Laughter, The Best Medicine! | Ep 132

Melissa Deally: 00:00:06

Imagine getting up every day full of energy is if you were in your 20s. Again, what would that be like? What would that be worth to you? What is your health worth to you? Think about it. Your health isn't everything. But without it, everything else is nothing. And yet too many of us are taking it for granted until something goes wrong. No one wakes up hoping to be diagnosed with the disease or chronic illness. And yet, we've never been taught how to be proactive in our health through our school system, or public health. As a registered health coach and integrative health practitioner, I believe it is time this information is made available to everyone. Combining new knowledge around your health and the ability to do my functional medicine lab tests in the comfort of your own home will allow you to optimize your health for today in all your tomorrow's don't wait for your wake up call

Melissa Deally: 00:01:07

welcome back to another special podaPalooza episode of The don't wait for your wake up call podcast. I am Melissa dealey your host and today I am here with Lynn Himmelman. Lynn. Welcome to the show. Thank you. I'm excited to have you here today. But I want to introduce you to the audience first. Lynn is a life transformation mentor, and has successfully resolved trauma, anxiety and complicated relationship conflicts for nearly three decades. She discovered during her recovery from a serious brain injury that laughter when combined with forgiveness leads to deep and lasting healing and transformation. So I love that we get to talk about laughter today, Lynn. And I would love for you just to share with the audience a little bit more about your story and how you got into this focus on laughter.

Lynn Himmelman: 00:01:57

All right, well, the laughter piece came later in my story. But four years before my brain trauma, actually. And I had no idea what an important part it was going to play in my recovery process. In fact, when I was first introduced to this whole concept of laughing without jokes, or humor, and just calling the laughter up from the inside out. It's kind of Yeah, it's okay. But I was treating it like a frivolous adjunct to my serious trauma healing work. And I have since discovered, I have since discovered that laughter is something that actually needs to be at the top, the very top of everyone's health and happiness. Protocol, because it is powerful. And I I've come to understand, even just through my own ideas about laughter that were misguided, that there are myths about laughter that are actually keeping us from laughing.

Melissa Deally: 00:03:18

Interesting. I didn't ever know that there was myths about laughter I am fully aware of the powerful healing benefits of laughter. However, I didn't know there were myths around it. So do share. Well, I would

Lynn Himmelman: 00:03:33

say one of the myths is that we need something funny to laugh about. Okay, that we actually need something outside of ourselves to initiate the laughter. And what I've learned since is that laughter is something that is encoded in our very cellular makeup to the point where a baby who is born deaf, whined, and kinesthetically challenged, actually knows how to laugh. Therefore, the laughter isn't something that is being stimulated by anything outside of them. And you know, we often think when we're interacting with a little baby and making funny faces and die, that somehow we're inspiring the laughing not true. They would be laughing in the room all by themselves without you making the funny face.

Melissa Deally: 00:04:36

Fascinating. Maybe a little bit of a bubble blower to the people that think they are the funny ones. Clearly, they're the babies laughing regardless. Very interesting, very interesting,

Lynn Himmelman: 00:04:48

regardless, and so the sad piece of this story is that as we progress and mature and yet let's say disciplined How to behave correctly in certain situations, we learn more and more to suppress our laughter. we suppress it in the school system, we suppress it even in the home life, where maybe a parent has something serious, they need to concentrate on laughter is considered bad, disruptive, et cetera. Yes.

Melissa Deally: 00:05:26

So like, we learn to suppress our emotions, because society tells us to do that as well. We're seeing the laughter That, of course, is attached to the emotion of happiness and joy.

Lynn Himmelman: 00:05:40

That's exactly right. And well, laughter is so much deeper and more profound than that, because laughter when we allow ourselves to really embrace it, and fall into it fully. First of all, it's very contained. Just

Melissa Deally: 00:06:01

that it is. I know that all too well. And I love it. My daughter starts laughing and I can't help myself. And then my husband's over there in the corner, because she's often played a prank on him. And now I'm laughing with her at his expense. And he's like, Thanks for the wifely support. But I can't help it.

Lynn Himmelman: 00:06:22

Yeah, and well, and that's so, so great. Because you know, the more we laugh together, the less entrenched we are in the things that we want to dig into and make problems about, there's this thing with humans. Yes. Where we all want to be right. Nobody wants to be proven wrong. And that creates conflict. Yes. In order for someone else to be right, someone else has to be wrong. Yes, yes. So laughter is this beautiful activity that levels the ground. And it levels the ground because it puts us back in tune with ourselves at a soul level, where we're not so hooked into this fog negative need to prove ourselves. In fact, when you fully surrender to laughing, the mind disengages. The more you laugh, the more it disengages and the more it disengages, the more you're able to fall back into the holistic expression of who you are as a whole being that embraces all of the polarities, right, wrong in out up down, yes, no. All living together in one complete expression, not making one right and the other one wrong. And then Whoa, we can just relax. Now, from a biological standpoint, from a physiological standpoint, when you laugh, there are actually things that are happening in the body, the vagus nerve is being activated. And the vagus nerve plays a very important role in being able to switch out of the fight or flight and into the parasympathetic, where we can relax, chill, and joy.

