Ever Been to a Laughter Class to Relieve Stress?

Laughter class teaches stress relief techniques

By Christin Kloski

News Writer

Published: Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Updated: Wednesday, February 22, 2012 00:02

If you heard a lot of chuckles emanating from Stapleton Lounge on Tuesday night, don't be alarmed. Certified laughter leader Mary Labuzienski provided an optimistic guide to college life as part of Saint Mary's "Love Your Body Week."

Labuzienski presented simple ways to be humorous in times of stress in the talk "Love my body? What's not to love!" A clinical exercise physiologist, Labuzienski trains people of all ages to release stress in their daily lives.

To live healthy lives, Labuzienski said students need to laugh, smile, celebrate and play.
"Laugh and make others laugh," she said. "You have to make it happen."

Labuzienski said laughter is a critical component in performing everyday tasks well.

"Laughter is a positive emotion that helps us to move forward," she said. "It allows us to act. We become paralyzed when we are too stressed."

Labuzienski said stress weakens the physical and emotional aspects of the mind and body. She said positive emotions allow people to take stress away from the body.

"Laughter is the shortcut to stress resistance," she said.

For college students, a stress-free lifestyle seems near impossible, Labuzienski said. However, she said social environments full of laughter and positivity can release the negative energy anxiety causes.

"On average, a person should laugh a total of 15 minutes, with each being three seconds long throughout a day," she said.

By isolating themselves from others, college students are unable to obtain the daily positive levels needed to keep concentration or creativity. Labuzienski said students need to take the time everyday to engage in humorous interactions, devoting at least five minutes at a time to initiate a comedic conversation or a funny joke.

Positive psychology leads people to thrive, and as such, happiness should be a part of every person's life, Labuzienski said.

"Laughter is a shortcut to happiness," Labuzienski said. "It makes us more attractive people when we are happy and others like happy people."

As such, the role laughter plays in everyday life can contribute to overall levels of happiness.

"Fifty percent of happiness is genetic, 10 percent is what happens in a person's life and 40 percent is what daily events occur in a person's life," she said.

My Thoughts

Imagine that!  A laughter class.  This is a great idea.  Imagine a class where there are no lessons.  Only jokes and laughter.  That class should be required.  And I would volunteer to be the teacher.

I know for a fact, that laughter relieves stress.  I've seen it's power in my training sessions.  I've experienced for myself how laughter can turn around a potentially explosive situation.  So, why not a laughter class?

Laugh your Stress Away

When Life Is No Joke, Laugh Anyway
God made laughter to show us that things are seldom as bad as they seem.
from www.beliefnet.com

Read more: http://www.beliefnet.com/Faiths/Christianity/2007/01/When-Life-Is-No-Joke-Laugh-Anyway.aspx#ixzz1UnYWehJZ

Laughter liberates and laughter uplifts. When laughter comes into a life, nothing is too difficult, nothing can defeat us. We can survive the noonday sun and the darkness of death and the grinding boredom of dailiness and still find life exhilarating. Other things in life change color like chameleons on plaid, but laughter is always ornament, always grace.

There are some things that must always be laughed at in life:

1. Laugh when people tell a joke. Otherwise you might make them feel bad.

2. Laugh when you look into a mirror. Otherwise you might feel bad.

3. Laugh when you make a mistake. If you don't, you're liable to forget how ultimately unimportant the whole thing really is, whatever it is.

4. Laugh with small children. It will restore your delight in the fundamental things of life. It will also improve your sense of humor. Have you ever noticed what children laugh at? They laugh at mashed bananas on their faces; mud in their hair; a dog nuzzling their ears; the sight of their bottoms as bare as silk. It renews your perspective. Clearly, nothing is as bad as it could be.

5. Laugh at situations that are out of your control. When the best man comes to the altar without the wedding ring, laugh. When the dog jumps through the window screen at the dinner guests on your doorstep, sit down and laugh awhile. When you find yourself in public wearing mismatched shoes, laugh--as loudly as you can. Why collapse in mortal agony? There’s nothing you can do to change things now. Besides, it is funny. Ask me; I’ve done it.

6. Laugh at anything pompous, at anything that needs to puff its way through life in robes and titles. Because laughter is a social virtue, it will help the rest of us see the difference between what is authentic in life and what is not. Will Rogers laughed at all the public institutions of modern life. For instance, “You can’t say civilization isn’t advancing,” he wrote. “In every war they kill you in a new way.” And thanks to his laughter we began to see what was going on around us in fresh and shocking perspective.

