In the late ’80s – a time when farm incomes were, to put it mildly, not good – in a speech at Moose Jaw I mentioned being at a farm women’s meeting where, in the hours after sessions ended, several of us sat around and traded stories and shared tears and laughter.
One of the other (male) speakers took great offence at my saying that we had laughed when the situation was so grave.
I wanted to tackle him on the issue, to say that the laughter was not at the situation but in spite of it, that it was therapeutic and what we needed at the time.
Read Also
Topsy-turvy precipitation this year challenges crop predictions
Rainfall can vary dramatically over a short distance. Precipitation maps can’t catch all the deviations, but they do provide a broad perspective.
Today I would probably say it; at the time, he was a big name in agricultural circles in the province and I lacked the courage to take him on in public.
I still believe that laughter is good medicine. I and members of the Saskatchewan Women’s Agricultural Network had that view reinforced recently when Cathy Fenwick – a Regina clinical psychologist, author, educator, training consultant, counsellor and clown – showed us what power laughter has.
Six and a half years ago, she told us, she was diagnosed with breast cancer, an experience that led her to think about what is really important in life and to the conclusion that “healing doesn’t necessarily mean curing.”
We have to acknowledge our dark side and move through it, she said. We also need the skills to enjoy the other side and laughter is definitely one of these skills.
Children laugh 300 to 400 times a day, she said, but by the time we reach adulthood, we laugh only 10 to 15 times a day. As we grow older, she said, we seem to relax and we regain some of that childish tendency to laugh.
Joy heals, Fenwick told her audience. Laughter is universal. It is also infectious. We should all laugh more as laughter has many physical benefits: laughter reduces stress, anxiety, fear; laughter releases the body’s endorphines; by laughing, we give ourselves “a natural high”; laughter enhances immune system response; laughter is empowering.
Fenwick should tell the Department of Health. This sounds like something that would fit right in with the wellness model, and it would certainly be cost effective.
Once again, it may be that women will have to lead the way.
A recent University of Maryland study showed that women laugh far more than men and that people laugh more in groups than when they are alone.
