Lisa Sturge, Laughter Yoga Leader, Laughter Facilitator and NLP practitioner lead
us on
July 3rd in “Laughing just for the sake of it!”
As I look at Lisa standing next to the welcome poster I feel a bubble of laughter
rising inside me. Maybe it’s the memory of the fun we had on the evening! Maybe it’s
just seeing Lisa’s smile and hearing her infectious chuckle? Here’s one lady who
is constantly finding a reason to laugh and clearly the medical benefits of laughter,
which Lisa told us about, are working for her. Do you think she looks 75 years
old?
Me neither!
This little picture contains a laugh. >>>
Go on give it a tickle with your mouse
>>>
We began the evening, after ‘Parish notices’ by framing the session in NLP modelling terms. Jenny took charge of the flip chart and pen and outlined some of the potential barriers to laughing. As children we laugh a lot, when do we learn not to laugh, when do we learn to be so glum and serious? What might be the barriers? Where could they come from? This framing was to heighten everyone’s awareness to listen to any inner dialogue prohibiting them from joining in fully or spoiling the full effect of laughter. To spot any limiting thoughts or pictures. To notice any uncomfortable feelings. To enjoy the taste of laughter and smell the humour. We had time before the end of the session and after the break to explore this a little further and devise a simple NLP exercise to anchor laughter in different situations. As it came later so does the report on that bit of the evening.
In yet another layout of our versatile meeting room we sat in a large circle. With a table of water jugs and plastic beakers to keep us all hydrated. The circle had to be large to fit us all in! Lisa began by checking out if any of us had been to a ‘laughter’ session before. Only one person admitted to this, in fact it had been on Monday and she enjoyed it so much she decided to come along and join us for our little laugh. According to the medical register, we filled out on entering the session, none of us were pregnant, or not knowingly so, and as Lisa’s form hadn’t asked about mental stability it looked like we were set for a fun evening. Lisa then set out the programme for the session. Learning about the benefits of laughter, a brief introduction to ‘laughter yoga’ and its origins, a chance to practice some ‘laughter yoga’ exercises and a laughter meditation. Did you realise that ‘laughter’ and ‘meditation’ could appear in the same sentence and not be an oxymoron?
Another >>>
laugh >>>
Lisa told us that we would be laughing for no reason tonight. So no funny jokes, no funny films, just laughing for its positive benefits. (She forgot to mention funny faces and I certainly spotted plenty of those!) >>>>>
After all our sense of humour tends to be quite personal so not everyone finds the
same thing funny,
apart from that one thing, nudge nudge, you know what I mean? Yes
that!!
We needed to get comfortable to really engage with laughter so off came lots of shoes
and some socks. There was quite a display of prettily painted toes, and that was
just the men! Lisa led us in lung filling exercises, also known as deep breathing.
The more air we have inside the more we have to laugh with. Then we did some shoulder
rolls, those of us who were a bit tense may have found them to be boulder rolls!
Moving our heads, loosening up the tension that gathers so readily about the neck
and shoulder area. As we manipulated our bodies and waved our arms about Lisa reminded
us to let go and join in, to laugh in the safe environment of NLP-
(Ask me at the BBQ) A spooky face, some had to try harder than others here. Then a dinosaur face. (What do you call a short sighted dinosaur? A Doyouthinkhesaurus!) A witch face, or was it which face? An ants face, though Dec’s might have been funnier. Then we turned to the person on our other side and made up what we had for breakfast, again remembering our age. Some of the things people have for breakfast beggars belief. Jelly and cornflakes. Eggy bread with smarties. Toast and tomato sauce. Bacon and custard! Porridge through a straw (well at 107 chewing may be a problem). Actually understanding each other was a bit of a problem as Lisa instructed us to talk without showing our teeth. Give it a try right now, “ow do oo fink dat is?”
With our teeth exposed once more we turned back to our first partner in silliness and, though it went against the grain for most of us, (well all except one of us) took Lisa’s instruction to tell each other a lie! It had to be a real whopper, such as “I’ve just swum the English Channel 40 times without stopping and it only took me 35 minutes!” or “I’m Superman and Wonder Woman’s love child.” or “I was sitting on my potty the other day and wee’d so much it overflowed and I floated out of the house and down the street on the stream, still sitting on my potty, and when I got to the bottom of the hill a large bird picked me up in its claws and took me back home and when Mummy and
built in story telling software, integral fridge and automatic bottom wiper. In the shop I screamed and screamed because they wouldn’t buy me the deluxe version with the velvet seat, but I’ve got used to this one now and sit on it all day, in fact this is it, do you want a go on it?” Gosh!! The things we say when we are three.