7. Finally, laugh when all your carefully laid plans get changed: when the plane is late and the restaurant is closed and the last day’s screening of the movie of the year was yesterday. You’re free now to do something else, to be spontaneous for a change, to take a piece of life and treat it with outrageous abandon.

There are some things, of course, that do not qualify for laughter, that do not refresh the human heart, that set out to hurt whole classes of people, in fact, and that should never, under any conditions, be tolerated under the pretense of humor. Ethnic jokes and sexist sneers and racial slurs and jeering at physical limitations do not empty the human soul of debris. They simply fill it with a venom disguised as humor.

The sign of laughter gone sour lies clearly in the charge, ‘What’s the matter with her? Can’t she take a joke?” Then the laughter goes hollow or guttural, weak or low. Though nothing at all may be said, everyone knows on the spot that kindness and clear vision have flown the place forever.

In the final analysis, we should laugh at anything that is not a matter of life and death. The trick is to remember that only life and death are life and death. Then the canvas is broad and the palette is deep. The whole world becomes a jester’s paradise in which we laugh at what we did not foresee.

Laughter is an antidote to dualism, a necessary foundation of mental health. To the one who laughs, life is good, the world is good, goodness is the ground on which we walk. No dualism here, no fear of body or soul, no rejection of the tattered truth of our existence. Just gentle, gentle wholeness tenderly handled, lovingly held.

Finally, laughter enables us to live in a highly structured world without falling prey to the manacles of the mind that blind our eyes and cement our hearts. Laughter gives us the freedom of the Jesus who taught babies and poked fun at Pharisees and told winsome little stories, spiritual jokes, about women who would not let pretentious judges alone. Day after day he smiled his way from one theological absolute to another and left the world with enough to smile about until the end of time.

Once we learn to laugh and play, we will have come closer to understanding our laughing, playing God. The God of ridiculous promises is a God who laughs, a God to be laughed at and laughed with, until that moment when all pain washes away and only the laughter of God is left to be heard in the heavens.

Read more: http://www.beliefnet.com/Faiths/Christianity/2007/01/When-Life-Is-No-Joke-Laugh-Anyway.aspx#ixzz1UnYoVQoE

MY THOUGHTS

Laughter is biblical. The name Isaac means laughter because his mother laughed when God told her she will conceive. Laughter is, indeed, a gift from God. How often have you expereinced being stressed out to the max and feeling relaxed because you laughed? How often have you seen laughter change a bad situation into a good one? How often have you felt better because you laughed.

Laughter is biblical. It is God's gift for us. A way out of boredom and hardhips. A way to heal and bridge. Thank God for laughter.

A software to relieve stress

Stress Relief, Destroy Your Desktop
* Author: Martin
* Tuesday January 11, 2011

Have you ever smashed the PC keyboard or mouse on the desk in wild frustration because something did not work out as you wanted? Or maybe you have given the PC case a kick or smashed your fist on the monitor? We all have probably experienced situations where frustration got overboard. The free software Stress Relief has been designed exactly for those situations, and fun.

It basically turns the desktop into a destructible environment. Stress Relief gives the user nine different tools at hand to destroy windows, programs and other elements on the desktop. Tools range from a blow torch to a chainsaw, hammer or machine gun.

All tools are accessible after starting the portable application. The mouse is used for moving the item on the screen, the left mouse button to trigger its action and the right for the menu which displays the available tool list.

Tools can also be switched by pressing a number between 1 and 9 on the keyboard.

The destruction is only temporary, it lasts until the application is closed again. The tools work on all windows and elements that are open on the desktop currently, excellent to give that Excel spreadsheet a beating, or the picture of your ex on Facebook.

Stress Relief 2 is a portable software for Windows that is compatible with 32-bit and 64-bit editions of the Windows operating system. It can be downloaded from Freeware Files.

MY THOUGHTS

technological anger management!!! this could be fun. i wonder for how much this would fetch. just think of getting stressed while reading an email. then you can smash it to pieces. on your laptop or desktop, anyway. could work as a way of releasing your anger. without hurting anyone.

creative stress management

Creative Stress Management Activities and Multi-Tasking Stress Stress Relievers
Unconventional Stress-Relievers
By Elizabeth Scott, M.S., About.com Guide

Updated November 01, 2007

About.com Health's Disease and Condition content is reviewed by the Medical Review Board

You may know about popular stress management techniques. But did you know that there are some unconventional, productive and creative stress relievers you can work into your day? You may not think of them formally as stress management techniques, but the following stress relievers can help you feel more relaxed and enjoy life more, and get other things done, too.

