Tag Archive for: the benefits of laughter

April 14 – International MOMENT TO LAUGH Day!

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Tuesday April 14 is International MOMENT TO LAUGH Day – a day to remind us all of the importance of laughing out loud.

And I’m giving you a REAL challenge.

💛 Quick challenge: MOMENT OF LAUGHTER

Today (or tomorrow 😉 ), take…

⏰ 2 minutes

Yes, just 2 minutes to LAUGH OUT LOUD.

Taking a moment to deliberately laugh out loud may seem a little ridiculous.

But we need it.

📊 More than a third of the 1,000 employees surveyed by Monster.com
say their workplace has become more serious in the past year.

We see this in our daily lives. At work or at home.

And guess what?

This is not good news. (You can feel it!)

😔 Less laughter = more stress
😔 Less levity = more burnout

On the contrary…

😄 An environment where we laugh
💛 is often a space where we feel good
🤝 safe
🌿 and connected to others

And it’s not “just in your head”.

The body, too, is on board.

✨ Simply anticipating laughter reduces cortisol (stress hormone) by 39% and epinephrine by 70%.

Yes… just think about it.

And that’s not all 😄

Laughter:

💓 lowers blood pressure
💪 releases muscle tension
🧠 increases oxygen to the brain (highly recommended by doctors!)
🌿 relaxes the body faster than Valium or vodka (two things you definitely shouldn’t bring to the office!)
🔥 and even burns a few calories (yes yes! I have a friend who goes to his local gym and just laughs at people working out).

A moment of laughter can help us stay humble and human.

And between us…

👉 It’s sugar-free
👉 cholesterol-free
👉 gluten-free
👉 alcohol-free
👉 and calorie-free 😉

But beyond all these benefits…

Laughter brings us back to something simple and precious:

💛 our humanity
💛 our lightness
💛 our ability not to take everything too seriously

(How about giving ourselves permission… a little more often?)

🌀 Mission for the day: A time to laugh

On the occasion of the International Day of the Laughing Moment,
I suggest something simple… and powerful:

👉 Plan a real laugh.

Yes, plan it.
Like an important appointment.

⏰ Choose a moment in your day
(even 2 to 5 minutes is enough)

Then…

😄 start laughing – on purpose
😂 let the laughter grow
🤣 let your body get on board

RIS FORT! A real laugh riot. For a little while.

🎯 F or that little something extra that makes the world more beautiful :

👉 Do it with someone
👉 Or send a laugh as a voicemail
👉 Or look in the mirror and laugh (yes yes 😄)

💡 Remember:

You don’t have to wait until you want to laugh.
You can choose to laugh.

And this simple choice
can completely transform your state.

With affection (and a smile!)

Linda

p.s. I promise to laugh in public today! Here’s the proof!

Laughter at work: A SUPER POWER for your team

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Today, I want to talk to you about something that just might change your perspective on work. A powerful, often underestimated tool that you may have overlooked in your professional toolbox: laughter.

“Linda! Are you talking about laughter? What a surprise!” you might ask!

Yes, you read that right! Laughter has the power to transform your workplace into a more positive, productive and connected place.

All this is confirmed by the customers I work with. After a conference-workshop, team members are in a good mood and leave with renewed energy and a smile. The effects last for several weeks!

Let’s go

Let’s dive into the depths of workplace laughter and discover how it can become your team’s superpower. (And here’s a nice little moving image to get us in the mood! You may have to click on it to get it started, but it moves, I promise.)

Goodbye stress, hello smiles

Laughter is the ultimate remedy for stress. When we laugh, our bodies release endorphins, those little happy hormones that make us feel great, relaxed and at ease. The result? Less stress, less muscle tension, and more smiles. Try carrying a heavy object and laugh out loud! Our bodies are incapable of forcing themselves at this point. It relaxes.

A radiant work environment

Laughter brings that positive atmosphere we all seek in the office. Colleagues laughing together create a warm atmosphere conducive to creativity. The atmosphere at work is one of the key factors in employee well-being and productivity. Laughter has the power to transform a dull office into a dynamic, positive place. Laughter can positively influence your corporate culture, strengthen team spirit and inspire creativity.

Strengthening ties

Laughing together brings us closer together. Shared moments of laughter strengthen the bonds between team members. Whether around the coffee machine or during an after-work outing, laughter creates memories that last. Laughter is the “cement” of professional relationships. And we know it. Relationships between colleagues are at the heart of any high-performance team. Shared laughter fosters communication, reinforces trust and builds solid professional relationships.

Laughter, fuel for creativity

Laughter has the power to unleash our creativity. It enables us to see things from a different angle and find innovative solutions to business challenges. Creativity is at the heart of innovation, and laughter can stimulate creativity in unexpected ways. Laughter encourages divergent thinking, helps find creative solutions to business challenges and fosters innovation. Laughter allows us to “see things differently”.

