on laughter

One of my favourite things is laughing whilst lying down. Something good happens physically and mentally. I didn’t know about laughter yoga until I met the amazing Charlotte Woodford, pictured here. She’s a laughter yoga teacher (and an incredible choir leader). She has a fantastic, infectious laugh. Here’s her short laughter yoga video of a housewife with hiccups. I defy you to watch it and not giggle just a bit…

Charlotte introduced me to Norman Cousins earlier this year. I read his book and Norman makes complete sense. He was in phenomenal physical pain and discovered that 10 minutes of laughter gave him 2 hour’s pain free sleep. I tried it and it worked. A nerve was trapped in my back, I monitored it on a scale of 1-10 and even when it felt like the last thing I wanted to do I forced a laugh or made a belly “Ha”, leading to real laughter. At the time I didn’t care about the science, the physiology or the placebo, all I wanted was for the pain to go down a notch or two and it did. Interestingly it worked the other way as well. If I didn’t laugh, breathe and move, the pain went up the scale. True.

I don’t think we need wealth or even health to make us happy and content in this world. My most important words – and my wish for everyone – are love, laughter and choice. Laughter is just brilliant when we’re faced with overwhelming tasks. When I talk to a new client before we work together I usually mention it’ll be fun. Honestly, it is. There’s always something to laugh about. If you’ve looked at this site already you’ll know that I don’t have a ‘laughing at’ bone in my body – I’m talking about appropriate laughter initiated by us both. It comes pretty naturally and shifts the mood whether we need it to or not. A few weeks back a client and I were in hysterics about something that happened on the Archers about 15 years ago. Yesterday the same client cried and laughed at the same time.

When I get home and I’m asked how my day went it always feels appropriate to say ‘It was good. We had a laugh’.