Resolute Mindset and Laughter Have An Inherently Positive Correlation Featuring Cathy Nesbitt
Laughter might be a miracle cure for a lot of things that ail us. The best parts are that it’s free and contagious. When we laugh a deep belly laugh it makes us breathe in very deep bringing more much-needed oxygen. A lot of breath to shallow anyway. You actually burn calories as well kicking your brain into high gear. Also leads to an endorphin boost.
About Cathy
Cathy Nesbitt is a Worm Advocate & Founder of Cathy’s Crawly Composters (est 2002). This environmental business specializes in vermicomposting. Laughter wellness is her latest offering. Simple solutions for today’s challenges. Worm composting, sprout growing, and laughter yoga.
Cathy Nesbitt is a certified Laughter Yoga Leader, Teacher. Appointed Laughter Ambassador in 2017 by Dr. Madan Kataria (founder of Laughter Yoga est 1995)
Since 2015 Cathy has been leading Laughter sessions at assisted living facilities, summer camps and other venues. She shares her energy, passion, generosity and vast professional experience to help you take advantage of the natural health benefits of laughter yoga.
Cathy chose Laughter Yoga because of the profound benefits she has experienced when she first discovered this unique, fun and easy exercise modality. This is a simple exercise system that anyone can participate in that will increase one’s overall feeling of wellbeing while decreasing feelings of stress.
Wonder of Worms and Simplicity of Sprouts
We offer simple solutions for today’s challenges. Worm composting for amending the soil, sprouts for eating, laughter for overall health and wellness, and now Organo Gold, reishi mushroom-infused coffee and tea.
Vermicomposting is a great way to make the world’s best soil. Discover how worms convert organic matter into nature’s finest soil amendment known as castings. Worms are going to play an ever-increasing role in waste management, soil production and therefore food security.
Sprouts are considered nature’s superfood. Grow sprouts at home, school, work.
Laughter wellness is our latest offering. Discover the magic of laughing for no reason.
Full Transcript Below
Resolute Mindset and Laughter Have An Inherently Positive Correlation Featuring Cathy Nesbitt
Sun, 7/11 11:36AM • 59:19
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
laughter, laughter yoga, people, laugh, worms, sprouts, cathy, stress, thinking, cuckoo, important, called, life, terry, mung beans, enzymes, roy, tapping, composting, assisted living
SPEAKERS
Cathy, Terry, Roy Barker
Roy Barker 00:00
Hello and welcome to another episode of Feeding Fatty This is Roy necessary so we are talking about this podcast consist of chronicling our journey through wellness and you know in the beginning we started out with more of what we ate our diet not a diet but our diet and we've kind of moved you know into exercise and now we've really focused a lot on mindset because making any sustainable changes you know it just has to begin in our mind before we can really achieve it over long periods of time and that's one thing you know we talked about we struggle with we can do most anything for a month two months, three months but you know, we need to do things and put it together for many many years to come. So anyway, from what we do is we have guests on periodically experts in the field and then we also do you know some of our updates as well when those are needed but today is no different. We have an awesome guests, Kathy and I will let Terry introduce her.
Terry 01:10
Hi Cathy Cathy Nesbitt is a health and wellness advocate. She's the founder of Cathy's Crawley composters, Cathy sprouts and Cathy's laughter club. She is a certified laughter yoga teacher appointed laughter ambassador. And since 19 or since, excuse me since 2015. Cathy has been leading laughter sessions at assisted living facilities, summer camps and other venues. She shares her energy passion, generosity and vast professional experience to help you take advantage of the natural health benefits of yeah laughter yoga. She's she is a worm advocate and founder of the Cathy Crawley composters, which I mentioned recently or earlier. This environmental business specializes in Vermont composting, I've been practicing that word left. Laughter wellness is the latest offering. Cathy, welcome to the show. I just butchered all of it. I was trying to read from everywhere because you have so many things going on. But I want to get the verb vermicomposting. How are you doing today?
Cathy 02:22
Thank you. Thank you. I'm so excited to be on your podcast.