If we can laugh at all sorts of little everyday things – for example, laughing at our mistakes, laughing at the VISA account, laughing while washing our hands – we might think that by allowing ourselves to laugh, we place ourselves “elsewhere” and we find solutions more quickly to the problems we encounter.

Greater efficiency, less time wasted

Teams that laugh are often more efficient and productive. Laughter helps reduce tension, improve concentration and boost work performance. That’s right! Just think how your breathing changes completely when you laugh. You bring more oxygen to your body and brain. A well-oxygenated brain works much better! You also become more energetic.

The diplomacy of laughter

Laughter is an excellent conflict management tool. It defuses tense situations and facilitates open communication. Laughter can really help teams resolve disagreements constructively… and diplomatically! Try not to get angry or impatient when you start laughing. IM POS SI BLE! Goodbye conflicts!

Laughter, a friend of health

What’s more, laughter has countless health benefits. It strengthens our immune system, activates the parasympathetic system, stimulates the respiratory system, lowers blood pressure and pampers our heart.

Just think about it! Not only is it great to laugh, it’s also great for your physical health! A free aerobic training program!

What are you waiting for?

So, dear friends, why not make laughter part of your corporate culture right now? It could be as simple as sharing a joke every morning, organizing playful brainstorming sessions, starting your meetings or days with a few laughter yoga exercises (no joke! It really works and it’s contagious!) or creating a relaxation corner where you can let go and laugh together (or do your laughter yoga exercises together!). Come on. I’ll give you an example to do with me here.

Laughter is a superpower we all have, so don’t wait any longer. Unleash it and make it an asset to your team.

Laughter is not only good for your health, it’s also a real catalyst for strengthening your bonds, enhancing your creativity and energizing your work.

And most of all, I love to see the shining eyes of employees and team members after they’ve experienced this method, which will become part of their professional toolbox, to everyone’s great delight! It’s just too great!

So, are you ready? Let’s get started!

And tell me how the rest of your day went. I’m sure you’ll have been more smiley, more creative, more collaborative and… happier! That’s right!

I know it. I put it into practice! hihihi!

Laughter, joy and health

Linda

P.S. Click on this link to Ask me what I can do to help! Whether it’s a conference-workshop, a regular workshop or a Rire et Chocolat program, I’m here for you!

P.P.S. Can you feel your superhero cape (or super heRose) flapping in the wind?! HAHAHAHA! There it is!

Do you have a healthy lifestyle?

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Big question. Is a healthy lifestyle important to you?

Is your answer yes?

  • You brush your teeth after every meal (or at least twice a day!).
  • You eat well.
  • You drink water.
  • You wash yourself.
  • You sleep 7 hours a night (when everything’s going well!).
  • You exercise a few times a week (even if it’s walking, it counts).
  • You take some time off.
  • You see friends.
  • You’re taking a vacation.
  • You laugh heartily for several minutes a day.

Did you say YES to all of these? Did you say NO to one or more? Then there’s something seriously missing from your healthy lifestyle. And I’m willing to bet that what’s missing is LAUGHTER!

Am I wrong?

When you know all the benefits of a good, energetic laugh (the kind that makes your belly move and sounds good), you wonder why we don’t allow ourselves to do it assiduously and daily!

Why aren’t we laughing more?

Because we adults are in our heads! And our heads are full of worries, responsibilities, performance ideas and so on. And when the head is full of “serious, important things”, there’s no room for a sense of humor.

That’s why I love laughter yoga so much. Because it allows me to maintain a healthy lifestyle and laugh at will even when my grown-up brain is busy dealing with grown-up problems!!! HAHAHA!

An experience

Would you like to experiment with me?

I suggest you do the exercise in this one-minute video with me. Just one minute of your time.

And let me know if you succeed – but to succeed, you have to WANT to laugh!

Let me know how you feel AFTERwards.

Come on. Just a minute. Here we go!

Laughter, joy and health

Linda

 

A very true quote

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Last week, I attended several networking events. At one of them, one of the speakers said something that made me realize just how far I’ve come. Do it and do it until you get it right.

Do it… again and again and again and again. Until you get it right.

It’s so true!

Think about it. When a child learns to walk, he falls, and falls, and falls! Does he get discouraged and stop trying to get up and move forward? NOT. AT ALL. AT ALL! He keeps going… until he succeeds! That’s his goal and he KEEPS GOING!

Hey boy… the number of times I’ve tried to do something and, because on the second try I didn’t get the results I wanted, I stopped… Crazy!

Perseverance or stubbornness?

