{"id":2764,"date":"2023-03-30T09:01:22","date_gmt":"2023-03-30T08:01:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sepri.pt\/noticia\/laughter-therapy-what-is-it-how-to-practice-it-and-what-are-the-benefits\/"},"modified":"2023-03-30T09:01:22","modified_gmt":"2023-03-30T08:01:22","slug":"laughter-therapy-what-is-it-how-to-practice-it-and-what-are-the-benefits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sepri.pt\/en\/noticia\/laughter-therapy-what-is-it-how-to-practice-it-and-what-are-the-benefits\/","title":{"rendered":"Laughter therapy: what is it, how to practice it and what are the benefits?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In recent years, laughter therapy has become popular as an innovative technique for caring for emotional health.<br \/>\nWith people&#8217;s growing concern for well-being and quality of life, laughter therapy is gaining ground as a natural and effective approach to relieving <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sepri.pt\/pt\/noticia\/gerir-ansiedade-no-trabalho-tecnicas-para-acalmar\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">stress and anxiety<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p><strong>AWARENESS-RAISING MATERIALS:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=MdVMBEZTihE\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=MdVMBEZTihE\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Video<\/a><\/a> <\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><strong>What is laughter therapy?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Laughter therapy is a therapeutic technique that uses humor and laughter to improve people&#8217;s physical and emotional health.<br \/>\nIt&#8217;s a natural and effective approach that helps release tension and stress accumulated in the body and mind. <\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>How is it practiced?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>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.<br \/>\nIn addition, carrying out the therapy in a group helps to develop and strengthen the individual&#8217;s social component. <\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>To this can be added a range of associated strategies, such as body expression techniques, dance, singing and theater, for example.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>What are the benefits of laughter therapy?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Laughter therapy has several advantages, such as:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<p>Strengthening of social relationships and disinhibition, by favoring group therapy sessions;<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>Improves the emotional health of individuals.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>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&#8217;s well-being.<\/p>\n<p>In addition, we produce and release a number of fundamental substances, such as:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<p>Serotonin: works as a natural antidepressant, so its impact on mood is extremely important;<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>Endorphins: responsible for feelings of pleasure and well-being<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>Dopamine: equally important for a general mood<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>Adrenaline: determines our alertness and, consequently, our capacity for attention, focus and concentration;<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>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:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<p>In a much more optimistic mood<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>Strengthening emotional and social ties<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>A perception of general well-being.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Other benefits of laughter therapy include improving sleep quality and promoting creativity.<br \/>\nIn addition, the technique can be used as an adjunct in treatments for various diseases, such as cancer, heart disease and <strong> <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sepri.pt\/pt\/noticia\/diabetes-tudo-que-deve-saber\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">diabetes<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>With the growing demand for emotional health care techniques, laughter therapy has emerged as an innovative and promising approach.<br \/>\nIf you&#8217;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. <\/p>\n<p>Watch the video <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=MdVMBEZTihE\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a> with Dr. Maria Jo\u00e3o Couto, Clinical Psychologist at SEPRI Medicina no Trabalho<\/p>\n<p>Read also: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sepri.pt\/pt\/noticia\/sa%C3%BAde-mental-e-alimenta%C3%A7%C3%A3o-como-se-relacionam\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Mental health and food: how do they relate?<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Laughter therapy has become popular as an innovative technique for caring for emotional health and is gaining ground as a natural and effective approach to relieving stress and anxiety.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2983,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2764","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sepri.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2764","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sepri.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sepri.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sepri.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sepri.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2764"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sepri.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2764\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sepri.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2983"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sepri.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sepri.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sepri.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}