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From The Star: Link to original article.

In today’s diverse and demanding age, we live in a goal-oriented world.

So says Dr Cyril Harrisberg, the chief executive and founder of The Stress Clinic, a division of international communication skill training group The Voice Clinic.

“We have become so preoccupied with achieving success that our lives are always heading towards something in the future,” Harrisberg says.

“In the process, we lose touch with the aliveness and delight of the present.

“We all face different challenges and obstacles in our quest for success, but sometimes the pressure becomes just too much to handle.

“When we feel overwhelmed, under the gun or unsure of how to meet the demands placed on us, we experience stress.”

No one sets out to make their life stressful, Harrisberg believes, so the chances are that you are not aware of how you put yourself under stress.

The potential causes of stress are numerous and depend on the individual.

What you consider stressful may depend on many factors such as your personality, general outlook on life, problem-solving abilities and social support system.

Something that you may find stressful may not even faze someone else, Harrisberg points out.

“But when the going gets tough and life’s demands exceed your ability to cope, stress becomes a threat to both your physical and emotional wellbeing.”

According to Harrisberg, the following are some of the effects of stress:

# Stress damages the brain and can also impair memory functioning.

# Stress elevates your blood pressure.

# Stress can trigger pain, gas and other symptoms of irritable bowel and also aggravates stomach ulcers.

# Stress can aggravate painful joints.

# Stress can cause tension headaches.

# Stress increases your performance anxiety levels, which affects your performance across a wide range of activities.

# Stress makes you tired, it affects your immune system and, therefore, the risk of illness becomes higher

If you were told that there is a proven antidote to stress, would you take it?

According to Harrisberg, “laughter is the solution to reducing stress as it’s your body’s natural way of ridding it of stress and anxiety.

“Laughter techniques have been used for thousands of years in Eastern countries, especially India.”

So why, in our stressful day and age, are we not doing all we possibly can to take in the joys of life by always striving to see the humorous side?

“Laughter is considered to be a serious stress reliever, so taking a dose of laughter - the stress medicine - has benefits on your health that are no joke. So laughter is just what the doctor ordered,” Harrisberg says. Laughter, he believes, can do the following things to reduce stress and to counter its effects:

# Laughter lowers blood pressure, and reduces the risks of hypertension.

# It reduces stress hormones (studies have proved that laughter induces the reduction of at least four neuroendocrine hormones - epinephrine, dopac, cortisol and the growth hormone associated with stress response).

# Laughter cleanses the lungs and the body tissue of accumulated stale air as it empties more air than it takes in.

# Laughter stimulates both sides of the brain to enhance learning.

# It increases muscle relaxation, flexion and blood circulation in the body.

# Laughter boosts immune functioning by raising the level of infection-fighting T-cells.

# Laughter triggers the release of endorphins, the body’s natural painkillers.

# It provides good cardio conditioning, especially for those who are unable to perform physical exercise.

# It elevates your mood.

So, clearly, you should laugh more often.

According to Harrisberg, people who laugh heartily on a regular basis have lower standing blood pressure than the average person.

“Laughter can be a great workout for your diaphragm, abdominal, respiratory, facial, leg, and back muscles,” he says.

“Laughing 100 times is equivalent to 10 minutes on the rowing machine and 15 on an exercise bike.

“‘Laughter is the best medicine’ rings true, more than ever in the stress-filled world we live in. A few belly laughs a day, in fact, might actually keep the doctor away. If laughter reduces stress, then laugh to reduce stress.”

It all comes down to having a healthy sense of humour and, according to Harrisberg, it is possible to cultivate one.

Here are a few tips from him on how this can be done:

# Put humour on your horizon - find a few simple items such as photos or comic strips that elicit a chuckle from you and others, then hang them in your home, car and office.

# Laugh and the world laughs with you - develop a sense of humour about your own situation and watch your stress begin to fade away.

# Think positively - look for the positive or the humorous in every situation and surround yourself with others who do the same.

# Know what isn’t funny - don’t laugh at the expense of others.

Some forms of humour are not appropriate. Use your best judgment to discern a good joke from a bad or hurtful one.

So, next time you feel yourself start to tense up, get a sense of humour, tune in to your favourite comedy on television, read a funny book, call up a good friend and laugh heartily for a good few minutes - even force a laugh now and again. You will soon feel the stress fading away.

