soulsearch.me » Stress Relief

The “Appropriateness” of Laughter… when is it okay to laugh?

Maxim — Tue, 12 May 2009 03:54:34 +0000

Well, following on from my last blog post, I’ve just had some of my more limiting beliefs expunged! And it is always a healthy thing to have our horizons of thinking expanded… I was once British, and despite the fact that we have some highly entertaining and somewhat irreverent comedians… just look at Monty Python or Borat… nevertheless our stiff upper lip conditioning means that we are also very conscious of where and when it’s proper to laugh.

So the other day a friend sent me this youtube video which busts all those nice theories about correctness. Get a load of these guys laughing on the metro in Paris… guaranteed to make you laugh.

Hope it brightens your day!

Laughter as Therapy

Maxim — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 01:52:43 +0000

Maxim and I want to make this blog as interesting (as well as valuable) as possible, so from time to time we’ll post amusing videos and maybe even a joke or two. Maxim is an inveterate joker BTW so watch out! Did you know that one of the very best ways of reducing stress is to laugh? There are even laughter clubs all over the world. Just as most of us recognize the importance of regular exercise to maintain good physical and emotional health, you’ve probably never given much thought to a practice which specifically exercises your emotions? The health benefits of this very silly and infectious New Age pastime as a way of managing stress are legion.

I first came across laughter as a therapeutic treatment, delivering the ‘feel good factor’ and in particular helping to relieve the effects of stress, many years ago when I lived in India, and waddya know, this seems to be where the earliest laughter clubs first appeared! I wonder if there is any connection. I’ll tell you more one day about The Mystic Rose meditation once we’ve gotten you used to the idea of laughing for half an hour every so often, as its pretty extreme, but the upside is Radical Transformation. If you feel you’re ready for a far-reaching emotional makeover, I’ll be posting an article about it shortly.

Dr. Madan Kataria, is an MD from Mumbai, India and is widely known as the ‘Guru of Giggling’. While researching the health benefits of laughter, he was amazed by the number of studies showing the important psychological and physiological advantages of laughing, particularly for managing stress. Looking for a way to deliver these benefits to his patients and other people, the upshot is Laughter Yoga, a unique exercise routine that combines group laughter exercises and yoga breathing. They are well aware of how hard it is to laugh when you don’t feel like it at all but they use the ‘fake it till you make it’ system…and the result is pretty darn amusing as you’ll see below.

I feel sure we’ll keep coming back to laughter as a stress management technique because it’s free and practically instant, but more than that, it helps you have a Class One experience… meaning that it feels good, it’s something that does you good and it does the same for others too since laughter and its positive effects can be pretty contagious. Just remember that sometimes you also need to be appropriate i.e. watch where you make use of it; but then again we could start a laughter epidemic to combat the stress one! Let me know what you think.

Be writing for you again soon but in the meantime I hoped you might enjoy this video.

No disrespect but Indian people are so engaging when they celebrate and laugh…

Is Stress the 21st Century’s new Epidemic?

Maxim — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 03:06:10 +0000

Hi there,
My name is Sandhan and I just want to welcome you to the first ever Blog post for The Stress Book. Congratulations! Maxim and I started this website to help everyone we can who is currently coping with stress but thinks that they are doomed to a life sentence! We both know what that feels like, but rest assured, it is not true; there are most definitely stress management techniques which help in reducing stress and anxiety. They don’t cost a lot, (some nothing at all) you can practice many of them alone and at home and mostly they produce an almost instant result.

In the Stress Book we have included all sorts of better known and not so well known tips for stress relief which we are certain will get you feeling like your old self again before too long. We’ll also keep you posted of anything new and interesting we come across as we trawl the net…. A deep passion of ours! You might also like to sign up for The Stress Weekly where we send you free weekly stress relief reminders which you can make your focus for the week until the next one arrives in your inbox.

For the 17th consecutive year, April 2009 has been designated as Stress Awareness Month and as authors of The Anti Stress Book we are as committed as any of the other health care professionals and experts all across the country who are currently collaborating to increase public awareness and vigilance about the causes and cures for our modern stress epidemic. For I believe that epidemic is no exaggeration: while we are familiar with plagues akin to the Black Death or influenza, at the time the most recent figures I saw were released, stress and stress related diseases were costing the US alone over $46.4 billion a year and affecting over 19 million or 1 in 8 people.

With all that is happening globally right now, people all over the world are seeing their levels of stress increasing daily. Doesn’t this constitute an epidemic of plague proportions? You may well be one of those unfortunate victims and we are here to help YOU. With layoffs, workplace stress foreclosures and marital breakdowns a common byproduct of the economic recession all over the world, these figures must surely be the tip of the global iceberg? Stress Awareness Month is a national, cooperative effort to inform people about the dangers of constant worry and anxiety, successful coping strategies and harmful fallacies about stress that are widespread in our society.

The Anti Stress Book intends to bring advice and relief to people all over the world who are currently suffering from high levels of stress and anxiety and may feel alone and powerless to combat the devastating effects. Judging by the alarming statistics, it seems that we at the Anti Stress Book have timed it just right to release our new publication. Maxim, as a former mental health practitioner specializing in stress and schizophrenia believes as I do that the research on stress reduction and its recommended treatment has come a long way over the last 30 years or so since we both began working with people, but not yet far enough.

Too many people are still being prescribed long term medications such as Zoloft, whereas we prefer to recommend complementary medicine, alternative therapies, natural stress relief, self help and advocate preventative medicine rather than waiting until the stress and anxiety have gotten so out of control that pharmaceuticals are the only solution come across new relevant information but if you’d like to benefit from our special introductory offer on The Stress Book valid for the rest of this month only…