A healthy dose of laughter

A free lunch of pizza gave way to widespread mirth in a Main Street chapel last week.

Though they weren’t exactly rolling in the aisles, about 50 middle-aged and older adults “Laughed for the Health of It” at a unique interactive exercise hosted by Reformation Lutheran Church.

“By laughing, you change your body’s chemistry, which helps you feel better,” said Nancy Davis, a “certified laugh specialist” from Portage, Wis., where she also serves as chaplain at Divine Savior Hospital. “This is inner jogging and, you can’t be depressed if you are laughing.”

In Culpeper visiting a friend, Davis, trained by the Worldwide Laughter Tour, agreed to share her upbeat program with the church’s Culpeper Adult Ministries club. It was all great fun as well as beneficial
for the mind, body and soul.

“A cheerful heart is good medicine,” Davis said, quoting the Bible in making her case. “These are depressing times, and we need some way to be uplifted every day.”

Medically speaking, laughter reduces the stress-causing hormone cortisol and eases muscle tension. It boosts the immune system, aids ventilation and augments oxygen in the blood. Laughing also increases pain tolerance, slows aging and helps blood vessels function better, according to Davis.

She led various laughing drills during Tuesday’s after-lunch program, starting with one involving the placement of an imaginary lei around a neighbor’s neck.

“Now say, aloha-ha-ha-ha-ha,” Davis instructed, the sanctuary bursting into laughter.

Whereas children and babies laugh 400 to 600 times a day, adults laugh maybe 10 times, she said, “If we’re lucky.” Davis recommended laughing for 15 minutes daily — in small doses.

Laughter is God-given and it’s free, Davis went on, and yet as people get older, they learn not to laugh. It gets squelched with common parent-child chastisements like, “Wipe that smile off your face,” she said.

“I’m teaching people to bring it up again — to let it rise,” Davis said, adding, “God does have a sense of humor.”

Illustrating that point, Davis unveiled a nontraditional portrait of Jesus, yes, laughing. The day’s other props included a baby shirt marked, “Does this diaper make my butt look big?” and Charlie the laughing cow.

Incredibly, there are 350 different laughs, Davis said, including the hee-hee, ho-ho, hoot, snort, cackle, chortle, guffaw and the stifled snicker that usually surfaces in church.

“Imagine going down a slide,” she said, continuing the exercises and everyone joining in to shout, “Weeeeeeeeeeeee!”

Insert laughter here.

“When you laugh, you are releasing little puffs of pain,” Davis said, the air feeling lighter.

The late Milton Berle, entertainer extraordinaire, once said, “Laughter is like an instant vacation,” Davis quoted, and one could almost feel the ocean breezes.
A universal language, natural tranquilizer and alternative medicine, laughter is what the world needs now.

“Are you ready to unbuckle your chuckle?” Davis said, and the room certainly responded.

Not surprisingly, the Rev. Brad Hales, pastor at Reformation Lutheran, laughed the loudest. Known around town for his eternal optimism, he stood in the back of the sanctuary, his laughter bouncing off the walls like a dime store rubber ball.

It was certainly contagious.

“I love to laugh!” Hales said after the program. “Sometimes we take life way too seriously. It reinforces for me the humor that is in life.”

Participant Carol Bailey of Locust Grove, visiting from a Fredericksburg-area church, said her grandchildren make her laugh the most.

Virginia Boroughs of Unionville said she usually follows when it comes to laughter.

“Someone else laughing makes me laugh,” she said, “And it doesn’t even have to be funny.”

For Mike Wortman of Rixeyville, laughter is communal.

“I think it’s best when everybody just gets-a-going at the same time,” he said, admitting to the health benefits as well.

“I got plenty bad health, but laughter does make me feel better,” Wortman said.