If there’s one thing I know, it’s that it’s easy to get discouraged after a few unsuccessful attempts. Not that I give up when something doesn’t work out, but rather that I don’t know whether I’m being persistent or stubborn! It’s a small but important nuance.

 

In my opinion, perseverance enables us to achieve our goals, realize our potential and succeed in things we believe in. The definition I found on the web basically says this: To apply one’s will, to use patience to pursue an action despite difficulties, to remain firm in a resolution, an opinion, an attitude.

Stubbornness on the other hand has a more negative connotation for me. If I’m stubborn about something, then I’m stubborn! The image that accompanies this concept of stubbornness is that of a billy goat running into a wall. He’s charging and charging and charging headfirst… and that’s not very positive! Obstinate, unreasoning attachment to an opinion or bias.

In the case of the sentence that made me react, it’s all about perseverance. And when the goal is worthwhile, when it’s something that’s good for my health, that’s good for humanity, then that’s a very positive thing! and I buy that!

When I tell you that hearing those words made me realize how far we’ve come, I was thinking of several things.

To my beginnings on two legs, trying to stand up and move forward, of course, but also and above all, to all the effort I put into becoming what I am today. Building a business that allows me to laugh, spread good cheer, reduce my own stress and help others reduce theirs… to laugh EVERY DAY! That’s no mean feat!

A difficult start

 

I’ll always remember my first experience with laughter yoga. Oh, how uncomfortable I was with the idea of laughing for no reason! Oh how I remember the thought that crossed my mind that morning as I was told I should laugh after saying my first name, laugh after saying where I was from, laugh after saying what I did for a living!“Uh… no! That’s vrrrrrrrrrreally not funny! And why should I laugh if it’s not funny?!”

But I had paid for my internship and I had DECIDED to give it a try. I had CHOSEN to see what could happen and if it could help me. Thank God I persevered! Much to my delight!

To this day, I often hear people tell me that they could never do what I do. That they’d never be able to laugh “at nothing” as naturally as I do!

Well, I’d tell them Do it and do it until you get it right! Don’t stop because you think it’s too strange, too left-field. Just keep at it! You’ll see that in the end you’ll succeed, and you’ll feel BETTER and HAPPIER!

Yes!

Doesn’t that give you a little extra pep to continue what you want to do or what you’ve started? Don’t be discouraged! You’re walking on your own two feet now? Are you? You’ve got the proof!

Inspiration comes from everywhere, when you least expect it!

I give you a big smile. I tilt my head back a little and laugh happily and freely!

Laughter, joy and health

Your HAHA Sister, Linda

 

 

 

Change your body chemistry with a laugh?

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Change your body chemistry with a laugh? Think it’s impossible?

Think again! All our emotions, every little feeling, has an impact on our body’s chemical composition! What you see here are the effects of anxiety, depression, love, happiness… Impressive, isn’t it?

How emotions affect our body chemistry

Change your body chemistry with a laugh? Yes, you can!

Depression, anger, anxiety, love, good mood… watch the tubes fill up or empty. It’s not science fiction at all! hahaha! (although how you can make a little graph that moves is a mystery to me…)

Do you know your hormones?

First, dopamine. It’s an important neurotransmitter involved in many of our body’s systems. See an interesting video to explain its action more scientifically.

Serotonin is a central nervous system chemical messenger involved in a number of physiological functions such as sleep, aggression, eating and sexual behavior, as well as depression.

Among other things, the serotonin/dopamine balance ensures mood stability.

Oxytocin is often referred to as the love hormone! After a long hug, its level rises. It’s associated with empathy, trust and interpersonal relationships.

One of the hormones illustrated here is missing: endorphins. Endorphins are hormones secreted in the brain when we exert ourselves with moderate or vigorous intensity (De Matos et al., 2009). These neurotransmitters play several important roles. Indeed, when endorphin levels rise, the body allows our negative emotions and sensations to take a breather, fostering the emergence of a good mood and a sense of well-being. Not only does the secretion of these hormones contribute to well-being and pleasant sensations, they also influence the perception of pain and stress (De Matos et al., 2009). This chemical is said to have an anxiolytic effect, i.e. a substance that reduces sensitivity to anxiety and stress (reference on http://www.centrecircuit.com/fr/Pour-les-familles/Blogue/Juillet-2017/La-magie-des-endorphines).

We know that laughter has an impact on the secretion of all these hormones. We also know that laughter reduces the concentration of adrenalin and cortisol (the main stress hormones) in our bodies.

The result? Less of what’s associated with the effects of stress – tension, discomfort, illness. More of what makes you relaxed and happy!

So, what do you think? Do you believe, as I do, that laughing more is totally appropriate as a joyful prescription?

Looking for a little extra laughter – even if you’re alone? It’s been proven that hearing laughter predisposes us to laugh.

