World Laughter Day

World Laughter Day

This Sunday 1st May 2016, marks World Laughter Day “Through laughter, we find the tools to release stress and anxiety and to take charge of our lives”, Hannah Airey, Laughter Coach, Trainer and facilitator of Laughter Wellness workshops throughout New Zealand leads the way in wellbeing.

This Sunday is World Laughter Day. Hannah Airey will be leading a laughter yoga session at the South Island’s first Laughter Club in St Albans, Christchurch, established in March 2007 (the second at that time in New Zealand).

“Wipe all images of giggling in the ‘lotus position’ or laughing whilst in ‘downward facing dog’! Laughter yoga is about coming together in a group and laughing for no reason at all. No jokes, comedy or even humour is involved – actually you can be in a really bad mood and I can guarantee that you will walk out of the room with a smile on your face.” Says Hannah, the Laughter Coach who started the Club in 2007 and has trained upwards of 300 people nationwide and has mentored people to start groups around the country. She has even trained nurses and diversional therapists, who have gone on to create laughter groups within their own retirement villages.

Ms Airey regularly takes laughter sessions for recovering alcoholics and drug addicts in residential programmes. “Many times I have been told that these workshops have changed the lives of the participants, so much so they have been able to take charge and change the direction of where they were heading, where the other option was probably one that was darker than most of us have ever experienced.”

Ms Airey is a regular facilitator at Mental Health Advocacy Peer Support, where she holds workshops for people dealing with high anxiety.

Other than support groups, Hannah Airey also facilitates workshops for many other groups ranging from businesses to early childcare centres, conferences to prisons. “Everyone knows how to laugh, they just sometimes forget to do it for no reason. All too often laughter is dependent on humour, which is different for everyone.”

Ms Airey continues, “The health benefits are numerous, the biggest of all is releasing endorphins and serotonin into the bloodstream, which is what is missing when we experience anxiety and/or depression. When we are stressed, we go into the fight and flight response releasing adrenaline and cortisol into the bloodstream, and there’s a lack of oxygen flow to the brain because we shallow breathe, this causes us to not be able to think clearly. When we laugh we breathe deeply into our diaphragm and it stops the release of stress hormones. It’s the body’s natural antidote to stress.”

Hannah Airey is the Chair of Lotus Community Wellbeing Trust, which runs courses in the community for people to become ‘laughter leaders’ and to start community laughter clubs. These workshops are also for personal development (the next one being 14-15 May 2-16). The Trust also supplies community groups in need laughter sessions at a subsidised rate. (www.lotustrust.org.nz)

Ms Airey is also the Director of Workplace Wellbeing and works for Gap Filler Trust as their Wellbeing Activist.

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