Testimonials & Benefits

Laughter has many proven benefits - in the workplace, for your mind, body and spirit and on social occasions. The proof is in what our participants have to say.

testimonials

about laughter yoga and wellbeing sessions

Dear Cris,
As you know, it was with much trepidation that we scheduled a "Stress Management" and "Laughter" workshop for our Senior Executive Career Management participants.  They are in the main conservative, and present as introverted due to their background and seniority.   I was fearful the topic would place them too far out of their comfort zones thus finding it 'undignified' to participate.
The opposite was true!
- as you know they wholeheartedly joined in and were genuinely interested in your presentation.  Needless to say, the feedback I received was excellent.  Thank you for putting in your time, knowledge and above all your enthusiasm.  It is very contagious - and kept everyone upbeat for the rest of the day.
We must invite you back later in the year.Kindest Regards, Bretta Lindner, Senior Executive Career Centre Manager,
Hudson
Thanks Cris for presenting at our CPA discussion group.  As discussed we have a conservative membership and I did doubt that laughter was going to be emanating from all the attendees.  Well true to your word not only during your session did you have the group laughing, I can honestly say that I have never left a meeting happier.  You achieved the impossible - a room full of accountants laughing and joking around - I'd like to see that - I did thanks to you.  FANTASTIC.- Tim Humphries, CPA.
"I learnt to become more open and laugh without a care in the world."
"My heart felt lighter and I went home and did the laughing with the kids."
"A bit challenging but good as we got into the spirit of it."
"My whole body felt better."- Session held as part of Comcare wellbeing program. Comments provided by M Kliukas, Comcare, Melbourne.
"Hi Chris,
I really appreciate the time and effort you took to come along and take that session. I can't express how delighted I was to see some of those "actuaries" actually letting go and enjoying themselves. It was such a great opportunity for our group to step outside their comfort zone and get to know each other at a more personal level.
Personally I loved it!! I laugh a lot and I especially love the opportunity to laugh and be silly at the same time. Thank goodness they had a sound proof room for us. I asked S. in Sydney today if he was laughing and he told me "especially when I try to explain to someone what we did".- G Field, IAG
I thought the laughing session was excellent and a great idea to have on day like that. Felt very good afterwards and learnt a lot.- N Scott, IAG
"Brilliant workshop that assisted with self-care"
"Haven't laughed so much for ages"
"Felt great and would highly recommend it"
"Great way of releasing stress"
"Good way to get to know and connect with people"
"Hilarious"
"I loved the way that just trying a giggle you ended up roaring with laughter"
"Laughing like that made me feel 'up' all day"- participants at a worker self care workshop coordinated by the Youth Homeless Outreach Team, a joint initiative between Eastern Access Community Health Centre, Eastern Centre Against Sexual Assault and Eastern Health, Nov 2004.
"Cris Popp facilitated the first Laughter Therapy session at the Noel Miller Centre (N.M.C) in Glen Iris, Melbourne. The N.M.C is a not for profit residential facility for 138 high and low care residents. The session commenced at 3pm and ran for 30 minutes, with 17 residents participating(and a lot of carers, family members etc watching on!) With such a big group of people it was crowded but oh so exciting. Most of the residents selected to participate were in an existing Pain Management Program, however we did not refuse anyone from attending.
The session followed a routine of set laughter, breathing and affirmation exercises. Lifestyle staff assisted with the exercises, prompting and encouraging residents. Cris was at all times professional, knowledgeable and an excellent group leader.
Evaluation of the session drew mainly positive reactions but as with most things, Laughter Therapy is not for everyone. Generally speaking blood pressure was lowered and residents reported having "The best nights sleep in a long time."
The Lifestyle team have permanently rostered Laughter Therapy to be facilitated once a month, incorporating both high and low care residents.
It's a lot of work, but it is so beneficial, so different and such fun."- Merita Rawlyk, Diversional Therapist, Noel Miller Centre (session held in Nov 2004).

testimonials about facilitation, training, innovation and other services to corporate sector

"Large amount of information in short time."
"Content was relevant, referenced, highlighted key areas on slides - not time wasting."
"Presenter was very well informed."- audience response to a talk on innovation given at Australian Institute of Management 21/6/05. Provided by Greg Macdonald, Chair, AIM Innovation Special Interest Group.
"Good practical exercises and [he] facilitated an open environment where everyone was actively participating."- M Ward, Being Innovative course, ACIL
"Relevant, well structured, good content. Very effective."- Anna V, Change Management course, ACIL
"Great. Well organised. Always on track and on topic."
"Great. Thanks Cris."
"Engaging. Thought Provoking."- Ben, B Crittendon, Participants at facilitated Teacher Feedback session, Hub, Victoria University.
"Cris. Thank you for your effort last Thursday evening a week ago. It was very well received and your presentation was excellent ... it helped to make the launch of the Group a success. Again thank you for your effort , it was much appreciated and I have passed on my remarks to CPA so you may get further enquiries. Take care and Regards."- John Gartly, Chair, Frankston CPA.

