Clowning, Humour and Health
Clowning became part of a movement towards health and well-being.
When I look back, I’m reminded of ‘fads’ in thinking and shared language. In the 1990’s a strong connection was made between good humour and good health that supported the beginning of many clown programs in healthcare. Many of us were exploring our ‘clown within’ like the ‘child within’ popular in psychology at that time. The next few newsletters will follow the thinking or trend around the concept of humour and health.
Humour and Health
Everyone reading this is a human being with a body. We share our humanity. From the time we are small, if we are well cared-for and healthy, we can be silly and joyful, connecting with others through shared laughter.
In the 90’s humour began to be connected with health. Norman Cousin’s “Anatomy of an Illness” told the story of how he had used humour to heal from an incurable disease. In “Healing with Humour,” Cathy Fenwick wrote about how she had used clowning with children as a way of recovering from cancer. I was discovering the effect of clowning on my own life and taught clowning classes to many people who just needed a lift. My students worked in all walks of life, often with serious responsibilities and they needed a time to let go of their work to relax and laugh with others. A psychiatric nurse took the course and when I started taking imaginary things out of my mime bag she said, “We give people meds for that.”
When I look back, I realize that we thought of clowns like curious toddlers, in the first years of human life where everything is new, playful and often joyous. Maria Simoēs who directs the women’s clown festival in Portugal, Bolina - Festival Internacional de Palhaças, practices “Social Clowning” where clowns bring good hearted humour into senior’s homes, hospitals and the market place. This kind of clowning creates connections, alleviates loneliness and helps us to lighten up and not take ourselves too seriously.
I taught “Humour in the Workplace” sessions at the University and at the YMCA program for reintegrating people into work. Here are segments of the handout that I created. It’s funny how cultural thinking changes over time. These concepts seem dated now but still relevant.
Humour: Communication, Community Building, and Fun
Laughter can have some very positive effects on your body:
Brain - Laughing leads to the release of endorphins (a natural morphine-like chemical) that creates a sense of happiness.
Heart - Laughter causes your heart to temporarily beat faster and this delivers more oxygen throughout your body.
Blood Pressure - Your blood pressure increases during laughter and decreases after, creating a feeling of relaxation and well-being.
Muscles - Muscles tense and contract during laughter and relaxes after, creating a feeling of relaxation and well-being.
Immune System - Laughing helps your immune system by increasing the levels of disease-fighting proteins.
Adrenal Gland - During laughter, hormones associated with stress decrease.
The skills of exaggeration, reversal, association, spontaneity, juxtaposition and paradox are all involved in creativity and humour. (From Norman Cousins)
A sense of humour works on a personal, community and cultural level. Humour can be enlightening and uplifting when it calls us to look at the wonder, absurdity and joy in life. Humour can be destructive when the joke is at someone else’s expense. Laughing at yourself releases stress, promotes self-acceptance, personal growth and growth in relationships.
Humour happens when two worlds collide. Something unexpected has to happen that jolts you up and out of the normal pattern and then you start laughing. Humour is the synapse between the regular and the surprising. Every time we laugh, we are making a leap between two worlds.
Margie Brown, author of Theology of Clowning
Laughter releases stress, physically, emotionally and mentally. Change is constant and change can cause stress. Humour allows us to remain flexible to roll with whatever life tosses our way.
Stress?
Karoshi...means, literally death from overwork...Medical authority Tetsunojo Uehata said, Karoshi is a “condition in which psychologically unsound work processes are allowed to continue in a way that disrupts the worker’s normal work and life rhythms, leading to a buildup of fatigue in the body and a chronic condition of overwork accompanied by a worsening of pre-existent high blood pressure and a hardening of the arteries and finally resulting in a fatal breakdown.”
Later Metcalf sites:
In 1987, the press blamed karoshi when the active presidents of ten major Japanese companies died of stress-related illness in one eight month period.
and later:
The Wall Street Journal reported in May 1991 that United States stress-related disability cases have doubled in the past decade and now cost the employer an average of $73,270 each.
C. W. Metcalf from Lighten Up
Why Humour? By Raymond A. Moody, Jr.
Humour allows us to keep things in perspective. It opens up alternatives, new possibilities and helps us shift our point of view. It helps us find a way to address imbalance without blaming or alienating. (i.e.. political cartoons, satirical shows, humourous confrontation, sharing laughter)
Humour makes pain more bearable. It provides a balance to the darker side of life and eases panic at times of crisis to allow for clear thinking. Laughter actually releases morphine-like endorphins that ease pain.
Humour promotes health. Over the years, I have encountered a surprising number of instances in which, to all appearances, patients have laughed themselves back to health, or at least have used their sense of humour as a very positive and adaptive response to their illness.
Humour lays groundwork for communication. It creates an understanding of our humanness, of our fallibility and our vulnerability. It points to underlying assumptions or cultural connections and commonalties. Humour also affirms non-verbal communication as a significant form of expression (i.e. slapstick, gesture and mime)
Humour affirms the joy in life. Children are born with a natural sense of humour. If they are healthy and well cared for, they inspire us with their sense of wonder, sense of joy, sense of absurdity and the endless possibilities around them.
Three to five minutes of intense laughter can double the heart rate--the aerobic equivalent of three strenuous minutes on a rowing machine.
Dr. William Fry, Jr.
There’s no time to sing and dance, cause work and play don’t mix.
song of The Three Little Pigs
It pays to use humour in the workplace. Southwestern Airlines in the United States is one airline making a net profit. They attribute their success to their humour policy. Along with good service they provide customers with a good time. According to the Wall Street Journal their staff “have been known to recite the safety regulations in rap, bring out a guitar and sing and wear costumes on Halloween flights”.
In a recent survey of 737 CEO’s, over 98% of them indicated they would much rather hire somebody with a good sense of humor than somebody without one. By Joel Goodman.
(To be cont’d)
References and Suggested Reading
Cousins, Norman. Anatomy of an Illness as Perceived by the Patient: Reflections on Healing and Regeneration. New York: Norton, 1979.
___ The Healing Heart: Antidotes to Pain and Helplessness. New York: Norton, 1983.
___ Head First: The Biology of Hope. New York: Dutton, 1989.
Fenwick, Cathy. Healing With Humour, St. Peter\'s Press, 1995.
Frankl, Viktor. Man’s Search for Meaning: An Introduction to Logotherapy. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1959.
Metcalf, C.W. Lighten Up: Survival Skills for People Under Pressure. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1992
Paulson, Terry. Making Humour Work: Take Your Job Seriously and Yourself Lightly. Los Altos, CA: Crisp Publications, 1989.