Cleaning
Throw on some music and de-clutter a drawer, a room, or your whole house. Spray and wipe your windows and watch the nice pattern you create, or let your hands bathe in the sudsy warm water as you wash dishes. Repetitive movement of dusting can lull you into a near-meditative state, the vigorous physical activity of washing vacuuming your carpets can release stress from your body, rewarding you with a cleaner space and more soothing surroundings when you’re done!

Gardening
The physical activity of digging, pulling and planting can be a great stress release, while sunshine is a great source of vitamin D and inner peace. Planting, fertilizing and tending a garden of vegetables, flowers or anything else that grows, can be a wonderfully relaxing pastime, with the reward of delicious organic food, a beautiful bouquet, or a gorgeous yard as well!

Playing With Kids
Do you have enough fun? Playful interaction with kids can change your state of mind. If you have small children, do you really play with them, or just supervise? Rolling on the ground with them, kneading play dough, or finger painting a masterpiece can be a great diversion from your stress, and they’ll love it, too. Older kids can be great movie dates, and teens can be good shopping companions. If you don’t have kids, borrow a friend’s. Being present with them can be good for you both.

Singing. Loudly.
Belting out one of your favorite tunes, either with CD backup or a cappella, can be a great stress release. Loud vocalization releases tension from your body, and music can therapeutically take your mind off your troubles. Singing in the shower became a cliché because it’s a great way to start the day, immerse yourself in the experience, and let the noise of the water drown out any flaws in your singing. Singing in the car can also be a great release, perhaps even cutting down on road rage.

Sex
You probably already know that sex is a great tension reliever, but have you officially thought of it as a stress-relieving practice? Perhaps you should. The physical benefits of sex are numerous, and most of them work very well toward relieving stress. Sadly, many people have less sex when their stress levels are high. Learn how not to fall into this trap!

If you have other ideas for unconventional stress relievers, or productive stress management techniques that accomplish other tasks while also relieving stress, or would like to hear some, visit the Stress Management Forum. And enjoy your day!

MY THOUGHTS

it's true for me. when i'm feeling stressed out, i launch a one-man cleaning brigade. especially because clutter and dirt causes me stress. playing with kids is one surefire way of de-stressing. unless the kids are the spoiled brat types you'll end up murdering them. loud singing? of course! just be careful cause you might cause the stress for others. gardening, well,it works for the green thumbs. i have been known to stress-out the plants. i'm the type who would steal a beautiful,living, thriving plant from my mom. my mom knows i would be stealing from her garden again in a couple of months because i have transformed her beautiful,living, thriving plant into a despicable, lifeless, leafless, flowerless plant holder.now,sex? most definitely. if you have the right partner.and the right circumstances. otherwise....well,you get my drift.

Laughter and Stress Management

The Stress Management and Health Benefits of Laughter
The Laughing Cure

By Elizabeth Scott, M.S., About.com Guide

Updated October 07, 2009

About.com Health's Disease and Condition content is reviewed by the Medical Review Board


Research has shown health benefits of laughter ranging from strengthening the immune system to reducing food cravings to increasing one's threshold for pain. There's even an emerging therapeutic field known as humor therapy to help people heal more quickly, among other things. Humor also has several important stress relieving benefits.

Stress Management Benefits of Laughter:

* Hormones: Laughter reduces the level of stress hormones like cortisol, epinephrine (adrenaline), dopamine and growth hormone. It also increases the level of health-enhancing hormones like endorphins, and neurotransmitters. Laughter increases the number of antibody-producing cells and enhances the effectiveness of T cells. All this means a stronger immune system, as well as fewer physical effects of stress.

* Physical Release: Have you ever felt like you "have to laugh or I'll cry"? Have you experienced the cleansed feeling after a good laugh? Laughter provides a physical and emotional release.

* Internal Workout: A good belly laugh exercises the diaphragm, contracts the abs and even works out the shoulders, leaving muscles more relaxed afterward. It even provides a good workout for the heart.

* Distraction: Laughter brings the focus away from anger, guilt, stress and negative emotions in a more beneficial way than other mere distractions.

* Perspective: Studies show that our response to stressful events can be altered by whether we view something as a 'threat' or a 'challenge'. Humor can give us a more lighthearted perspective and help us view events as 'challenges', thereby making them less threatening and more positive.

