Pause for Thought: Are You Having a Laugh?
World Laughter Day is on 2 May 2021
by Brian Radcliffe
Suitable for Whole School (Sec)
Aims
To explore our understanding of the beneficial effects of laughter.
Preparation and materials
- Have available the YouTube video ‘The Laughing Policeman – Charles Jolly/Penrose’ and the means to show it during the assembly. It is 2.36 minutes long and is available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hI1nPd7hezM
- You may also wish to have available the YouTube video ‘Phillip and Holly try out laughter yoga’ and the means to show it during the assembly. It is 8.11 minutes long, but you can start it from 3.16 minutes. It is available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsCkXauJvlc
Assembly
- What was the most recent thing that made you laugh? I mean a deep belly laugh, not merely a chuckle.
Listen to a range of responses. Encourage a variety of stimuli such as mishaps, jokes, cartoons and moments from films, TV programmes or online clips. - How did you feel after you’d finished laughing?
Listen to a range of responses. - Scientists tell us that laughing can have a significant beneficial effect. It helps us physically by relaxing tense muscles, increasing our blood flow, reducing the body’s production of stress hormones and activating T cells, which improve our resistance to disease. This triggers emotional changes because laughter also releases endorphins, feel-good chemicals that the body produces naturally. The combined result is to protect us from the damaging effects of stress.
- Laughter also has many social benefits. It is contagious: when one person starts laughing, it’s hard to resist joining in. Sometimes, we forget the original cause of the laughter because we’re so lost in laughing with and at each other. This is particularly significant when the laughter comes in the middle of a conflict situation. It’s very difficult to be at odds with one another when we’re laughing. The conflict has been defused.
- So, the traditional saying appears to be true: ‘laughter is the best medicine’. The Bible endorses this too: one of the verses in the Book of Proverbs starts, ‘A cheerful heart is good medicine.’
Time for reflection
Did you know that Sunday 2 May is World Laughter Day? But why just devote a single day to laughter? Let’s go one step further and inaugurate the rest of May as ‘Laughing Month’. To lift our spirits, let’s make the most of every opportunity to laugh. May laughter be the soundtrack for the month of May! But how do we do it?
Every laugh begins with a smile and smiling is easy to do. You don’t even need a reason. Turn to one another and give a smile. Notice how it starts with the mouth, but then builds with the eyes until your whole face is smiling.
Pause to allow time for some smiles to develop.
That’s good. We can put a reason behind our smiles too. We are often encouraged to count our blessings; in other words, to think of everything in our lives that is good. It may take some effort, especially if we’re going through a hard time. Nevertheless, it’s possible to think of people, of successes, of simple things that we enjoy, even if there are just one or two. Then, we can smile because we’re grateful for these things.
Finally, we can try something called laughter yoga, where we deliberately try to make ourselves laugh. It may be forced at first, especially if we’re not in a laughing mood, but it’s worth persevering. Eventually, it can turn into something more spontaneous, especially if we involve ourselves with a group to experience laughing. And that’s when we’re likely to experience some of the physical, emotional and social benefits that I mentioned earlier.
So, are you ready to try it?
Before we start, it’s important that we know how to finish. Otherwise, we might be the source of a laughing pandemic. When I make this sign (indicate a stop/cut/halt sign with your hand), we must all stop laughing immediately. It may not be easy, but if we made ourselves start, we can make ourselves stop.
We’re going to use a recording of a very old song that some of you may be familiar with. Join in with the chorus of laughter and continue laughing when the song has finished. I’ll give the cue for us all to stop.
Show the YouTube video ‘The Laughing Policeman – Charles Jolly/Penrose’.
Alternatively, show the YouTube video ‘Phillip and Holly try out laughter yoga’ from 3.16 minutes.
Song/music
‘The laughing policeman’ by Charles Jolly, available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hI1nPd7hezM (2.36 minutes long)
Extension activities
- Introduce regular periods of laughter yoga during the month of May. Use the song ‘The laughing policeman’ as a stimulus or try a spontaneous version.