Terry 02:25
Thank you. Oh, my gosh. I also wanted to mention you're a multi award winning environmental innovator.
Cathy 02:31
I love that bio that I wrote.
Terry 02:37
Well, you did and then I kind of picked it out here. So how did you get started with? Well, start wherever you want to you want to start with the words.
Cathy 02:48
Let's just start Let me tell you what my working title is. Okay. Please. My working title is Cathy Crawley laughing being queen. So waiting for all of that you just offered right worms for amending the soil sprouts for eating and laughter for overall health and wellness. So I started my worm enterprise back in 2002. And just quickly to get into how that happened. I'm located in Canada, just north of Toronto, largest city in the country. Our landfill closed in 2002. you sitting down? I see you are starting. We started shipping garbage to Michigan from Canada. Oh, sorry. I know not my fault. Not me, the government. My government and your government by the way. Yeah, yeah. No, no, they didn't do right. They made in a business arrangement. So we So shame on us as Canadians for shipping our garbage out of the country, almost 200 garbage trucks every day from the Toronto to Michigan. like Wow, thank you. Well, it's shopping 1000 trucks a week like holy. What are we thinking as people? So shame on us for shipping our garbage out of the country but double shame on the Americans for accepting our garbage for cash? Like what? Who would who would? Oh, let's take the Canadian garbage because they got to get rid of it. There's this right. We're only the second largest country in the world.
Terry 04:17
Running anywhere. Apparently,
Roy Barker 04:19
I was just gonna say it's not like we don't have enough of our own garbage that we can't deal with.
Cathy 04:24
Anyway, I'm not for that like that. That's the shameful part. That's the part that's the base. That's what gave me my driver that time like that is what is happening. And as of guard, avid gardener and composter, I knew that I had a solution and indoor solution in Canada we have winter people don't want to compost outside in the winter. So this is indoor composting worms in the house. So in hot places like Texas. Right. Outdoor composting can be a challenge because it gets too hot. It dries out right So indoors the perfect solution, if you live in cottage country and you have bears or cougars or some kind of wildlife, you don't want to compost outside sending your Okay kids go put the stuff in the compost, or you might be taking your own life inheritance. So this is a solution for everywhere. So back to Toronto. So 6 million people in the Greater Toronto Area, half living in condos, townhouses without space for outdoor composting. So they don't even have a solution. And yeah, so In came the worms, and I started my worm enterprise, like a whole series of things lined up for me to start my business in 2002. And by the way, that's the same year I started sprouting. So not everybody knew about worm composting, they still don't 19 years in. I'm doing my best. Yeah, so in 2002, my very first exhibit I was exhibiting, you know, at some kind of trade show, there was a gentleman selling this broder that I sent you, and it was flying off the shelf, it looks like a spaceship, right. And so I was like, Huh, why is everyone buying that thing? And they're not buying my worms. Like, you know, I really believe that I had a solution. And everybody needed what I had, but they didn't want what I had. They needed it, but they didn't want it. thing. It just is right. So there I was. I'm like, Oh, I have a solution. I got this. Okay, I've got this garbage crisis solved. Yeah, come on. And then it's like, oh, well, you know, all the naysayers. Like, oh, what if the worms get out? Is there smell that or do worms? And that was like, cool. Anyway, oh, so back to Tony. So back to the sprout growers. So when I saw I said to him, Hey, how come everyone's buying that? What is that thing? I didn't know anything about sprouts are sprouting. And he told me all the magic about sprouts. And I'll get into that in a moment. But so I was like, Oh, 2002 was a huge year in my life. And I hope that people that are listening, realize when you hear something that pings in your heart, you're like, Oh, what's that? That's, there's a message for you. There's something there for you. So I was like, Oh, this guy 72 at the time, he's 92. Now 92 still living on his own still in the business still, like super healthy. Okay, that's enough about him. It's all about me. 72 ballroom dancers. So like, super healthy, like still working 72 still working those shows. It's hard work. When out there being in standing in front of the public, right? Like, people always want to deal and you know, it's it's not easy being an entrepreneur. And I was like, wow, okay, so I was like, Okay, I'm gonna do that. So he said, if you're gonna do this, start your day with with two tablespoons of the sprouted mung beans. Here they are. Have a container here. Yummy. Day with two tablespoons every day for the enzymes. I know. We're all over the place. I hope this Okay.