* Social Benefits of Laughter: Laughter connects us with others. Also, laughter is contagious, so if you bring more laughter into your life, you can most likely help others around you to laugh more, and realize these benefits as well. By elevating the mood of those around you, you can reduce their stress levels, and perhaps improve the quality of social interaction you experience with them, reducing your stress level even more!

How To Use Laughter:

Laughter is one of my all-time favorite stress management strategies because it's free, convenient, and beneficial in so many ways. You can get more laughter in your life with the following strategies:

* T.V. and Movies: There's no shortage of laughter opportunities from the entertainment, both at the theater and in the aisles of the video stores, as well as at home with T.V. comedies. While wasting your time watching something marginally funny may actually frustrate you, watching truly hilarious movies and shows is an easy way to get laughter into your life whenever you need it.

* Laugh With Friends: Going to a movie or comedy club with friends is a great way to get more laughter in your life. The contagious effects of laughter may mean you'll laugh more than you otherwise would have during the show, plus you'll have jokes to reference at later times. Having friends over for a party or game night is also a great setup for laughter and other good feelings.

* Find Humor In Your Life: Instead of complaining about life's frustrations, try to laugh about them. If something is so frustrating or depressing it's ridiculous, realize that you could 'look back on it and laugh.' Think of how it will sound as a story you could tell to your friends, and then see if you can laugh about it now. With this attitude, you may also find yourself being more lighthearted and silly, giving yourself and those around you more to laugh about. Approach life in a more mirthful way and you'll find you're less stressed about negative events, and you'll achieve the health benefits of laughter. (See this article on maintaining a sense of humor.

* 'Fake It Until You Make It': Just as studies show the positive effects of smiling occur whether the smile is fake or real, faked laughter also provides the benefits mentioned above. So smile more, and fake laughter; you'll still achieve positive effects, and the fake merriment may lead to real smiles and laughter.

* More on Having Fun: See these additional suggestions on laughing more and having fun in your life.

Sources:
Bennett MP, Lengacher C. Humor and Laughter May Influence Health: III. Laughter and Health Outcomes. Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine, March 2008.
Bennett MP, Zeller JM, Rosenberg L, McCann J. The Effect of Mirthful Laughter on Stress and Natural Killer Cell Activity.. Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine, March-April 2003.
Berk LS, Felten DL, Tan SA, Bittman BB, Westengard J. Modulation of Neuroimmune Parameters During the Eustress of Humor-Associated Mirthful Laughter.. Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine, March 2001.
Skinner N, Brewer N. The Dynamics of Threat and Challenge Appraisals Prior to Stressful Achievement Events. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, September 2002.

MY THOUGHTS

i guess this is why i hardly ever get stressed. or even when i do, i never stay stressed for long. i love laughter. i love laughing. i love making people laugh. i love stories that make me laugh (and cry, of course). so,laugh it away. a couple of years ago while preparing an integration for a workshop, i found out that laughter is biblical. Isaac (if i'm not mistaken) means laughter. check it out.

set up a home spa to relieve stress

Set Up a Soothing Home Spa Experience
By Elizabeth Scott, M.S., About.com Guide
Updated April 02, 2006

About.com Health's Disease and Condition content is reviewed by the Medical Review Board

If you’re as busy and stressed as most of us, you may not take time out for self care very often. However, personal pampering has many stress relieving benefits, and should be incorporated as part of a low stress lifestyle. If you don’t have the budget for a high end spa, you can create a relaxing home spa experience for yourself. The following are some basic elements to include in creating a home spa experience that will melt away stress and leave you feeling pampered and relaxed.

Difficulty: Easy

Time Required: 30 Minutes to One Hour

Here's How:

1. Privacy: Perhaps the most important part of the home spa experience is being sure you have some uninterrupted time for just you. If you have to hop out of the tub to circumvent a catastrophe with your toddler or answer a string of calls, you may end up feeling even more tense! So make arrangements for some uninterrupted solitude, let the phone go to voice mail, and prepare to indulge.
2. Music: If you can arrange to have music in your bathroom, you’ll be glad you did. The right soothing melodies can help melt away the stress, make you feel more removed from reality, and, if you live with others, drown out the household sounds that may remind you of everything else going on, taking your attention away from the here and now of your home spa experience.
3. Lighting: You’d be surprised at how lighting can create a stress-relieving mood. Lighting the room with candles can fill the area with a soothing scent and create a very relaxing atmosphere.
4. Bath Products: You can go a long way in creating a luxurious bath with a few helpful products. Lavender-scented bubble bath, for example, uses the power of aromatherapy to soothe you. Body scrubs are used in spas to exfoliate skin, and can be used at home as well. There are also skin-moisturizing oils you can add to your bath to nourish your skin and make the pampered feeling last.
5. Beauty Treatments: While you’re relaxing, you may as well get more beautiful! Putting a conditioning treatment in your hair and a purifying masque on your face can make your face and scalp feel good and leave you looking more beautiful afterward. Rubbing your dry skin with a loofah and scrubbing calloused feet with a pumice stone can be a little more work, but you’ll love the results, and it’ll only take a few minutes.
6. After Tub Care: You may want to follow up after you get out of the tub by applying a rich conditioning cream to your skin and a coat of nail polish to your toes. Again this will keep you feeling more pampered between spa treatments.
7. Massage: You may think a home spa treatment can’t include a massage, but it can! If you can’t enlist the soothing hands of a partner, you can use a self-massager to do the same job: loosen up tight muscles, promote circulation, and make you feel great. Or, if you’re really in the mood to indulge, you can even hire a professional massage therapist to come to your house!

Tips:

1. Block off a specific amount of time for yourself. Sometimes busy people have a hard time just doing nothing because we can think of so many other things that need doing. If this break is scheduled to be a specific length, you may feel more entitled to just enjoy it.
2. Try to do this on a regular schedule, like once a week or twice a month. With repetition, you may see your spa time making a significant impact on your overall stress level!
3. Don’t feel guilty for taking some time for yourself—you deserve it!

What You Need:

* A bathroom,
* A tub.
* Some privacy.

MY THOUGHTS

believe me. it works. it can be done at home. you may have to make some adjustments- especially if you don;t have a tub and a partner. doing the rest still works.

gardening for stress relief

Gardening for Stress Relief
How and Why Gardening is a Natural Stress Reliever
By Elizabeth Scott, M.S., About.com
Updated: November 06, 2007

About.com Health's Disease and Condition content is reviewed by the Medical Review Board

Planting a beautiful garden can be a great way to relive stress! Whether you have a small patio to decorate, or a vast amount of space to tend, the act of making your particular stretch of nature into a haven can be a stress reliever in itself, and the garden that you create can bring you even more peace. Here’s why:

* Sunlight: Just getting out in the sunlight can actually improve your mood! (In fact, there’s a condition called Seasonal Affective Disorder that affects some people during Winter months when there is less sunlight.) Sunlight also provides an influx of vitamin D, and the fresh air that that goes with it is good for your health. Getting outdoors to work with your garden is a great excuse to get more of this good stuff.

* Getting In Touch With Nature: Being in touch with nature and the great outdoors can help you feel more removed from the stressors of daily life. With the amount of time we spend indoors (at work, watching t.v., etc) many people feel an urge to connect with nature that goes unfulfilled. While you may not have the time to go camping or take a nature hike each day, having your piece of nature right outside your back door can help you feel some of this connection.

* Creating Beauty: The beauty of nature is a great stress reliever in itself. (Just think of how many times relaxation has been connected with pictures of stunning landscapes or recordings of nature’s sounds.) Having your own bit of beauty available as a place for meditation, contemplation and relaxation can provide quite a bit of relief from stress. It’s all part of making your home a haven from stress.

Getting Started
Given the size of space you have to work with, your personal tastes and the amount of time and money you can devote to the worthwhile and fun project of fixing up your piece of the outdoors, you have many, many options to choose from. Getting started might seem a little intimidating, but finding a few good books or magazines on gardening can give you lots of information and ideas to work with. There’s also a great site on the About network devoted to gardening. It’s got plenty of wonderful information and free resources. Here are a few that can help you get going:

* Landscaping For Beginners: This thorough article lets you know the basics, and is a relatively quick read.

* Landscaping Design Ideas: A Photo Gallery: This gallery can give you ideas of what you like and what you don’t like in landscape design, so you can start envisioning what you want for your own home.

* Free Landscaping E-Course: This e-course has daily lessons that continue for several months, to teach you little-by-little about landscaping and transforming your own yard into your ideal haven.

Once you’ve started, you should find that the act of creating a garden can bring you peace, and the garden itself can bring you joy! Have fun.

MY THOUGHTS

I love plants. I love gardens. Unfortunately, it's not mutual. Give me a beautiful plant and for sure, I'll be left with the pot in a few weeks. But I agree that gardening can relive us of stress. If gardens can calm us down then gardeing can do more for our stress relief.