I remember when my cousin and I were teenagers, we played a “game”. One of our aunts had a tape recorder and she lent it to us for a little while. So my cousin and I would take turns going into the bathroom and recording ourselves. I often sang and told stories. Her? She laughed! To this day, I still remember the physical sensation of the mega giggle that followed! Laughing so hard to hear her laugh, to see us laughing together! It felt so good!

Then today’s “Good mood” tip will give you an idea to stimulate your laughter!

Do you? Yes? and tell me how it worked out for you!

Laughter, joy and health

HAHAMasté

Linda

Is laughter the best medicine?

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Would laughing really be the best medicine?
I’ve always thought it was an excellent ‘medicine’. But the best? I can hear you now… “If SHE doesn’t believe it’s the best, why is she talking so much about it?” HAHAHA!

This morning I was reading an article from 2014 on the Times website. A very interesting article, by the way, and I thought I’d translate it for you and share it here.

So here it is.

Can we say that laughter has real health benefits?

It may not be the best medicine. But laughter is good for you and can even be compared to a good diet and exercise to keep you healthy and disease-free.

This statement is according to Dr. Lee Berk, Associate Professor at Loma Linda University in California, who has been studying the effects of a good laugh on the brain and body for nearly three decades.

According to Berk, your mind, hormonal system and immune system are constantly communicating in ways that influence everything from your mood to your ability to fight disease. Take grief: “Grief induces stress hormones, which inhibit your immune function, which can lead to illness,” he says. Hardly a week goes by without new research linking stress to another major ailment.

Why talk about stress?

“Because laughter seems to cause all the opposite effects of stress,” Berk explains. He says laughter prevents the release of stress hormones like cortisol. It also triggers the production of beneficial neurochemicals such as dopamine, which have all sorts of calming and anti-anxiety benefits. Think of laughter as yin and stress as yang.

Largely due to these anti-stress powers, laughter has been associated with health benefits ranging from lower inflammation levels to improved blood flow, Berk explains. Some research from Western Kentucky University has also drawn attention to the number and activity of “killer cells”, which your immune system deploys to fight disease. “Many of these things also happen when you sleep well, eat well and exercise,” Berk explains. Which explains why he includes laughter with more traditional healthy lifestyle activities.

Berk has even shown that laughter causes a change in the way many neurons in the brain communicate with each other. More specifically, laughter seems to induce “gamma” frequencies, the type of brain waves observed in people who practice meditation assiduously. These gamma waves improve the “synchronization” of your neuronal activity, which enhances recall and memory, Berk explains.

How does it work?

How does laughter accomplish all this? According to Robert Provine, neuroscientist at the University of Maryland, Baltimore, author of Curious Behavior: Yawning, Laughing, Hiccupping, and Beyond, that’s where things get tricky.

Provine calls himself areserved optimist when it comes to the health-enhancing properties of laughter. “One of the challenges of studying laughter is that there are so many factors that trigger it,” explains Provine. “For example, you’re 30 times more likely to laugh with other people than when you’re alone,” he says. “Social relationships and camaraderie are also recognized as positive health-promoting elements. And so this social component of laughter could play an important role in attributing and recognizing the benefits of laughter,” adds Provine.

Here’s why it matters: if you’re asking people to laugh to improve their health, there may be a big difference between laughing at nothing, without stimulation, watching a humorous clip on YouTube or meeting friends who make you laugh, says Provine.

“That doesn’t mean the benefits aren’t real,” he adds. “But it may not be fair to lend all these ‘superpowers’ solely to the act of starting to laugh.”

But even for researchers like Provine who aren’t ready – at least not yet – to make laughter a universal panacea, nobody disputes the great benefits associated with a good laugh. He’s simply challenging science’s current understanding of its data-gathering mechanisms.

“When you laugh, you’re in a happy space,” he says. “That’s always a good thing.”

Translated from You Asked: Does Laughing Have Real Health Benefits? By Markham Heid November 19, 2014

Yes, well. What’s next?

Personally, I know very well that if I have a giggle when I’m with friends or people, I’ll feel tremendously connected to them simply by having shared a giggle together! I’ll feel good.

However, if I start laughing by simply practicing my laughter as an exercise, I also know that I feel really good after a few minutes. I feel more energetic, calmer, more serene, calm, playful and events bother me less.

So laughter may not be the BEST medicine or, as Robert Provine suggests, a universal panacea. But it’s certainly a GREAT remedy for many ills! Whether it’s depression, lack of energy, insomnia or anxiety. It works!

And that’s a fact!

Come on. I’ll just be a few minutes. Look at your watch and do it with me! Let’s go for 5 minutes!

Laughter, joy and health

Linda

Tag Archive for: the benefits of laughter