Terry 08:03
Here we go.
Cathy 08:03
Yeah. Yeah, so So I started my own business and started eating sprouts, which is being my health plan. I didn't know but I didn't. I didn't even know that I would have a business. You know, when I worked. I would change jobs every year because I got bored. I didn't know I was an entrepreneur. I didn't have any entrepreneurs in my family. You know, I just was like, I was a secretary. And I was a great secretary, because I was chatty. And I connected everybody. And I thought that was my lot in life. So I was good at it. But I got bored. So I needed to always like, you know, I was always just looking for the next job to to conquer.
Terry 08:48
I can relate to that. Oh my gosh, I've done that too. I have I have had every kind of job you can imagine. And oh, it's crazy. It's experience it is it is experience and nothing's a failure. Everything's a lesson right?
Cathy 09:04
Yeah, whatever jobs that people have where it's like oh, that's it. I don't even want to say a job because all jobs are meaningful and serve a purpose at the time. And it really gives you a good training ground even if you're like oh my boss is so mean good if you're ever a boss, don't be mean.
Terry 09:20
Right? Right. Oh my gosh. Kathy Crawley Laffy been queen. I love that. Okay, let's talk about I know I want to go back to that too. But we're here we are bouncing I want to talk about the laughter the lacquer, how important is laughter in life.
Cathy 09:39
Oh, during this cuckoo time more important than ever really more important than ever and the laughter how I came to the last so I talked about how I got to worms. That's how the laughter came about. So here I am merrily going about wanting to put worms in every living space. I can do it. I got it. You know, it's important. People need what I have. So of course they'll eventually find that out. They'll figure it out. They're still not but okay.
Terry 10:06
We have to help them assess that, you know?
Cathy 10:08
Yeah. So about 10 years in, I think was about 2012. Like one more person said no worms in the house. So I was like, Oh my gosh, how am I ever gonna put worms everywhere? If people are still saying, oh, and I was just thinking, maybe I should just get a job like, it would be easier, right? Like, why am I trying to save the world? Why? Why am I doing this? Why am I caring? Like, I'm the one that put this big mission on my shoulders. I could take it off to like, okay, but worms, nope, no longer. But that, but but I know that that it's really important. So anyway, I was at a business meeting and the speaker, the first speaker introduced laughter yoga, and I don't even do yoga. I don't do yoga, like it's but I was like, laughter yoga. I love laughing, huh. So I was intrigued. And then I was at a business networking event that same week, and there was hundreds of people there. The very first woman I met was a laughter yoga teacher. Oh,
Terry 11:05
wow. Okay, there you go. There's your sign.
Cathy 11:09
There's your sign, right. So I'm very, I listened to those things. You know, I'm 58. Now. So after decades of not listening, you listen.
Terry 11:19
I'm getting there. I'm almost.
