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Second Hand Laughter Causes Happiness
09/20/2007
According to the World Health Organization [WHO],
second-hand smoke is a real and significant threat to our public health.
Supported by two decades of evidence, second-hand smoking has been causally
associated with a range of life-threatening health effects, including lung
cancer and heart disease. For children, the situation is particularly
disturbing, as involuntary exposure to tobacco smoke has been identified as a
cause of respiratory disease, middle ear disease, asthma attacks, and sudden
infant death syndrome [SIDS].
Second hand laughter, on the other hand, can improve
our health, the quality of our life and can even cause happiness.
The basic fact is we all want
happiness. Although pain and suffering are inevitable, we do not want it, nor do
we like it. Many of us don’t know what to do with it when it comes. Managing our
emotional health is perhaps the most difficult of all human challenges. We spend
about 75 percent of our time trying to sort out the varied and complex emotions
while the other 25 percent trying to manage our reactions to the people around
us. Negative emotions can drain our supply of energy turning positive energy
into negative energy in seconds.
When we begin our day, we choose
to live out the next 24 hours with either negative energy or positive energy.
Positive energy actually requires less energy and we get some back in return.
It’s also a lot easier on our bodies than negative energy. What a deal. Why then
do many of us choose negative energy? Positive energy requires us to get in
touch with our inner spirit, the source of our energy supplied by a greater
power than our human minds can comprehend – a power that is the opposite of pain
and suffering. Some like to refer to our inner spirit as “the child within.”
What do children do 400 times a
day without being told to do it? The answer is simple: laugh. The sweetest sound
in the world is the laughter of a child, specifically hearing your own child
laugh. Dr. Madan Kataria, the physician who founded the Laughter Yoga Club
movement in 1995 which – as a contagious reaction – spread to 5500 clubs in 50
countries, said children laugh 400 times a day naturally. Adults, on the other
hand, laugh only 17 times a day on average.
When we choose to participate in
negative energy, we have remained in, or re-entered the pain and suffering zone.
For some of us, this daily decision is nothing more than a bad habit based on
fear of change. Fear of doing something new and different. Getting out of our
comfort zone. Believe it or not, some of us actually fear happiness. It feels
too good which brings discomfort for some because we may not feel worthy.
Spirituality is all about working in the positive energy. How do we get there?
Through laughter. More specifically, laugher yoga.
Dr. Kataria says that spirituality
helps us create new ideas, new visions, and creative aspirations which builds a
magnetic aura around you that attracts people to you, strengthening your
positive energy. Laughter Yoga is an opportunity to let go of stress, bring
people together to laugh for absolutely no reason. Laughter Yoga Clubs provide a
place where people can laugh away stress, pain, tension, and bring balance and
peace of mind to improve your overall sense of well-being.
I first wrote about the Laughter
Yoga Club concept is my April 2007 column which resulted in an NBC Channel 5
news story with anchorwoman Deborah Ferguson on May 4th. I wrote
about laughter yoga to generate local interest in starting a Laughter Club in
the Dallas/Fort Worth area since this area did not have any clubs. After the
news story, I received a call from a nurse in Fort Worth who had just returned
from earning her Laughter Yoga certification in California and who was planning
to open a Laugher Yoga Club in Fort Worth. Since her opening, she has been on
Channel 5 NBC news a few times and the word is spreading, and so is the
laughter.
“Laughing increases the serotonin
levels in our brains which are referred to as the ‘happy hormones,’” said Kira
McCullough, BSN, RN, CPN. Kira is a Registered Nurse and Certified Laughter Yoga
Instructor who facilities a Laugher Yoga Club in Fort Worth every Sunday at 5:30
pm at the Soul Fitness Center on Montgomery. After 15 years as a registered
nurse at Cook Children’s Hospital in Fort Worth caring for terminally ill
children, Kira decided it was time to modify her career to allow for more
laughter and recharge her inner spirit.
Kira gets people to laugh even if
they don’t feel like it.
“Our bodies and minds don’t know
the difference between laughing as a natural response to something or someone
funny versus a self-initiated manufactured laugh. Ultimately, it is our own
decision whether to laugh or not, regardless of the people around us. It is
within our power to ‘kick start’ a good laugh, and we benefit in a healthy way.
Many members come to the class ready to laugh. Others, however, may be depressed
and are here to learn how to laugh again.”
That’s when second hand laughter
comes in. Laughter begets more laughter because laugher is contagious. Life has
many distractions that interfere with healthy decision making skills about doing
what is healthy for ourselves and the ones we love. Daily decisions to eat this
or that. No time to go walking or to the gym today. Gotta do this. That cost too
much. That looks way too hard. I’ve never done that before. We’ve always done it
this way. No time, no money, way too difficult. Smoking is one of those daily
distractions that interfere with healthy decision making skills.
One healthy thing we can do though
is laugh. Even if it’s second hand laughter. It’s easy. It’s free. Love that
part. It’s within our power to do so at any time. Can’t use the “no time”
excuse. When we laugh, we actually burn calories. Check out the brochure at the
Curves on Renfro, and you’ll read “LAUGHTER BURNS CALORIES [How funny is
that?].”
Burleson Curves Owner Dana
McKelvain is all about trying new ideas. Dana earned a physical education degree
from the University of Texas at Arlington and owns the Curves on Renfro next to
Bransom’s grocery store. Dana is pleased to open her doors at Curves to host
Laughter Yoga classes in October. For information about the Laughter Yoga
classes in October at Curves in Burleson, call 817/426-2437 or email at
curvesofburleson@sbcglobal.net.
Laughing increases the amount of
energy we spend and raises our heart rate up to 20 percent. When you laugh for
15 minutes, you can burn up to 40 calories per day which equates to about four
pounds per year. At the European Congress on Obesity in Athens in 2005, a
Vanderbilt University Medical Center [VUMC] researcher reported findings from a
study she conducted about the correlation between laughing and burning calories.
But don’t expect to be able to eat
a Quarter Pounder and laugh it off after lunch. To gain some perspective and not
more pounds, the study indicated that it takes 15 minutes to burn off two
Hershey’s Kisses, according to the study that was conducted at the VUMN, also
called the “whole-room calorimeter.”
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For more information about
laughter yoga, visit
www.laughteryoga.org and
www.laughteryogafortworth.com or call Kira McCullough at 817/925-4623. Kira
facilitates a Laugher Yoga Club in Fort Worth every Sunday at 5:30 pm at the
Soul Fitness Center on Montgomery.
In the meantime, start laughing
and notice if anyone around you joins in. That’s second hand laughter and it
causes happiness.
Originally published in
Burleson-Crowley Connection Newspaper,
09/26/2007
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