| Having the last laugh! |
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| Thursday, 31 July 2008 | |
 ASK Anne McDonald what is the best remedy for depression or feeling under the weather and she will probably tell you to go and have a good laugh.Anne, from Howth, holds workshops around Ireland and the UK that specialise in laughter therapy. She claims that there are numerous benefits, both physically and emotionally, in simply laughing. “It’s been scientifically well documented that laughing releases feel-good endorphins into the body’s system,” says Anne. “It also strengthens the immune system, stimulates the heart and increases blood circulation.” Anne trained under Indian doctor, Madan Kataria, also known as ‘the giggling guru’, who started the first laughter club in a public park in Bombay in 1995. “I don’t know exactly why I was drawn to attend Madan’s first and only workshop in Ireland in 2004; I think I just saw a poster for it and decided I’d give it a go,” she states. Anne’s workshops have become extremely popular in recent months and she recently held one in the Queen’s Club in London that was attended by 40 high-flying executives. “I’ve staged workshops all over the country and while there are some physical laughter exercises that I concentrate on, the workshops are all about us getting over ourselves and not taking life so seriously,” she says. It is estimated that there are now 1,200 laughter clubs around the world. Mary Mitchell has founded an organisation called Laughter Yoga Ireland where she trains laughter leaders, so the number of laughter clubs is likely to continue to grow around the country. Anne McDonald points out that children can laugh up to 500 times a day, whereas the average adult only laughs around 15 times a day. “It’s some difference, isn’t it,” she says. “Do you remember when you were a nipper and the kind of laughter you used to engage in, totally unselfconscious? “There isn’t a right or wrong way to laugh.” Anne worked for years in what she describes as the coalface of social care. When she witnessed the children of women whom she had helped coming back looking for help themselves, she decided to try something new, something that would help people make permanent changes in their lives. She now holds laughter clubs in libraries and other public places and acknowledges that participants can feel nervous or embarrassed at the beginning. “But so can the facilitator,” she adds. “Silent laughter where people make eye contact with each other can work really well in a group. “Or gradient laughter which gradually gets louder and louder can also work, or what about dog-pee laughter where everyone has to act like a dog peeing - well maybe that’s not for everyone! “But the real purpose is to break down barriers and you do feel really good at the end of a workshop.” Anne’s work will feature on a BBC programme to be screened in November called ‘The Last Resort’, where a number of people, including a young man from Finglas, are helped to deal with their various addictions by a panel of therapists. For more information regarding Anne McDonald’s laughter workshops visit www.mcdonaldcoaching.com |
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Developed by Kevin Flynn