Melissa Deally: 00:08:47

And we don't spend enough time there as a human race these days, too many of us are just living in that state of fight or flight and not even really realizing it and looking around and seeing everyone else, just as stressed out and normalizing it, and then not realizing the negative impact that has on our health and longevity as a result. And there's, you know, a variety of ways to get out of our fight or flight state and into our parasympathetic nervous system we state and one of which I talk about all the time is your breath. However, I love, you know, the idea of using laughter to do that as well, because laughter is just so much fun. And here's

Lynn Himmelman: 00:09:30

the other thing, it's entirely related to what you're professing around the breathing, because now I just want to throw this in because a lot of times, okay, so the way the actual discipline that I am referring to and that I practice is called laughter yoga. And a lot of people misunderstand and believe that laughter yoga is something about okay, we do yoga postures and laugh while we're doing them. No Laughter is the yoga. Yes, it is the yoga and part of a yoga practice includes intense breathing exercises called punny arms. And it just so happens that laughter is one of the most effective intensive property um, sir is because when you're laughing, you're pushing old stale air out of the lungs I got that's all air going out. And we're pushing air out far more frequently than pulling it in when we're laughing. And so it's really giving the lungs a workout, getting all that old stale air out of there and getting refreshing the system, sharpening your mind, and at the same time, arming your mind because the more you laugh, the more you cannot think. So we tend to get trapped in this kind of

Melissa Deally: 00:11:04

the monkey mind

Lynn Himmelman: 00:11:05

onto a thought and not letting go of it. Yes, best way to let go of something that just won't leave you be is just throw your arms up into the air. And even though it may seem forced or unnatural, just open your mouth and laugh. And sometimes the way I like to inspire it just I say, okay, you've got a lottery ticket, and instead of having to answer the skill testing math question, you get to win that millions simply by laughing. Could you do it? If there were a few million dollars behind it? You probably could.

Melissa Deally: 00:11:48

totally can.

Lynn Himmelman: 00:11:49

Yes. Everybody can. The thing is, you know that we are actually we've been, we've been programmed out of our natural way of laughing Okay, because as babies, we didn't have a cognitive relationship with laughter where you had to understand a joke, or have a sense of humor, or, or somehow get the gist of some comedians, play of words. None of that was even interpretable as a baby, and yet babies have the most, most joyful, innocent laughing there is you just you know, like when you hear Toddlers and Babies laugh, it's just like, it just touches you right here.

Melissa Deally: 00:12:37

It does. I mean, there's videos on YouTube and Tiktok, etcetera, of babies laughing. And the number of views of them is astronomically high, because other people are getting so much joy. And they watch it over and over again watching the baby laugh. Right?

Lynn Himmelman: 00:12:53

Yes. So what if? What if you could regain and recapture that relationship with laughter that you had as a baby or as a toddler? Yes, yes, that would be entirely different from the relationship that you're having with laughter now, which is still very cognitively based on referring to things outside of yourself to initiate the laughing, you become the initiator of your own laughing and then guess what, it doesn't matter where you are, you could be caught in the middle of a, of a forest where there's nobody around and you could laugh, you can just pull it out of your tool kit. Needed

Melissa Deally: 00:13:43

exactly because you have it with you and it's free, same as your breath work and they are so interconnected. Are you a practitioner or a coach listening to this? If so, I would love to ask you. Do you use hypnotherapy in your practice working with clients? And if not, would you like to the power of hypnotherapy is limitless. And so often we experience our clients struggling to reach their goals. It's because they're coming up against their own brick walls and getting stuck that you can help them through the power of hypnosis, break through all of that, working with their unconscious mind to put the suggestions in to have them taking the action to achieve the results that they want. They are thrilled with your coaching techniques, they're getting the results they want. You feel amazing because you are helping your client get the results they want is a win win. And another win is that it's an added revenue stream for you in your business. So if you like the feel of helping your clients get the results they want. If you liked the sound of that, then definitely reach out Melissa at your guided health journey.com or Click the link tree link below for my unlimited power of hypnosis class. To learn more. It's a weekend designation program that I teach valid in 42 countries, you write an exam after taking the experiential course. And you can be admitted to the American Board of hypnotherapy and start using hypnotherapy one to one with your clients, and have them achieving the results they want.