Cathy 11:22
So So I was like, wow, I said to her, oh, laughter yoga is mainstream, because I heard about it twice in one week. So you know, somehow these messages come to me sooner than other people or I hear them before other people. I don't know what what it is. But the worms, you know, sprouts, laughter all these things are here. I didn't invent any of them. I'm just marketing them better than anybody else. I'm bringing it. I'm the messenger. Yeah. So I was like, Oh, I love this. And then that woman happened to have. Toronto is a huge city. she happened to have a laughter yoga club laughter club, in the same neighborhood where my mother in law lived. And I love my mother in law. She just she recently just passed. No, it's fine. Because I came to her laughter yoga because of her. So now when I do laughter, yoga, she's there with me. So it's, don't be sad for me. So I was like, Well, hey, Mary, you want to go to this thing? And she trusted me like, even though I do these cuckoo things. She always trusted me. Right? She was like, I don't know where I'm going to go. Whenever Kathy asked me to do something, I go, because it's always going to be different. So I said, Hey, do you want to go to laughter yoga, she's like, what's that? And I said, I don't know. Let's go check it out. So we went for dinner, and she said, we better not have garlic. I said, that's their problem. So we went had dinner went to laughter yoga was weird. Like, it is an awkward. You came to my club Terry, like it's it's kind of an awkward thing, like laughing It's not jokes, or comedy or anything. It's like, Huh, but once you do it, and you actually allow yourself permission, and I will talk about it in a moment. So we went we had fun and then you know, you sleep. Well, you did. So we would go every every month that was once once a month only. Not enough but once a month. And then the club kept getting smaller and smaller. And in Toronto, it was in at one of the busiest corners like condo Ville everywhere. So 10s of 1000s of people at that corner. They just didn't know, they didn't know there was this laughing club they didn't know. So she had to close her club because she rented space and she wasn't making money, right? I mean, she was she was not a charity. So she closed her club I got sad. I was like, Okay, I need to do this. I got trained as a leader. I loved it so much. I got trained as a teacher. And now during again during this cuckoo time. I'm being called to do it so I'm doing laughter yoga, I'm getting paid gigs. My my laughter yoga has almost my income has almost replaced my worm income. Wow. Wow. Because we need it we have this mental health tsunami It was here before it's just being visible now. Now the people that are really struggling are struggling even more now because they're just on their own. They can't go any they can't see anyone or
Roy Barker 14:11
and I think as we come out of this, it's it seems to be more amplified here that there's just a lot more, you know, bad acting of things. And anyway, I think, you know, I think we had some help and support through this. And then as we come out of it, it's just gonna really amplify it even more. So I think it's, it's timely. And the other part I didn't know when you're doing the introduction, I kind of went oh, wow, is delivering that into assisted living. I mean, what a great What a great thing that you know, they need that laughter because, you know, I'll just tell our personal story right quick that Terry signed up for one of your I don't know if you call them sessions or times class, so she signed up for class and, you know, I was over on the other side of the room working but I I heard her start kind of laughing and being a little hysterical. And I saw I kind of, you know, started paying more attention and just hearing the laughter. And it just made me start laughing, even though I wasn't participating. But I think the biggest thing that has come out of this is as we're out in life, and you know, something happens is like, I you know, I'm probably a little more wound tight tighter than Terry. So I'm the first one to be like, true, you know, and he can, she can see my blood pressure. Yeah, exact steam
Terry 15:33
coming out of his, his collar, all that,
Roy Barker 15:35
yeah. So she can recognize it, and then she will just bust out into laughter. And then it makes me start laughing. And then you forget about whatever it was. And so it's actually it's an awesome therapy, to use with other people, you know, around you in your life to kind of break that.
Cathy 15:56
Oh, it's thank you for sharing. It's a magic. It's a magic potion that, you know, laughter actually was squished out of us by the ancient Greeks. Because when people are laughing, and they're connecting, and they're just like, having so much fun, you can control them. Interesting, right? So don't laugh at church. Don't laugh in school. What do you kids laughing out? Like, what are you doing? They're just laughing. They're just like, laughing that's it. Let me join them.
Terry 16:22
And it was something that I mean, I didn't even know that I needed it. Kathy. I really didn't. And just and I was a little apprehensive. I mean, I am not I don't do yoga. I mean, I do a little but not, not that, you know, not like a whole class or anything like that. And I'm like, okay, laughter I love Laughter But the yoga part mom, maybe I should. And then when I when I came on, I would just like, okay, these guys are kind of kooky. Everybody's laughing there's nothing there. They're not laughing for a reason, in particular, except for it's contagious. It's just contagious. And it really did bring me a lot of energy. So every morning after I probably for the whole week, after I just, you know, in the morning, I would just go you know, and Roy, and I would just start going and did not stop for a few minutes, you know, and just periodically throughout the day, and I mean, that laughter just really does bring you a lot of energy. And you have there's an acronym DOS, what does that stand for? If that laughter brings?
