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Book Carole "Carole was inspirational. The energy and enthusiasm during her presentation was quite unique and helped to highlight the way forward with the challenges we face."
Mike Derrick, Chair, East Sussex Bright & Hove Registered Care Homes Association
Motivational Speaker Carole Spiers
says "Yes, go on, have a good laugh!"
The idea of laughter as the 'Best Medicine' was always taken to be psychological. But scientists are now starting to identify laughter with genuine therapeutic effects.
Research has established a link between laughter and the suppression of those stress-hormones that damage the heart, bring on diabetes, weaken the immune system and predispose towards diabetes. One test showed that the mere anticipation of laughter could achieve this. A group of men were told that they would be shown a comic film. Immediately their production of adrenaline (a stressor) dropped by about half. Meanwhile neurologists are starting to trace a link between the respiratory aspect of laughter, the satisfaction/reward reflex and the release of mood-elevating hormones.
It also appears that deep, prolonged laughter cuts the level of cortisol, the stress-hormone which attacks the protective lining of the blood-vessels that can lead to a stroke or heart-attack. Laughter has also been shown to boost the antibodies that prevent hardening of the arteries.
Old and new laughter therapies
Non-medical humour therapy, of course, reaches right back to the old Eastern philosophies, sometimes on a group basis, but more usually one-to-one, enabling a personal humour-profile to be built up, and a programme of laughter-inducing exercises worked out.
One branch of meditation also utilises laughter, though it treats laughing and crying as two halves of the same thing - a slow-motion laugh, starting with a gradual smile and climaxing with a deep belly-roar that may turn to tears under the emotional charge.
In India, many yoga practitioners incorporate laughter into their deep-breathing and stretching routines. China has seen an explosion of laughter-related movements, with well-attended Laughter Clubs, where different styles of laugh are formally classified (The Lion Bellow etc.), and even a World Laughter Day.
Laughter at work - summary
- The medicinal effects of laughter are being confirmed by research
- New theories about ‘humour zones’ of the brain are being debated
- Humour therapies, old and new, are increasingly popular worldwide
Another key insight from Carole Spiers, International Leading Authority on Corporate Stress,
Motivational Speaker and BBC Broadcaster.