Melissa Deally: 00:15:30

And I've experienced laughter, yoga, and really enjoyed that experience as well. So to recap, the first myth was that laughter needs to come from outside of you. Yes. And that we can bring it from inside of us. And the second myth was,

Lynn Himmelman: 00:15:51

is that it's frivolous, really, and that it's out of place to use it in matters of seriousness like loss, grief, tragedy, trauma, no, those are the best places to be using it.

Melissa Deally: 00:16:04

Yes, because it is. So healing. I love that. And Myth number three,

Lynn Himmelman: 00:16:09

it's number three, laughter is disruptive and encourages bad behavior. So, okay, I really come across that once, for instance, because kids are under so much stress these days in the school system. And teachers have been habituated into keeping kids under control, like no smiling, no laughing aloud for like the whole first semester. And now, there was a school in Ontario, Northern Ontario, where they wanted to introduce the laughter, yoga. And a lot of the teachers, they objected because they were so afraid that laughter was just going to create more disruption in a school where already the kids were marginalized, they, you know, there was a lot of absenteeism, skipping school, do not doing well on their, on their tests, and just, you know, also misbehaving. And even so, they did introduce laughter yoga into the school. And they just gave them you know, a short segment in the morning, short segment for this at home. Well, guess what? Kids started to coming to school more often, their grades improved. And also their behavior improved.

Melissa Deally: 00:17:34

That's incredible. And how over how long did it take? Over? How much time did it take to see those results? Do you know?

Lynn Himmelman: 00:17:43

I think it was over the first you know, first semester, September, September to December, and then they carried it on. Love it.

Melissa Deally: 00:17:51

I love that it's profound results. And again, something so easy, and I love that whoever brought that into that school was willing to think outside the box, step away from those beliefs, and try it

Lynn Himmelman: 00:18:06

and try it. And try it. Yeah. Take the risk.

Melissa Deally: 00:18:10

Exactly. And look at the gains. Right, profound. I think every school should bring that in as a result. And it's more of that in our schools more mindfulness the outlet and then dropping them out of the fight or flight state. And says, Yes, locally, it took me from when my daughter was in grade one all the way until she was in grade 10. To have our school allow yoga at all. Because initially, we I was told, Well, it's got religious connotations. We can't bring it into the school. I said, Fine, call it stretching class, quiet time instruction class. But it took all of those years, until students were allowed to participate in yoga classes. And then after that first year, they actually had a teacher who went and did her mindfulness training so that she could then teach it in the school. I love the schools that are open to trying things differently because doing the same thing over and over again, doesn't work.

Lynn Himmelman: 00:19:11

Same results right. Exactly, exactly. But it just continues to go crazy. Exactly problems unsolved.

Melissa Deally: 00:19:21

So I love all that you're sharing here today Lynn and I just want to ask you What does don't wait for your wake up call mean to you

Lynn Himmelman: 00:19:28

don't wait for your wake up call. Yeah, really well, just really means you have the opportunity to begin putting these beautiful ways of inspiring health and happiness in your life into practice. Now rather than waiting for waiting for the what the bomb to draw things to crashing on you then it's then And then it's really hard.

Melissa Deally: 00:20:01

Much, much harder. Yes. And so if somebody wants to get in touch with you learn more about your laughter yoga, how can they reach you,

Lynn Himmelman: 00:20:11

you can go to my website, and the URL to type in is laugh yourself happy.com That will take you straight to my laughter page. And if you want to love with me online for free, I have a 30 minute freebie that happens every second Tuesday. Either my website page will direct you to that, or you can go to Lynn himmelman.eventbrite.com to find what I have available. So every second Tuesday, there's freebies. And there's more stuff there too.

Melissa Deally: 00:20:55

Wonderful. Thank you. So very much. Is there any last message that you would like to leave with the audience,

Lynn Himmelman: 00:21:01

I would like to encourage you to take up this challenge, because laughing when it just depending on things outside of you, you're leaving it up to chance. By taking on this challenge, you're already making a firm decision that you're going to take hold of a piece of your health and happiness. Set a timer for one minute. And as odd and crazy as it seems. Just open up your mouth. And laugh. Until such time as that timer goes off. It's going to feel strange, because normally a laugh only lasts a few seconds and we're going to do it you're going to do it for a whole minute just that you can go Hoss hose, he's who's has, make it loud, make it soft, make it illegal, make it a chuckle, play around with it like playdough. See what you can do be childish and childlike, for a minute. And do it every day for the next 14 days. And take notes because you're going to see things start

Melissa Deally: 00:22:12

to shift. I absolutely love that. And I'm going to take you up on that challenge. Thank you so much, Lynn. And I just want to say to my audience that if there's anything here that resonated with you today, and hopefully there's lots because who doesn't want to laugh, it is so much fun. Please take Lynn up on his challenge, share this episode with others and let's spread the healing benefits of laughter together. Thank you so much, Lynn. And I will be back here with the next