Cathy 17:29
Yes, laughter is the best medicine. We've all heard it and I say have you had your daily dose dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin, and endorphins, the left drugs, the left drugs, versus when we're stressed, we're not breathing properly and decreasing cortisol? You know, we need a little bit of cortisol to get us off our butts. But we're in a really stressful time. And North America even is even more tightly wound to use your word ROI than other places like we're, you know, we only get two weeks holiday.
Terry 18:06
Yeah, if even that, I mean, you have to work up to that. Right.
Roy Barker 18:10
Well, there's so many people that just give it back. I mean, we're in I think it's, we're in a position people feel like they can't take off because they're gonna lose traction, or, you know, their boss is gonna say, well, you're not very dedicated you're taking off for and I think you'd be surprised how many people give back their days every year even that they have not because it's like, I don't have anywhere to go or you know, because even staying at home a staycation still fun still. But I think it's that pressure that we feel that we just can't do. A lot of people can't do it
Terry 18:43
that we're replaceable. Everybody,
Cathy 18:46
how what what a way to live our life. That's like that's living from fear from scarcity, right? With abundance. We really do need to rejuvenate, right? Yeah. Like we're important not like put your oxygen mask on first, when you're flying the flight attendant, say it every time.
Terry 19:04
Flight Attendant that was one.
Roy Barker 19:07
Know, even as adults, and being a parent having kids, there's nothing more satisfying and peaceful than sitting out in the backyard and listening to your kids run and play and laugh and, you know, just that are going to a school and hearing the laughter So, you know, why do we somehow we feel like we have to grow out of that as adults? I don't know. I don't think it's that. It's, we think it's not acceptable. But I guess because we are so wrapped up in so many other things. It's just one we forget to do.
Cathy 19:42
It's so serious. We really are a serious society. It's just you know, again, the competition. We got to do better. We got to do more, make more, be more. Yeah, have more, right instead of just like ha, I mean, even during this cuckoo time. How often does Somebody asked me if you've taken your vitamins Did you get outside for a walk? You know, did you connect with somebody today? Like, I'm just concerned that nobody's asking about our health. They're just not asking about our sickness.
Roy Barker 20:14
Yeah, well, more is that sometimes the, the other thing is less is more. You know, and we've, in the last few years, you know, we've made a conscious decision to downsize from the things that we had, you know, especially when we had kids around, it was a different life. But now, it's like, we don't need all that stuff and things and, you know, barns full of things that we've accumulated, never use. And it's very liberating when we can break that cycle and just try to focus more on us instead of things.
Cathy 20:51
Absolutely. You know, when we have a lot of stuff, then we need, like barriers to keep our stuff safe. Right? Somebody might take our stuff, or you know what I mean? Like then. So then we're thinking about all of that stuff that we have. It's, it's so liberating. To to yes to doff your stuff.
Roy Barker 21:13
Yeah, that's the other thing is that whole, the importance part of you know, I never locked my door until Terry came around, and she kind of was a little freaked out about it. Like, there's really nothing in here that, you know, I would rather than take what they want, and I don't have to replace the door. No, because then it's like, you know, they break the door down. And then thanks, Devon, then. But anyway, I just think it frees us up to really concentrate on on us and our relationships. And you know, and that and that, I think that counts our relationship with ourself. We are usually the hardest on ourselves. Now, I'll cut Terry, a lot of slack. You know, don't worry about this, don't worry about that. But for me, I'm like, Oh, my gosh, you know, and it's internalized. But it's like Lana, got a lot done yesterday. But there's like five more things that I should have done. And in not celebrating, taking the time and physically celebrating what we did accomplish.
