The Healing Power of Humour

Laughter, as you may have heard, is good medicine.

Human tests have proved that watching humorous videos can reduce feelings of pain, prevent negative stress reactions and boost the brain’s biological battle against infection. And laughter is good exercise. Studies have shown that a belly laugh is equivalent to “an internal jogging.” Laughter can provide good cardiac conditioning especially for those who are unable to perform physical exercises.

To truly blend the healing power of humour with fi tness, what could be more West Coast than yukking it up at yoga?

Counsellor David McIntosh started Laugh Out Loud (LOL) in Vancouver after working for 22 years in the fields of counselling and social work. LOL follows the tenets of a worldwide laughter movement started in India in 1995 when Dr. Madan Kataria, a Mumbai physician, discovered that his patients who had taken to heart his prescription for regular laughter were happier, healthier and more productive. With his wife, Madhuri Kataria, a yoga teacher, Dr. Kataria developed Laughter Yoga—a series of breathing and movement exercises designed to teach the body to laugh without depending on jokes or humour. Now there are laughter clubs that practise Laughter Yoga all over the world. McIntosh’s practice teaches the significance of laughter for physical and psychological wellbeing; how simulated laughter embodies the principles of yoga practice; how regular laughter practice builds a healthy sense of humour; how to stimulate creativity and imagination through laughter, and how to use Laughter Yoga in a variety of settings.

Laughing at yourself

The emotional benefits of humour are what interests Vancouver counsellor and comedian David Granirer. In 2004, he founded the course Stand Up For Mental Health, where he teaches stand-up comedy to people with mental illness as a means of building self-esteem and fighting public stigma.

My therapist said that the skills I was using to cope with my depression would help when I got back into the workforce. I didn’t realize they needed people who were good at crying and hiding under the blankets. (from Granirer’s stand-up routine)

Even if you don’t suff er from depression, developing a sense of humour is one of the best mechanisms for dealing with diffi cult situations. As proof, Granirer cites an article from the International Journal of Humour Research detailing the U.S. Navy’s follow-up survey of 566 naval aviators who had been held captive for up to eight years in a North Vietnamese POW camp. Normally, in a group of POWs who have been tortured, the rate of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder is between 50 and 90 per cent. In this group they found a rate no greater than you would find in the general public. Researchers concluded that one of the main reasons these aviators were able to maintain their health was their use of humour in the POW camp.

While POWs are an extreme example, their experience reveals how humour can rescue us from hardship. Many of Granirer’s students have suff ered from abusive backgrounds and Stand Up For Mental Health has given them tools to cope. Cracking Up, a full-length documentary about Granirer’s 2005 class for CBC’s Passionate Eye airs on November 16.

So, go on. Have a good laugh. It’s good for you.