NORTH BATTLEFORD, Sask. – A belly laugh isn’t hard to do until you try to keep it rolling for a minute.
Members of the Saskatchewan Women’s Institutes gave it their best attempts during a laughter therapy session at their annual meeting.
Ellen Wood, a United Church minister who worked in rural parishes in Manitoba until marrying a Meota, Sask., farmer six years ago, discovered laughter as a therapy while recovering from cancer.
She told the meeting that adults laugh only 10 percent of what children do.
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Hearty laughs are all about breathing and pulling oxygen into the body while dispelling negative emotions. A one minute laugh leaves a person feeling winded and is the equivalent of 10 minutes of jogging, Wood said. Unlike regular exercise, however, laughter therapy can be done standing, sitting or laying down.
“If you’ve gotten bad news or woke up with no energy, do some laughter therapy. Try and get your husband to do it with you. You can certainly get your grandchildren to do it.”
Wood said people using laughter must also not be afraid to be embarrassed or conspicuous as they work through a daily routine.
SWI delegates laughed as fellow member Doris Pattison wondered how this would work on coffee row with all the men.
Wood also talked about argument laughter, which is a tool to relieve power struggles in heated conversations. You shake your index finger at the other person as if scolding them but instead laugh. A surprised smile is usually the response of the other person who then gets to do their own argument laughter back at you.
In an interview during the meeting, incoming SWI president Ellen Stachiw said her main goal is to increase the group’s membership, which has fallen below 100. She hopes to show people the value of the educational sessions SWI branches hold. Her own branch has held information awareness on ovarian cancer, foot care and safety.
Stachiw has a special interest in restoring the role of crafts.
“Our role is as educators and there are a lot of young women who don’t know how to do crafts – knitting, crocheting,” she said.
“I think it would be a good thing to bring the old crafts back because their mothers didn’t know how to teach them because they had forgotten or never learned themselves.”
On display at the conference was a scrapbook compiled by SWI members with written instructions and samples of old crafts such as pulled thread work and metallic embroidery.
