Laugh thru lunch

The benefits of laughter

Benefits of Laughter both in & out of the Office

The following is related information about why you should consider "LAUGH THRU LUNCH" at your office.

A study by the Business Council of Australia found that ‘fun’ was one of the key elements of extraordinary, productive workplaces [1]. Workplaces which achieved outstanding performance are filled with laughter and humour.

“Fun workplaces tend to enhance learning, productivity and creativity, and reduce … employee burnout [and] high absenteeism”.

... and how does laughter improve workplaces?

1. Laughter reduces stress and its costs

Stress is one of the biggest work-related health costs for employers:

up to 75% of all time lost in workplaces is stress-related
up to 80% of industrial accidents are due to stress
1 in 10 workers are affected on the job by anxiety, depression and stress
40% of job turnover is due to stress and it costs 50- 150% of an employees salary to replace them
As a result workers compensation payments for stress have sky-rocketed. Stress costs businesses roughly $1,200 [2] per year

2. Laughing builds rapport

Laughter is one of the best ways to build a team. Sharing a laugh is a terrific way to build close relationships. Look to your own experience – how hard is it to be in conflict with someone you can laugh with?
Laughter is a great social lubricant – it discharges negative emotions and helps you relax with others. How often have you noticed that after conflict or a rift things became ‘right’ when you laugh together again. And when you can laugh together you can collaborate together.

“There is an epidemic of seriousness that is raging all over the world. People seem to think that being grim faced and serious is the only way of showing their commitment to work."
- Madhuri Kataria, co-founder, World Laughter Movement

3. Laughter improves communication

Laughter is the shock absorber for life. Laughter, jokes and humour make it easier to discuss difficult or sensitive issues. [3]

4. laughter aids innovation and creativity.

“Humour loosens up the mental gears. It encourages out-of-the-ordinary ways of looking at things"

Fun, humour, laughter and playfulness all help us to be more creative and see the world in a different way. Seeing things differently helps us to break old patterns and develop unique products and innovative ways of doing things. Humour lights up your whole brain.

5. Laughter energises

Apart from the fact that it feels good and makes you want to come to work – it also increases the blood flow, oxygenates the blood and lifts your mood. Try it in the middle of the afternoon or when you are stuck. Try a laughter session at your next conference or innovation session.

"Employers who actively sustain a positive environment could experience up to 25% improvements in efficiency and customer satisfaction”— Journal of Applied Psychology.

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Work situations where a laughter session can be valuable:

I can't think of many situations that wouldn't benefit from a good laugh but just in case you're stuck here's a few starters:
Conferences – to open a conference or as a break from proceedings.
Workshops – anytime you need to get people quickly working cooperatively and collaboratively.
Training days – makes them memorable, enjoyable events and encourages participation.
Meetings – open with a short laughter session or inject some energy when people become tired ... and also
As a reward at staff meetings or quarterly reviews
To help promote an important new initiative or strategy
For overcoming resistance to change
To bring together opposing factions
To build morale

What do you get if you cross a flea and a rabbit?
Bugs Bunny

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Laughter for your body

The many physiological benefits of laughter make it "great medicine":

Laughter reduces stress and produces endorphins that make you feel good

Laughter relaxes your muscles

Laughter boosts your immune system. This happens for two reasons:
Stress hormones and flight-or-fight compounds suppress the immune system. By changing your mood laughter "unsuppresses" the immune system. It provides a safety valve which shuts of the flight-or-fight response and lets your body function retuurn to normal.
Laughter boosts your immune system directly and causes:
cancer fighting lymphocytes to increase
immunoglobin (sIgA) increase - this defends you from infections via the respiratory tract
increased T cell activation and number
increase in number of B cells which produce disease-fighting protein
Gamma-interferon (a disease fighting protein)
These effects last from 30 minutes to over 12 hours! There is a famous case of a man called Norman Cousins who cured himself of cancer by laughing.
Laughter is an excellent aerobic exercise.
Laughing 100 times is as much of a workout as 10 minutes of rowing or 15 minutes on an exercise bike.

Laughter helps you lose weight. Researchers at Vanderbuilt University found that 15 minutes of laughter burns as much as 50 calories. According to nutritionist Dr Mac Buchowski, a healthy laugh a day "could burn 2 to 4 pounds of fat, even without changing dietary habits". Sure beats dieting.

