In recent years, laughter therapy has become popular as an innovative technique for caring for emotional health.
With people’s growing concern for well-being and quality of life, laughter therapy is gaining ground as a natural and effective approach to relieving stress and anxiety.
AWARENESS-RAISING MATERIALS:
What is laughter therapy?
Laughter therapy is a therapeutic technique that uses humor and laughter to improve people’s physical and emotional health.
It’s a natural and effective approach that helps release tension and stress accumulated in the body and mind.
However, we cannot confuse it with a therapy to cure a specific problem, but rather as a preventive technique that has a clinically significant impact, through the use of laughter, on the general well-being of individuals.
How is it practiced?
The practice of laughter therapy is simple and is usually carried out in a group, although it can be done individually, as it is important that the patient knows how to laugh at themselves, their limitations and their difficulties.
In addition, carrying out the therapy in a group helps to develop and strengthen the individual’s social component.
In a group session, the risotherapist tries to stimulate or introduce a set of exercises, usually combined with breathing exercises, which aim to trigger a first set of laughs that are induced and progressively contagious until they become spontaneous laughter.
To this can be added a range of associated strategies, such as body expression techniques, dance, singing and theater, for example.
What are the benefits of laughter therapy?
Laughter therapy has several advantages, such as:
-
Strengthening of social relationships and disinhibition, by favoring group therapy sessions;
-
Improves the emotional health of individuals.
When we laugh, we move around 400 muscles in the body, which says a lot about the power that strong laughter can have on people’s well-being.
In addition, we produce and release a number of fundamental substances, such as:
-
Serotonin: works as a natural antidepressant, so its impact on mood is extremely important;
-
Endorphins: responsible for feelings of pleasure and well-being
-
Dopamine: equally important for a general mood
-
Adrenaline: determines our alertness and, consequently, our capacity for attention, focus and concentration;
In addition, people who laugh frequently have higher levels of cortisol in their blood, which means a reduced stress reaction, meaning that, in general terms, the impact of this therapy is felt:
-
In a much more optimistic mood
-
Strengthening emotional and social ties
-
A perception of general well-being.
Other benefits of laughter therapy include improving sleep quality and promoting creativity.
In addition, the technique can be used as an adjunct in treatments for various diseases, such as cancer, heart disease and diabetes.
With the growing demand for emotional health care techniques, laughter therapy has emerged as an innovative and promising approach.
If you’re looking for an alternative way to take care of your physical and emotional health, try laughter therapy and feel the benefits it can bring to your body and mind.
Watch the video here with Dr. Maria João Couto, Clinical Psychologist at SEPRI Medicina no Trabalho
Read also: Mental health and food: how do they relate?
