laughter Archives - Laughter Works

27 February, 2016 by Cris Popp

Benefits of Laughter

There are plenty of benefits that laughter can bring; from breaking the ice when in unfamiliar settings to relieving your body’s stress levels, laughter is the gift that keeps on giving. So why not do a little more research into laughter and see what else we can get from it? This is exactly what Dr. Stanley Tan and Dr. Lee Berk from Loma Linda University have gone ahead and done.

Fun Ab Workout

Don’t get us wrong we’re not asking you to give up going to the gym all together but apparently laughter does play a role in toning your abs! Yup, that’s right! Every time you let out one of those deep belly laughs your stomach muscles expand and contract to define your six pack even further.

Laughter Lowers Blood Pressure

By reducing your blood pressure through a hearty laughter you reduce chances of suffering from a heart attack or stroke. Laughter is especially helpful for those who are unable to engage in more intense workouts. By using laughter as a cardio workout, your burn the same amount of calories as you would while walking at a slow to moderate pace.

Prompts Release of Endorphins

Endorphins play a vital role in helping ease chronic pain in our bodies and when we laugh they give our bodies a good feeling all over.

These are just some of the few benefits credited with laughter. If your organization or team would like to gain from the wide range of laughter benefits. Feel free to get in touch with Kris at info@laughterworks.com or give him a call on +61438545607.

11 May, 2015 by Cris Popp

Laughter: Leadership’s Secret Weapon

Twittables: 4 Ways to Boost Your Leadership Stocks Through Laughter [Click To Tweet] Laugh- It’ll Improve Your Leadership More Than Another Leadership Course [Click To Tweet] As you know, we’re big on laughter here and the important role it plays in our personal and professional lives. And the evidence keeps mounting- we came across an interesting bit of research about the value of laugther for “social grooming” (courtesy of our good friend Andrew O’Keefe, www.hardwiredhumans.com ). Social grooming, is what we, (in fact all primates), do to help this form of cohesive and productive social groups. Why it matters is that groups that don’t bond- don’t function. Groups that do bond- do function. The danger in many modern workplaces, with the huge workloads, long hours, and stress- is that in an effort to get through all the work we stop bonding with others. That very quickly leads to a breakdown in social relations which has implications for trust, collaboration, conflict and ultimately performance, innovation and leadership. Spending sometime chitchatting with your colleagues, being a bit personable, and knowing more about them than just the professional roles all helps. On the other hand- you don’t want to go too far the other way. All social chit chat, and no work, is also unproductive. So, how can you bond quickly in the workplace; create some bonds, and perform a high level? Well, it turns out that laughter is an ideal way to do this. Laughter is quick, enjoyable, and it releases feel-good endorphins which help us enjoy the company of our colleagues. If you’re a leader, setting the right “tone” for laughter is important. One caveat here- is that the laughter isn’t at anybody’s expense.

Tips for leaders

How do you set the right tone as a leader- this is Andrew’s advice: First, as the leader your mindset matters. Are you of the view that there is a place for light-hearted moments at work and that laughter is a good thing? Second, set the tone that laughter is encouraged. You don’t need to be a teller of jokes, but you do need to send signals that you are willing to have a laugh and that there is a place for others to share humorous moments. Third, create the environment for laughter. It might be sharing light-hearted moments from your weekend, or at meetings and coffee catch-ups. Fourth, monitor that there is a reasonable amount of laughter occurring in your workplace. Healthy laughter is a good indicator of high engagement and high energy. And that people are bonding. And we might also add:

Run a laughter workshop, or a series of laughter workshops.
Have us present a laughter session at your next quarterly forum or annual gathering.
Book our Talk “Happy Hour is 9-to-5”

Kris has conducted numerous laughter events to wide acclaim. If you would like to have him at your next laughter workshop or conference don’t hesitate to get in touch with him; info@laughterworks.com.au or give him a call on +61 438 545 607.

4 May, 2015 by Cris Popp

10 Reasons to Laugh; No.7 is my Favorite

Twittables:

Need a Laugh? The Secret of the Most Powerful Team-Builder

[Click To Tweet]

It’s True! Why Laughter is Good For Losing Weight

[Click To Tweet]

Doesn’t laughter make you feel good? Doesn’t laughter make you just want to get along with people? Especially the ones you’re laughing with? Laughter brings you into the moment and it helps you focus. All the things we want in the workplace; collaborating with others, getting along with our peers and keeping focused on what we’re doing in the present. So why do we keep it out of workplaces? Nothing builds teams and bonds like laughter. It is the best team builder.