Improves breathing (respiration) and blood circulation.
Under normal conditions a small amount of air stays in your lungs which carries more carbon dioxide and moisture. Laughing forces you to expell all the air in your lungs getting rid of excess carbon dioxide and moisture. It also loosens up and helps you expel mucus and phlegm.

10 minutes of laughter can result in two hours of pain relief. This occurs because laughter releases two neuropeptides endorphins and enkephalins – the bodies’ natural pain-suppressing opioids [4]. The Tasmanian Arthritis Foundation has incorporated laughter into it’s support groups.

Laughter lowers blood pressure. 10 minutes of laughter reduces blood pressure by 10-20 mm.

Laughter is a good massage for your organs. Laughter has been likened to internal jogging - it gives your organs a good rub around.

Happiness, laughter and love of friends are as important to protecting us from heart disease as keeping cholesterol under control and taking an aspirin. A researcher at the University of Maryland, Michael Miller, recommends at least 15 minutes of hearty laughter a day to ward of heart attack. 15 minutes of laughter relaxes arteries and raises blood flow for up to 45 minutes - comparable with aerobic excecise.
"The more I laugh as an exercise, the more laughter creeps back into the rest of my life. It's like you've tuned the engine. It's quite powerful, you can laugh more than you think you can. And when you do, you'll feel good."
- Tim Scally, comedian and laughter leader.

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For the mind and spirit

The evidence for the psychological benefits of laughter is very strong. They relate primarily to humour

“... as a coping mechanism and, to a lesser extent, its enhancement of interpersonal relationships. The former use is based on the role of detachment, derived from two Latin root words: ‘de’, meaning ‘remove’, and ‘ tachmentus’, meaning ‘this tire iron from my skull’.
Humor enables one to distance oneself from professional and personal problems,
that is, to detach or disengage mentally to put those situations into a proper
perspective.” [5]

In fact the psychological benefits of laughter have the most proven support:

Laughter improves your mood.
Laughter is carhartic. It releases negative emotions particularly anger, anxiety, fear and boredom in a pleasant and acceptable way [6]. Building more humour and laughter in your life helps assure that these (Neuropeptides) chemical messages are working for you, not against you.

Laughter improves creativity.
Laughing in response to something funny is a very sophisticated brain function which sweeps our entire cerebral cortex and is terrific for mental flexibility.

“Creativity and humour are identical. They both involve bringing together two items which do not have an obvious
connection and creating a relationship. ”

There's an old story about a reporter interviewing Albert Einstein at his laboratory in Princeton, New Jersey. The reporter was surprised to see a large horseshoe hanging over the professor's office doorway.
"Professor Einstein," she asked, "you're a great scientist. Surely you don't
believe a horseshoe will bring good luck."
"Of course I don't," he replied.
"Then why is the horseshoe up there?" the reporter insisted.
"Because it works whether you believe it or not."

Laughter relieves depression.

Laughter pulls down the barriers between people Laughing is wonderful for team building. It also works extremely well at social functions and events where people may not know each other very well initially.

“Laughter is the shortest distance between two people”. - Thomas Borges

Laughter helps us deal with our mortality.

“People's willingness to sign the organ donor consent on their driver's license rises with their tendency to laugh.”

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At social, family and festive occasions

Want to get your next event of to a flying start (or a hilarious finish)? Try a facilitated laughter session - weddings, parties, anything. Laughter will get people talking to each other. It eases social anxiety and acts as a social lubricant to get people talking to each other and laughing together.

My doctor gave me something he says is good for migraine. I wish he'd give me something that is bad for it!

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References
1. Hull, D. and V. Read, Simply the Best Workplaces in Australia . 2003, ACIRRT - University of Sydney + Business Council of Australia: Sydney. p. 41.
2. Unknown author, Stress Facts. The College of St. Scholastica www.css.edu/users/dswenson/web/Stress/stressfacts.html. Last accessed: June 2005
3. Doskoch, P., Happily Ever Laughter. Psychology Today http://cms.psychologytoday.com/articles/index.php. Last accessed: 26/4/2005
4. Kataria, D.M., Laugh for No Reason. 2002, Mumbai: Madhuri International.
5. Berk, R., Research Critiques Incite Words of Mass Destruction. Association for Applied and Therapeutic Humor http://aath.org/art_berkr01.html. Last accessed: 26/4/05
6. Junkins, E., The Role of Laughter in Psychotherapy. http://www.laughtertherapy.com/Articlesbestbetforblues.htm. Last accessed: 26/4/05
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