Today’s temperature was near 60º. That’s quite unusual for late January in NE Ohio. So I got out and made some images that might reflect the warm weather. Here’s a type of tall grass that is planted in various spots around Falls River Square. It kind of looks like wheat.
reposted from www.care2.com
8 Health Benefits of Laughter
by Melissa Breyer
August 23, 2011
Is there anything better than a contagious giggle that you absolutely can’t control? (Ok, maybe not so good in school or church.) Laughter works wonderfully well in the moment, but it also has some surprising long-term health benefits. In the book A Better Brain at Any Age: The Holistic Way to Improve Your Memory, Reduce Stress, and Sharpen Your Wits (Conari Press, 2009), author Sondra Kornblatt explores how laughter can truly make you feel better.
She writes that the new field of gelotology is exploring the benefits of laughter. It was brought to the public’s awareness in Norman Cousins’ memoir Anatomy of an Illness. Cousins found that comedies, like those of the Marx Brothers, helped him feel better and get some pain-free sleep. That’s because laughter helps the pituitary gland release its own pain-suppressing opiates.
What can laughter do?:
Lower blood pressure
Increase vascular blood flow and oxygenation of the blood
Give a workout to the diaphragm and abdominal, respiratory, facial, leg, and back muscles
Reduce certain stress hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline
Increase the response of tumor- and disease-killing cells such as Gamma-interferon and T-cells
Defend against respiratory infections–even reducing the frequency of colds–by immunoglobulon in saliva.
Increase memory and learning; in a study at Johns Hopkins University Medical School, humor during instruction led to increased test scores
Improve alertness, creativity, and memory
Humor and creativity work in similar ways, says humor guru William Fry, M.D., of Stanford University–by creating relationships between two disconnected items, you engage the whole brain.
Humor works quickly. Less than a half-second after exposure to something funny, and electrical wave moves through the higher brain functions of the cerebral cortex. The left hemisphere analyzes the words and structures of the joke; the right hemisphere “gets” the joke; the visual sensory area of the occipital lobe creates images; the limbic (emotional) system makes you happier; and the motor sections make you smile or laugh.
So let’s laugh. What makes you laugh? Tell us your favorite funny movie, or how about a good joke?
Related:
The Healing Benefits of Laughter
Melissa Breyer
Here is a short video about a laughter yoga group in London…
The Laughing Club of Northeast Ohio cheers on the runners at the Akron Roadrunner Marathon…
Here’s a short video about laughter clubs in India, starring Monty Python’s John Cleese…
Here is something that put a definite smile on my face. While walking through the Falls River Square District this morning I saw these beautiful ice sculptures that were carved by University of Akron culinary students over the weekend during the Frozen River Festival.
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Entertainment & Lifestyle
Yuk it up at Hardesty Park May 2 4/29/2010 – West Side Leader By Kathleen Folkerth Local event marks World Laughter Day
WEST AKRON — Whether one giggles, snickers or hoots, laughter does a body good. That will be exemplified at World Laughter Day, which is taking place locally at Hardesty Park May 2 at 3 p.m. Members of the Laughing Club of Northeast Ohio, which meets every Saturday at 10 a.m. at the Cuyahoga Falls Public Library, organize the local event. “It’s a worldwide event,” said Craig Tatton, a Kent resident and member of the club. “There’s thousands of laughing clubs all over the world, but it’s wide open as far as how you recognize the day. We keep it very simple. But there’s other groups that make it into a festival.” Tatton said this is the fifth year for the gathering in West Akron. Club founder Carol Bailey Floyd, a West Akron resident, started the club, which initially began meeting at Hardesty Park. Eventually meetings moved to Cuyahoga Falls, which is how Tatton heard about the club. The point of the club, and World Laughter Day, is to emphasize the health benefits of laughter, Tatton said. “We say people, mainly adults, don’t laugh enough,” Tatton said. “Somewhere along our lifetime, we laugh less.” The club and one-day event don’t include jokes or clowning around but instead use laughing exercises that have been developed. “We form a circle and do exercises that either bring about fake laughter or real laughter,” Tatton said. “It doesn’t matter if you’re faking a laugh or really having a bellyroll laugh. Your body doesn’t know the difference and it will respond to either. If you just go along and do the ‘ha ha ha, ho ho ho,’ you’ll feel the benefit.” The reason laughing is beneficial is because a body breathes properly when laughing, Tatton added. It’s also a great stress reliever, he added. There is a science to laughing, he said. Dr. Maden Kataria, of India, created World Laughter Day and laughing clubs. In the United States, Steve Wilson, a mental health educator in Columbus, has taken up the cause and heads up the World Laughter Tour, which serves as a clearinghouse for information and news about therapeutic laughter, according to the Web site www.worldlaughtertour.com. The Hardesty Park event will last about an hour, Tatton said. Hardesty Park is located at 1615 W. Market St. For more information about the club or World Laughter Day, contact Floyd at 330-836-4456 or Tatton at 330-612-1944. |
Hi everyone,
Dennis here. I am a member of the Laughing Club of Northeast Ohio. Please feel free to attend one of our weekly one hour meetings at Taylor Memorial Library in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. We meet every Saturday morning from 10 AM to 11 AM, downstairs usually in the Graeffe meeting room. I hope to see you there. 
Here’s an image of last night’s sunset that I grabbed out the window of my car with my trusty little
Panasonic Lumix FP3 camera.