Words are important. We use them to express how we feel. We use them to share ideas. And, we use them to give meaning to our lives. The problem is, we often give them meaning without thinking. We don’t think about what things could mean — we usually just think about the meanings that our feelings, ideas, and life events seem to have automatically.

Try an exercise. Anytime you ever feel upset, irritated, frustrated, depressed, stressed, or angry, think about where it is coming from. What happened that made you feel that way. Then, try to re-interpret the event differently.

For example, if you boss gives you a negative comment at work, you may first say to yourself, “Damn, hommie! I was working my tail off to get this done, and now you’re gonna come all up in my grill and dis me like that?” You see, this kind of reaction is really a defense mechanism of the ego. Your ego wants to gain approval. It wants others to like you. But really, you cares? Does your boss have that much control over your emotions or your sense of self worth? You are the only one that is responsible for how you feel. It’s your body, not his. Unless you’re in one of those professions.

So here are some tips to help you change the meanings you assign to events and things in your life:

1. Whenever you get frustrated and feel the urge to use profanity, use a substitute word for the cuss word. Sometimes our words help fuel our emotions. If you use a substitute word you may just laugh enough to stop the loop. So, for example, instead of using the F-bomb, you may choose a goofier word instead, such as Toot. Kind of hard to stay angry when you yell, “Toot you!” or “Toot!” or “Toot me!”

2. When you’re thinking about the event that triggered your negative emotional response, change the names of the characters and events. For example, if somebody cuts you off in the freeway, try referring to the other driver as an ambulance driver — maybe that had an life or death emergency they had to tend to. Refer to the act of cutting you off as, say, cutting the cheese. And for sure, do not refer to yourself in the story. See yourself in the third person by referring to yourself to another name, such as Frodo. When thinking about the incident, a personal act against you becomes “the ambulance driver cut Frodo’s cheese.”

Things happen all the time. But what these things mean is never set in stone. With the use of humorous language we can become aware of the automatic meanings we assign them. We can learn to become detached from them, and see them less personally and more objectively.

• To actively participate its best that you arrive 15 minutes early to ask questions and set yourself up. We will not help you once the show begins. Sorry.
• You can follow the directions below, or you can come back to our website on the show date. At about 15 minutes before showtime, there will be a green button on the right hand column of our website that you can click to join the show.

Listen to or Join the My Hyena Humor Healing Hour Comedy Podcast

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Call in:

1. Dial: (724) 444-7444
2. Enter Talkcast ID: 26195

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1. Click here to join the Talkcast

See how easy it is to laugh, have fun, and burn calories all at the same time! Do it, and give us your weight loss stories. We’d love to post them on our blog.

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RochesterHomepage.net
By Megan Backus

Looking for a new way to get in shape and stay healthy this summer? Laughter may be the best medicine.

“It’s a way to feel joy without having to be happy,” said Dale Heffer, a certified laughter yoga leader at Way to Be Fit in Irondequoit. “It doesn’t have anything to do with humor.”

Laughing. Cracking up. Chuckling. Call it what you want, they’re doing it. And they’re doing it to get in shape. It’s called laughter yoga.

“We start out just going ‘hahahhaha’, and then we just keep laughing more and more and more and more, then maybe somebody cracks up for real, and then it’s just contagious,” Heffer said.

Heffer and Joellen Kuhl have been instructing groups to giggle for the last year. The unique yoga combines stretching and movement with laughter exercises that work the joints, stomach muscles and lungs.

“It’s relaxing,” said Hannah Albertson, who’s been taking laughter yoga for a month. “People who are older don’t move around that much, and it helps you be more flexible.”

“I think it’s nice to have a place where you can basically just be any way you want to be,” said Jonathan Smelts, who has participated for the last year.

Classes are known to get a bit goofy with exercises ranging from talking gibberish, to conducting a laughing choir, to making a pretend milkshake. But it is possible to over-do it.

“If we’re doing something where somebody’s really becoming hysterical and really laughing like crazy then we just have them calm down, and we just keep talking and say take deep breaths,” Heffer said, “so we don’t let it get out of hand.”

There is more to laughter yoga than getting a work-out and letting loose.

“I love it because it’s very free for the mind body and spirit,” Smelts said.

“I never leave in a bad mood either,” Albertson said.

Heffer and her partner in laughing offer classes at Way to Be Fit in Irondequoit every Sunday at 3 o’clock. They would like more people to get a good laugh more often, so they’re hoping to hold classes at Cobbs Hill Park later this summer.

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