Stress is a worldwide dilemma. It causes mental strife and is the root of many physical ailments. Humor heals such a dilemma. Read this article to find out how one community is combating stress by “laughing locally”.
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By Lindsay Perna
From Wikedlocal.com
With stress cards in hand, the West Roxbury Laughter Circle, composed of 25 Parkway participants, opened their eyes slowly to a crash course in learning how to “think globally” and “laugh locally.”
Ethos Family Care adviser Leslie Ahern instructed the makeshift laughter club, consisting of senior citizens, caregivers and curious members of the community, to reacquaint themselves to the glass walls of St. Theresa’s Church pavilion on June 24 after a meditation exercise which warmed them up for one of many stress-busting activities.
Both Ahern and certified laughter leader and husband Paul Antokoisky intended to provide some useful tools for the lives of caregivers that are “often a juggling act.” One tool is the palm-sized biofeedback card measuring one’s level of strain.
AgeWell coordinator Cathy Slade initiated the beneficial event through the Ethos program hoping to reach out to seniors in the area, known for its highest percentage of the demographic in Boston.
These activities serve the caregivers as much as the seniors since those hired to help are “in the house as much as the one they care for.”
Sitting in a half-circle facing the laughter instructors of the dome-shaped room, people of varying age and motive for attending took their cleansing breaths with anticipation for the necessary stress-reduction workshop to evolve.
“This helps keep our wits about us,” said West Roxbury native Kathy Martin.
Martin, with two brothers, attended in search of a more rewarding way to cope with a mother suffering from dementia.
They found the event a way to “take time out for yourself.”
Boston Police Officer Tom Boyle “put time aside to make it.”
Working at the Senior Response Office, Boyle reaped the benefits from the event unlike any other he had attended.
One of nearly 4,000 people who have completed Steve Wilson’s Certified Laughter Leader training, Antokoisky took on the task to become a SHINE leader after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. He and his wife hoped to do their part in reviving depressed communities of America through their laughter tours.
“Times are too serious … when we were young, we laughed at anything,” said Ann Ward.
A former volunteer at the Holy Name School in the area for 11 years, Ward found that the event could have been helpful for the new generation.
The couple led the stress relief workshop out of their agenda to battle the “fewer and fewer socially acceptable opportunities for laughter.”
By implementing strategies such as tossing around a “laughter thingy,” forcing the recipient to laugh until he or she recirculates the object to another awaiting victim of humor, the laughter club remained innovative in its endless search for reasons to spread smiles.
The twosome passed out a series of other helpful ideas, including peek-a-boo laughter and the conga line laughter.
“People got in a good mood because they’re laughing” not the other way around, the duo said in between each new attempt at engaging the ready audience.
Strangers joined together in these innocent interactions, proving that prior states of emotion do not restrict one’s ability to chuckle.
“I never thought I could laugh spontaneously,” said Mary Ellen Gambon.
After the Roslindale resident’s mother passed away nine years ago from cancer, she joined Ethos, the agency advocating South Boston elderly issues.
Gambon found the event helpful, knowing firsthand the anxiety resulting from an ill family member.
With banter between the group, everyone sought out the “legal drugs” of serotonin and endorphins, then learning of the positive chemicals altered in one’s head after laughing.
In fact, such humor-filled occasions act as natural remedies for the upsets of high blood pressure and cholesterol.
“Laughter is the closest thing to magic that you can find in science,” said Antokoisky.
Both diversion devotees enjoy the teaching aspect of their seminars considering the Parkway session was one of several workshops they’ve held throughout the Massachusetts area in a year.
They broadcast a WBIX radio show called “Taking Care” to transport their support to caregivers in the home.
The Boston Neighborhood Network television show “Boomers” is another one of their mediums which informs the baby boomer crowd watching of information on health care, retirement planning, Medicaid and more.
“You need a lot of tools, and we hope this is one of them,” said Antokiosky. “It’s free, fun and something you already know how to do.”
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