clients

Other clients include (this includes a mixture of facilitation, training and consulting):

  • Air Services Australia (Air Traffic Controllers)
  • National Institute of Accountants (NIA)
  • Victoria University - The Hub
  • Northern Management Accountants Group (NMAG)
  • Australian Institute of Management (AIM) - Innovation Special Interest Group
  • Telstra Promote Team
  • Ballarat City Council - Innovation Festival
  • Cardno-ACIL Australia
  • Bicycle Victoria
  • Aged Services Conference, 12/9/05, Melbourne
  • Gawler Foundation
  • Comcare
  • Department of Justice, Corrections Division
  • Department of Treasury and Finance

workplace benefits

A study by the Business Council of Australia found that ‘fun’ was one of the key elements of extraordinary, productive workplaces [1]. Workplaces which achieved outstanding performance are filled with laughter and humour.

“Fun workplaces tend to enhance learning, productivity and creativity, and reduce … employee burnout [and] high absenteeism”.

... and how does laughter improve workplaces?

1. laughter reduces stress and its costs

Stress is one of the biggest work-related health costs for employers:

  • up to 75% of all time lost in workplaces is stress-related
  • up to 80% of industrial accidents are due to stress
  • 1 in 10 workers are affected on the job by anxiety, depression and stress
  • 40% of job turnover is due to stress and it costs 50- 150% of an employees salary to replace them

As a result workers compensation payments for stress have sky-rocketed. Stress costs businesses roughly $1,200 per year [2]. (More about the stress-reducing benefits of laughter below.).

2. laughing builds rapport

Laughter is one of the best ways to build a team. Sharing a laugh is a terrific way to build close relationships. Look to your own experience – how hard is it to be in conflict with someone you can laugh with?
Laughter is a great social lubricant – it discharges negative emotions and helps you relax with others. How often have you noticed that after conflict or a rift things became ‘right’ when you laugh together again. And when you can laugh together you can collaborate together.

“There is an epidemic of seriousness that is raging all over the world. People seem to think that being grim faced and serious is the only way of showing their commitment to work."
- Madhuri Kataria, co-founder, World Laughter Movement

3. laughter improves communication

Laughter is the shock absorber for life. Laughter, jokes and humour make it easier to discuss difficult or sensitive issues. See above.

4. laughter aids innovation and creativity.

“Humour loosens up the mental gears. It encourages out-of-the-ordinary ways
of looking at things" [3].

Fun, humour, laughter and playfulness all help us to be more creative and see the world in a different way. Seeing things differently helps us to break old patterns and develop unique products and innovative ways of doing things. Humour lights up your whole brain.

5. laughter energises

Apart from the fact that it feels good and makes you want to come to work – it also increases the blood flow, oxygenates the blood and lifts your mood. Try it in the middle of the afternoon or when you are stuck. Try a laughter session at your next conference or innovation session.

"Employers who actively sustain a positive environment could experience up to 25% improvements in efficiency and customer satisfaction” — Journal of Applied Psychology.

laughter for your body

The many physiological benefits of laughter make it "great medicine":