Without pause or let up, or an opportunity to remember we were really grown ups, Lisa moved us on to play “Zip, Zap, Boing!” A really complicated and sophisticated game that takes too long to explain here, (serves you right for not being there). It proved too difficult for some, which caused great hilarity. In the end Mavis had to
Time for some serious stuff as Lisa handed out the letters for benefits so she could
explain the medical pluses of laughter. (That was it, did you miss it?) Those people
holding the letters were asked to act out each benefit for the delectation of the
rest of the group.
Once we had all regressed into childhood it became harder for Lisa to control the silliness, so she got us working in pairs quickly to take advantage of our new found freedoms. She asked us to pull some faces. Remembering our age as we did so. First a surprised face! (As in “the bull’s surprised the brown cow”).
Daddy saw me again they were so pleased they didn’t mind a bit about the missing potty and >> took me out to buy a new bigger one with a symphonic flush system, stereophonic speakers, >
<< start her own game ‘cos it somehow never quite got all the way round the circle
to her. I’m sure << with a bit more time we would have devised a special NLP-
<< from ‘present state’ to ‘even
sillier state’, gathering ‘laughter resources’ on the way.
B = Blood circulation 100 laughs is equivalent to ten minutes on a rowing machine! >>> (Required hand movements to indicate flow) E = endorphins, the natural opiates of the brain, helping to lessen pain. (Serene smile, chill out man!) N = Nervous system. >>> Laughing gets all your bits to jiggle up and down. (Julie did her best but found this one a bit of a challenge!)
E = Emotions. Laughing can help at difficult times. F = Fun, joyfulness, playfulness
(Nigel wasn’t sure how to do this, having already fallen off his chair on being given
the letter) I = Immune system. Laughter boosts this vital system and apparently
as germs have no sense of humour it drives them mad.
It also helps to produce killer T cells, which fight cancer and other nasties. (Stuart always wanted to be a killer T). T = Thoughts. Positive uplifting ones strengthen the mind and spirit. (Diana floated gently towards the ceiling). S = Stress relief. Laughing reduces cortizone and
other caustic chemicals produced by stress. And there were more benefits beyond this including the universal language of laughter and the fact that each of us laughs in a very individual way.
Lisa then introduced us to laughter from different parts of the body. Starting with
the belly. >>>
Then the chest, the neck, the nose, the eyes, the forehead, the ears
and finally the toes. Do >>> try this at home, now. We took this further by using
different parts of our body to laugh at each other with. Amazingly no-
We all needed a bit of a sit down and a drink of water so Lisa took the moment to tell us about Dr Madan Kataria, who is responsible for this whole laughing nonsense! Jenny has given you links to him on YouTube in the Headline report and links to Lisa’s site and other places to find out more about Laughter Yoga and the spread of this from India. (If you have a quick look be sure to come straight back).
Of course just hearing about it meant we all wanted to try it out for ourselves. So we learnt to clap like children, palm to palm, and clapping & chanting, HO HO, HA HA HA. HO HO, HA HA HA >>> chanting & clapping and all the time moving about the room, weaving in and out of each other, having a fine old time, with the odd bit of deep breathing.
Lisa asked us at this point if we were willing to have a play!! Where had she been
so far that
<<< evening!! We didn’t know not having a play was an option. Brushing
aside her attempt at seriousness we added in a variety of different laughs between
our clapping and chanting. Did you <<< know there is a special laugh for pigeon pooh,
and a special laugh for ants in the pants, a mobile phone laugh, a gin and tonic
laugh, obviously different from a pint of heavy laugh, or a cup of tea and cucumber
sandwiches laugh. We didn’t try those last three but do have a go at home.
In an interesting state mixing exhaustion with energy it was time for Lisa’s final bit. A nice lie down with calming music to enjoy the laughter meditation. Here’s a selection of our quiet contemplation of laughter.
Clicking on any of the images above will take you to the meditation laughter, notice the difference from the laughs you can get to by clicking on any of the small pictures in red boxes above.
We took the break after our meditation at 9.15 pm
In the time remaining Nigel and Jenny recapped on the ‘frame’ set at the beginning of the evening and demonstrated an off the cuff NLP exercise to anchor laughter to different states and then provide a ‘slide’ to move it wherever it would be useful. This all appears in more detail with additional NLP bits in the practice pack.
Time to close with thanks to Lisa for lightening our evening and introducing us to the power and benefits of Laughter Yoga and Laughter Coaching. Check out Lisa’s site for details of her really good value ‘Laughter sessions’ in Bosham, her approach to coaching and for links to more on laughter.
Following the session Nigel interviewed Lisa to find out more about her and NLP and laughter, listen to a clip here. Click on the cd.
