Julie’s

“Laughter & Humor…Medicines You Can’t Live Without”

Connie Boatright, RN, MSN<= /o:p>

&= nbsp; Connie introduced herself (while she was wearing a funny hat) as a Registered Nurs= e with over 20 years of experience as a Clinical Specialist in Psychiatry.

&= nbsp; She started the presentation by talking about fun and that as kids your “job” is to have fun, but as you get older and start school you= are often admonished for having fun—“stop joking around” or “stop talking” or “quit giggling”. As an adult, if = you try to have fun on the job you are looked at as being a “goof”.= She states that as we get older and become adults we are programmed to not have fun.

&= nbsp; One easy way of having fun is trying to recapture your youth or childhood and w= hat about that time made it fun. She passed out noisemakers to the audience and asked them to use the noisemakers if they remembered or experienced any of = the things she listed as she “reminisced” back to youth before lear= ning not to have fun. Now you try it at home, maybe you don’t have a noisemaker handy but clap your hands and laugh out loud if you remember: Ug= ly gym uniforms; twenty-five cents being a good allowance; male teachers wore = suit jackets and ties to school and female teachers wore dresses; when you went = to the gas station and the attendant pumped your gas, checked your oil and was= hed your windows; using trading stamps to purchase items; when a ’57 Chevy was the dream car; nobody ever had to ask where the car keys were because t= hey were always in the car and the doors were unlocked; medication containers weren’t so difficult to get into; pop machines with glass bottles and they only cost 5 cents; milk being delivered in bottles; juke boxes on the tables at the coffee shops; telephone party lines; metal ice cube trays with the lever; drive-in movies. Is there anything else that you remember that w= as fun and brings a smile to your face? To top it off she then passed out paper bags full of “penny candy” such as stick candy (Root Beer and Clove flavored), Cracker Jack, Eckos and Moon Pies among oth= ers.

&= nbsp; Connie then discussed the benefits of laughter, fun and positive thinking on healt= h as documented by many studies. T= he most noted self study was performed by Norman Cousins who while ailing, scheduled laughter daily by watching Laurel and Hardy and he found that this decreased his pain. He discussed this experience and the other benefits of laughter in his book “Anatomy of= an Illness”.

&= nbsp; Other health benefits of laughter, fun and positive attitude is that laughter releases the body’s natural pain killers (endorphins), helps the body fight infection (Immunoglobulin and T cells) and is an excellent muscle relaxer. Stress is also reduc= ed. Laughter is equivalent to “internal jogging” as it strengthens = the heart and the blood flow and helps lower blood pressure. Your lung capacity= is also increased with a good belly laugh. Being fun, having fun or a positive attitude also attracts others to you.

She completed her presentation by asking the audience to complete a laugh contr= act, encouraging everyone to engage in daily laughter. She then passed out music= al instruments and had us sing Zip-a-di-do-dah…my o my what a wonderful = day!