  1. Laughter reduces stress and produces endorphins that make you feel good
  2. Laughter relaxes your muscles
  3. Laughter boosts your immune system. This happens for two reasons:
    • Stress hormones and flight-or-fight compounds suppress the immune system. By changing your mood laughter "unsuppresses" the immune system. It provides a safety valve which shuts of the flight-or-fight response and lets your body function retuurn to normal.
    • Laughter boosts your immune system directly and causes:
      • cancer fighting lymphocytes to increase
      • immunoglobin (sIgA) increase - this defends you from infections via the respiratory tract
      • increased T cell activation and number
      • increase in number of B cells which produce disease-fighting protein
      • Gamma-interferon (a disease fighting protein)
      • These effects last from 30 minutes to over 12 hours! There is a famous case of a man called Norman Cousins who cured himself of cancer by laughing.
  4. Laughter is an excellent aerobic exercise.
    Laughing 100 times is as much of a workout as 10 minutes of rowing or 15 minutes on an exercise bike.
  5. Laughter helps you lose weight. Researchers at Vanderbuilt University found that 15 minutes of laughter burns as much as 50 calories. According to nutritionist Dr Mac Buchowski, a healthy laugh a day "could burn 2 to 4 pounds of fat, even without changing dietary habits". Sure beats dieting.
  6. Improves breathing (respiration) and blood circulation.
    Under normal conditions a small amount of air stays in your lungs which carries more carbon dioxide and moisture. Laughing forces you to expell all the air in your lungs getting rid of excess carbon dioxide and moisture. It also loosens up and helps you expel mucus and phlegm.
  7. 10 minutes of laughter can result in two hours of pain relief. This occurs because laughter releases two neuropeptides endorphins and enkephalins – the bodies’ natural pain-suppressing opioids[4]. The Tasmanian Arthritis Foundation has incorporated laughter into it’s support groups.
  8. Laughter lowers blood pressure. 10 minutes of laughter reduces blood pressure by 10-20 mm.
  9. Laughter is a good massage for your organs. Laughter has been likened to internal jogging - it gives your organs a good rub around.
  10. Happiness, laughter and love of friends are as important to protecting us from heart disease as keeping cholesterol under control and taking an aspirin. A researcher at the University of Maryland, Michael Miller, recommends at least 15 minutes of hearty laughter a day to ward of heart attack. 15 minutes of laughter relaxes arteries and raises blood flow for up to 45 minutes - comparable with aerobic excecise.
"The more I laugh as an exercise, the more laughter creeps back into the rest of my life. It's like you've tuned the engine. It's quite powerful, you can laugh more than you think you can. And when you do, you'll feel good."
- Tim Scally, comedian and laughter leader.

for the mind and spirit

The evidence for the psychological benefits of laughter is very strong. They relate primarily to humour

“... as a coping mechanism and, to a lesser extent, its enhancement of interpersonal relationships. The former use is based on the role of detachment, derived from two Latin root words: ‘de’, meaning ‘remove’, and ‘ tachmentus’, meaning ‘this tire iron from my skull’.
Humor enables one to distance oneself from professional and personal problems,
that is, to detach or disengage mentally to put those situations into a proper
perspective.” [5]

In fact the psychological benefits of laughter have the most proven support:

  1. Laughter improves your mood.
    Laughter is carhartic. It releases negative emotions particularly anger, anxiety, fear and boredom in a pleasant and acceptable way [6]. Building more humour and laughter in your life helps assure that these (Neuropeptides) chemical messages are working for you, not against you.
  2. Laughter improves creativity.
    Laughing in response to something funny is a very sophisticated brain function which sweeps our entire cerebral cortex and is terrific for mental flexibility.

    “Creativity and humour are identical.
    They both involve bringing together two items which do not have an obvious
    connection and creating a relationship. [3]”
    There's an old story about a reporter interviewing Albert Einstein at his
    laboratory in Princeton, New Jersey. The reporter was surprised to see a
    large horseshoe hanging over the professor's office doorway.
    "Professor Einstein," she asked, "you're a great scientist. Surely you don't
    believe a horseshoe will bring good luck."
    "Of course I don't," he replied.
    "Then why is the horseshoe up there?" the reporter insisted.
    "Because it works whether you believe it or not."
  3. Laughter relieves depression.
    See 1 above
  4. Laughter pulls down the barriers between people
    Laughing is wonderful for team building. It also works extremely well at social functions and events where people may not know each other very well initially.

    “Laughter is the shortest distance between two people”. - Thomas Borges
  5. Laughter helps us deal with our mortality.

    “People's willingness to sign the organ donor consent on their driver's license rises with their tendency to laugh.”

at social, family and festive occasions

Want to get your next event off to a flying start (or a hilarious finish)? Try a facilitated laughter session - weddings, parties, anything. Laughter will get people talking to each other. It eases social anxiety and acts as a social lubricant to get people talking to each other and laughing together.

My doctor gave me something he says is good for migraine. I wish he'd give me something that is bad for it!

references

  1. Hull, D. and V. Read,Simply the Best Workplaces in Australia. 2003, ACIRRT - University of Sydney + Business Council of Australia: Sydney. p. 41.
  2. Unknown author,Stress Facts.The College of St. Scholastica www.css.edu/users/dswenson/web/Stress/stressfacts.html. Last accessed: June 2005
  3. Doskoch, P.,Happily Ever Laughter.Psychology Today http://cms.psychologytoday.com/articles/index.php. Last accessed: 26/4/2005
  4. Kataria, D.M.,Laugh for No Reason. 2002, Mumbai: Madhuri International.
  5. Berk, R.,Research Critiques Incite Words of Mass Destruction.Association for Applied and Therapeutic Humor http://aath.org/art_berkr01.html. Last accessed: 26/4/05
  6. Junkins, E.,The Role of Laughter in Psychotherapy. http://www.laughtertherapy.com/Articlesbestbetforblues.htm. Last accessed: 26/4/05