may still criticize management albeit in humor. Such criticisms should always be taken seriously by management as the person who made the joke may be speaking on behalf of their co-workers. In such an instance humor may be used by an organization’s leadership to understand employees’ psyche.

How to Get Cracking

As stated before laughter therapy does not solely rely on humour but on fake laughter as well. If you can’t get yourself or others to start laughing all by yourself here are a couple of ideas to help you get started.

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  • Imagine ants in your pants
  • Place an ice cube down your back
  • The balloon pop; imagine two people popping each other’s imaginary balloons
  • Pie laughter; imagine throwing an imaginary pie into someone’s face.
  • Imitate a donkey laugh; “ee-haw, ee-haw”
  • Don a chicken hat and flaunt it
  • Cookie monster laugh (hope you liked Sesame Street)
  • Cry as you go down, laugh as you go up
  • Greeting laughter; greet another person in as many different cultural greetings as you can e.g Chinese, Korean etc
  • Stick your tongue out and hold your hands like a lion’s paws proceed to roar and laugh
  • Rooster laughter; imitate a rooster’s walking style- puff up and flail your arms like a rooster’s wings
  • Start by sitting down with a straight face then stand up and smile (repeat these 3 or 4 times)
  • Imagine walking on very hot sand as you try to get to the cool ocean

Laughter Sessions

Kris offers laughter seminars and workshops for corporate clients. Kris’ laughter workshop sessions are convenient to have and require no preparation. We like to treat adults as adults in our laughter conferences and thus no funny props that would make any adult audience uncomfortable such as costumes or funny hats.

Cris Popp

For the past two years he has been working closely with Melbourne Business School (the number one provider of executive education in Asia-Pacific) to provide professional development to up-and-coming leaders in some of Australia’s biggest corporations.  His workshops on resilience, change management, leadership, innovation, Mind Mapping©, decision-making, conflict resolution, team-building and frontline management are highly regarded by participants.

He has also enjoyed success as a business change manager, innovation agent, facilitator, online project manager, ABC journalist and copywriter in both the public and private sector.

Kris also has a keen interest in positive psychology and its application to create high-performance workplaces and make change efforts successful.

Book your laughter workshop today by contacting Kris, a seasoned laughter speaker at info@laughterworks.com.au or +61 438 545 607.

For People Who Think Laughter's A Joke. via @crispopp http://t.co/2WcQou4xoy

— Cris Popp (@laughterpopp) February 24, 2015

Filed Under: Conferences, Corporate Laughter, Kris, Laughter, Laughter Workshop Tagged With: Benefits of Laughter, corporate laughter, Kris, laughter conferences, Laughter in the workplace, laughter speaker, laughter therapy, laughter workshops

9 February, 2015 by Cris Popp

Ignite The Crowd at A Conference Like A Laughter Leader

Whether holding big or small conferences an amazing performance is of absolute importance if you want to ensure that you’ve captured your audience’s attention. In such instances, it’s always a great idea to book a laughter leader for your session and guarantee to keep your audience ignited. Sometimes however it’s not possible to get one and you have to do it yourself.

How To Ignite The Crowd At a Conference

Here are some ideas to get you going on the right path:

  1. Create a Powerful Video to Introduce Yourself: It is now easier than ever to make a powerful video and share it with others. Because of the relatively low cost of video-editing software and GoPro video cameras, a video can be comprised of a fun song, viral video, motivational quotes or a bio.  Adding humor or laughter always helps. The sky is the limit on this one…
  1. Break the Ice: Ice-breakers really run the gamut. Whether you play the name game; have everyone introduce themselves to their neighbors, ice breakers are a great way to introduce team building and a comfortable environment to engage your audience.
  1. Exercise Warm Ups. If the room is feeling a little stuffy, introduce a warm-up exercise that gets the entire audience involved. Have everyone flail their arms around, roll their neck, make a big smile, or just about anything physical (within reason of course) that can encourage the crowd to participate.

These are some great suggestions to help get you started – but perhaps the best advice is to get a professional speaker and/or laughter leader.  Kris can help you find an excellent laughter leader in your area (or he’ll do it himself).  After all, there is a lot riding on your conference – don’t leave it to chance.

Kris has run laughter sessions at conferences all over the world and is available to help you make your next conference a smash hit. To get in touch contact Kris on +61 (0) 438 545 607 or email info@laughterworks.com.au

How To Ignite The Crowd At a Conference. via @crispopp http://t.co/Cd5msNWcNf

— Cris Popp (@laughterpopp) February 8, 2015

Filed Under: Conferences, Kris, Laughter, Laughter in the workplace, Laughter Workshop Tagged With: Benefits of Laughter, corporate laughter, Kris, Laughter in the workplace, laughter therapy, laughter workshops

2 February, 2015 by Cris Popp

Laughter Therapy Helps Diabetics Lower Blood Sugar

The benefits of laughter are becoming better known as scientific research unlocks its true potential. Laughter therapy, in particular, has proven to be an effective means of healing when it comes to different diseases, illnesses, and emotional issues. Laughter has been particularly helpful and has many medical benefits like increasing blood flow, boosting the immune system, and helping with relaxation and sleeping. But laughter goes even further; it helps cancer patients cope with chemotherapy, as well as mitigate health concerns for diabetics.

Diabetes is a disease that affects nearly 371 million people worldwide. There are two forms of diabetes: Type 1 and Type 2. People with Type 1 diabetes cannot produce insulin to lower their blood sugar, which requires the need to inject insulin daily. Type 2 diabetics can produce insulin, but not enough to control their blood sugar completely.

