Laughing to clear your head, with Melanie Bloch

If I told you that laughing was good for your health and wellbeing, would you believe me?

Over the years there has been countless research to back this up and a quick Google search leads me to this recent article in The Telegraph that states

"A study at Oxford University in 2011 found that laughter increases our pain threshold. Researchers found that subjects who had watched comedy videos could withstand 10 per cent more pain than normal. Another study, at the University of Arizona, found that laughter boosts cardiac health; while a report by scientists at the University of Maryland in 2005, showed that blood flow increased by 22 per cent when participants laughed."

So you see, it does! But what I was interested in was whether laughing could help us with matters of the mind.

Can laughing help you to build emotional resilience?

To help me find the answer, in today's podcast I speak to Melanie Bloch, a mind-body therapist who also runs a Laughter Yoga group.

Melanie is familiar with struggles of the mind and body as she has been a mind-body therapist for over 20 years, so I was curious as to whether she felt laughter could help with things like emotional resilience, clearing the mind, and generally improving our wellbeing, or if it was all just a bit of fun.

During our chat, Melanie gives me a taste of how you kick off a laughing fit using one of the laughing yoga techniques, but she also shares

why laughing is so effective the health benefits of laughing how to breathe to bring out the best laugh and much more

I'm sure that once you hear what Melanie has to say that you'll want to find a local laughter club, so if you do, then visit the United Mind website which is a great resource for UK laughter clubs, and more.

Enjoy the podcast!