Organizations often spend a lot of time and money on team building workshops and/or exercise. Things like treasure hunts, cook-offs, if you’re really adventurous you might go abseiling, puzzles, games, tags of war- all sorts of things. And what they want to achieve at the end of that is people coming together; having a good laugh and understanding each other as people not just as fellow “workers”. It is after all the personal bonds that build good workplace relationships. So why not cut straight to the chase and instead of having an elaborate team building workshop hold a laughter session. It’s easy, quick and everyone can participate.

Here are some reasons why laughter is the best team builder:

It requires no elaborate set-up; you just have to have people turn up.
It’s done standing and moving so you get some good exercises as well and it’s not a sedentary activity.
There are no complicated rules to understand.
It’s very time flexible you can have a laughter session in everything from 10 minutes to 2 hours.
It’s very difficult to offend anybody; you don’t have to worry about being politically correct- you just do a laughter session (PS: In laughter sessions there are no jokes it is straight out laughter without the jokes so it is very safe).
Everyone understands how to laugh so it involves everybody.
As well as bonding laughter is good physically for you. It releases oxytocin and all sorts of feel good chemicals.
Laughter helps you lose weight and loosen up.
You can run laughter sessions at any location; inside an event, at a meeting, at a teambuilding session especially at a conference.
And best of all laughter is a lot of fun.

So next time you want to improve performance and productivity at your workplace forget all the difficult, challenging setup team building exercises that are complicated and sometimes not that much fun and go straight to the heart of it.

Why don’t you get yourself a laughter session with Kris. To get in touch call +61 438 545 607 or email info@laughterworks.com.au.

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.

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

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12 January, 2015 by Cris Popp

How Laughter Makes For a Better Team

Every organisation wants to be full of winning teams – and much of the work of HR, and leadership and management is to help create those conditions. They can include things like inclusion, shared decision-making, distributed leadership, a good physical environment, a safe place to work, security – and respect for all people, despite their level and role. One thing that all of these methods try to achieve is to create a conducive environment for workmates – one where happiness will keep team members satisfied with their various roles in the organizations and hence become, or stay, more productive. And how do we know when people are happy – they laugh. In light of this, why not just cut to the chase and make your employees happy by making them laugh?

Some of the reasons why laughter may come in handy are:

Communication

When management is keen to create a light atmosphere, it encourages team members to speak openly about how they feel about the company and its policies. This feedback is imperative for any organization that realizes that happy workers equal greater productivity. A manager who good-humoured, and openly lasts – even one that makes fun of him-or herself breaks down the barrier that is ubiquitous in many employer-employee relationships. People who laugh are good to be around and comes across as one of the team.

Reduced Stress

Life is certainly more hectic now than it was a few decades ago. As adults, we laugh far less than we did as children (about 80% less), and as a community we laugh far less than we used to. Strain interferes with a person’s ability to focus on their work which leads to a significant reduction in productivity. By injecting laughter into your people’s daily routine, the effects of tension are greatly mitigated making it possible for a team’s operations to go on with little or no interruption.

Enhanced Creativity

Think of a situation where formalities are the norm; where tension thrives amongst employees and where unbreachable barriers exist between management and the rest of the workforce. It is much harder to get novel ideas from workers as they may be too intimidated and think that their ideas will be automatically rejected. Contrast this to a situation where employees are encouraged (with the aid of humor) to air their views without fear of reprisal. It shouldn’t be surprising that those in the last scenario will suggest even the wildest of ideas which ultimately may be the solution to a common problem due to their out-of-the-box thinking. However, even if their ideas are not adopted the light atmosphere keeps them from taking it personally. Laughter before a creativity workshop – does wonders to help build innovation.

In fact, Edward DeBona, the father of lateral thinking, says that humour and creativity are very close together. Laughter is what happens when you get lots of humour.

Kris has many years’ experience running laughter workshops for both teams and organizations. Give him a buzz on +61(0)438 545 607 or send him an email info@laughterworks.com.au.

For leaders keen on building an effective team. via @crispopp http://t.co/hHMWSJhTGv

— Cris Popp (@laughterpopp) January 11, 2015