In an interesting study, Japanese doctors tested a theory about the power of laughter therapy, to see if it had any actual benefits for diabetics. The study found that laughter therapy can reduce blood sugar.

laughter helps diabetics lower blood sugar

The study was conducted on both diabetics, and non-diabetics in a control group. The doctors provided patients with diabetes lower levels of insulin over a two day period. The first day they were exposed to a boring lecture, and on the second day they were taken to a TV comedy show.

Results showed that the diabetic patients benefitted from laughing during the comedy show, in which their blood sugar was lowered, versus when they sat through a tedious lecture where it went higher. It was concluded in this study that laughter suppressed the actual rise of their sugar during the comedy show.

The impact of laughter has proven to not only help manage diabetes but other health problems as well. For example laughter therapy boosts the immune system, helps with stress management and reduces pain.

Would you like to have more laughter in your life and workplace?  Get Laughterworks to deliver a laughter session at your workplace or next conference or event?  Contact us:  info@laughterworks.com.au, or 0438 545 607

https://twitter.com/laughterpopp/status/562012375323529216

Filed Under: Benefits, Kris, Laughter, Laughter Workshop, Uncategorized Tagged With: Benefits of Laughter, corporate laughter, Health & Happiness, Kris, laughter, Laughter in the workplace, laughter therapy

26 January, 2015 by Cris Popp

What Makes A Good MC

Not everyone can make a good MC which is why it’s important to get a really good one days before your scheduled event. A good MC can make or break an event whether that’s a wedding, performance or corporate function. Sometimes though the MC might not show up for a number of reasons and you may be forced to step up to the plate and do your best.

So, what makes a good MC?

Take Appropriate Pauses

If this is your first time MC’ing an event then chances are you’ll be a bundle of nerves and you may end up breaking just more than a sweat. To avoid making a wreck of everything it’s important that you speak slowly and take your time to breathe while at the same time making an effort to pause at full stops.

MC- master of ceremonies

Be Organized

Make a point of sitting down with other speakers for the night to understand what order to introduce them to the audience as well as how to go about it. If you have trouble remembering names feel free to put down names of presenters to avoid embarrassing moments on stage.

I Thought That Speech Would Never End

The most efficient way of keeping your guests bored is by making lengthy announcements and speeches. Generally attendees like to talk to other guests while enjoying a sumptuous meal, so keep your time on stage brief and be sure to make succinct statements.

Don’t be Obnoxious

The last thing you want is to be memorable for all the wrong reasons. Humor is a great way to break the ice just don’t ruin your personal reputation while at it. Let your jokes come across as witty however be smart enough to let the spotlight fall on other areas of the event.

You are the Master of Ceremonies

Of course you shouldn’t domineer over others in playing your role. Much of the event’s success will depend on how great you play your role. Are all the speakers present? Are all the guests seated? You should even be prepared to take on roles that others may be unwilling to undertake.

Kris has hosted numerous events with roaring success. His LaughterWorks sessions also include a keynote speech that is sure to leave your audience motivatied. To have him MC your next event call him on +61(0)438 545 607 or send him an email info@laughterworks.com.au.

The Beginner’s Guide to MC’ing your own event. via @crispopp http://t.co/B6wju5Lt1G

— Cris Popp (@laughterpopp) January 25, 2015

Filed Under: Conferences, Engagement, Kris, Laughter, Uncategorized Tagged With: conferences, corporate laughter, fundraising, Kris

5 January, 2015 by Cris Popp

Laughter is a Better Energizer Than Coffee

Coffee continues to be one of the popular drinks of the 21st century. Its benefits have been touted by various professionals and health journals as the magic drink and its reputation as an energy booster doesn’t seem to be slowing down. Luckily though for those who can’t stand the smell of coffee or its taste there’s a new energy booster that has been proven time and again to be more effective than coffee- laughter.

Yes, that’s right. A healthy dose of laughter is good for your body’s energy levels plus a whole host of other benefits. So how do we know for a fact that laughter is much better than your regular cup of Joe? Well, studies carried out by researchers at the University of Maryland show that laughter is just as good as coffee if not better.  (Just thinking about it is making me laugh).

laughter is better than coffee

Immune Response

Recent studies show that there’s a correlation between increased stress and a weak immune system. Some of the studies also show that when applied, humor may be used to raise the level of antibodies leading to a more robust immune system.  So just imagine what a laughter therapy session would do for you.

Comedy and Blood flow.

Sounds like a badly written script, but believe it or not there’s  a link. Research from the University of Maryland shows that blood vessels act normally, that is contract and expand easily, when people are watching a funny comedy. That is certainly not the case when people are watching dramas; their blood vessels get constricted leading to constrained blood flow.  However we know that in laughter workshops – everyone comes out of feeling better.

Laughter is also good for lower blood sugar levels. What?

Indeed, a study involving 19 respondents all of whom suffered from diabetes proved this to be true. When given a meal and after attending a wearisome lecture the blood sugar levels of all the attendees was found to higher than when they ate the same meal and watched a comedy instead.

With so many benefits credited to laughter why not just switch over from coffee and experience the full benefits of laughter as well as get to find out for yourself whether laughter is truly the best medicine.

Kris has years of experience running successful laughter workshops for both organizations and teams. Get in touch with us to make your next event a roaring success: Call Kris on +61 438 545 607 or send an email to info@laughterworks.com.au

Laughter is a Better Energizer Than Coffee. http://t.co/pYc4Xlhx2p

— Cris Popp (@laughterpopp) January 5, 2015

 

 

Filed Under: Benefits, Kris, Laughter, Laughter Workshop, Uncategorized Tagged With: Benefits of Laughter, corporate laughter, Health & Happiness, Kris, Laughter in the workplace

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