Cathy 22:14
We're not we're not taught to celebrate our small wins, we're really not where we are taught write the list. And then you've got this list, but then you've got the list that you're always looking at, like you might have done those two things. But now there's two still 12 more things to do. Like, oh, I'm still a failure. You know, just like on social media, you might post something and then, like, 50 people are like, whoo, that hey, right on, that's so great or good. Congratulations. And then one person's like, you suck. And you're like, Oh, I suck. You know, like, somehow we that one person is able to burst our balloon. I don't know why
Terry 22:51
kill the joy.
Roy Barker 22:52
Yeah, well, and the other thing too, is that sometimes even when we achieve success, and we're on top, we can enjoy it. Because it's like, you're looking around, like, Who's gonna knock me off of this? Or how do I stay here? I can't slip back. And so it's just a, it's a perpetuating cycle of stress, to be honest. Yeah.
Cathy 23:13
This is put on by ourselves, though. This is all self imposed. Right? Once we understand that it's self imposed. This this cuckoo time has allowed me Of course, like everybody a lot of time to contemplate. Contemplate tomorrow. You know, but it really is about not comparing to anybody else. It doesn't even matter what everybody has, we don't even know their story. Like it's like, oh, look at how successful they are. Who gives a crap? Are they happy?
Terry 23:45
Yeah. Yeah.
Roy Barker 23:46
Well, but do we really know because that's, you know, the, the joy of social media is we get to share a lot of stuff. But the other part of social medias, we don't know what's behind the scenes, like this new yacht, and I'm standing in front of in my Instagram picture. It's not even mine. I mean, I'm just I'm walking down the harbor and got in front of me, like, hey, look at my new yacht. I just bought her, you know, go to the car dealership and stand by the new car. You know, we don't know. And like you said the other bigger part is even if people have that stuff, they really happy. Yeah, who cares? Right. And we have to stay in our own lane, run our own race. If you know, we can try to get better every day and achieve those things. But it shouldn't be. You know, it's kind of like we focus on us and what are we going to do to be happy? What can we do for ourselves? Not selfishly, but healthily, I guess health wise, you know. But you know, like breathing, water, eating right, sleeping, right. You know, try to do all of those things and really focus on that and it to me, it brings us so much happiness. You know, like yesterday, we had a we had a taping in the afternoon. canceled and so, you know, I was like, go out in the backyard and trim some trees. I got this I got you know, this to my alarm. But I just had a thought that you know what, why don't we just get the dogs and go for a walk and we went and walked over to this really beautiful place and just made an act, you know, a couple hours of it and it was the very best thing taking time for us.
Terry 25:22
It was nice. Yeah, free time. All right. Love it. Yeah, you never get that. Yeah. Ever
Roy Barker 25:29
quote. I'm more a little more curious about the some of your results, not only from, you know, regular, what I'd say middle aged people or not, you know, younger people versus the what have some are your results been taken this into assisted living?
Cathy 25:50
Thank you. Thank you for bringing it back to assisted living. Yes, I it's before my worm business, I was a social worker working with folks in assisted living. And I loved it. I had challenged with management, but you know, everyone's the expert. When you're on the front line, you got to just do stuff. But anyway, okay. But I love that leave when I left, that I was like, felt like a piece of my heart was being left there. So now I'm coming back home. And I am very intuitively guided. I was walking in the forest and got a message that I was because before COVID I was working with assisted living. And let me tell you this fabulous story. And then I'll get back to the forced walk. I hope so. If I remember down here. So there was a few nonverbal folks. And on laughter day, you know, some of the folks were by the window like, like little puppy dogs waiting. You know, they're so excited. Here she comes. Oh, it's so exciting. But they're talking. And then we get into laughing one of the activities is we blow up like a balloon like so you have your hands like this, and you breathe and breathe in breathe. And then you have this big full balloon. And what one of the nonverbal boys young men said when we got here, he was like, bang, bang, he doesn't talk.
Terry 27:17
My gosh,
Cathy 27:18
wow, we were just like, right, his brain was fully oxygenated. He could verbalize it was just like, wow. So anyway, that was very positive experience. Then Then COVID hit and I was like, is this gonna be able to? Can I do laughter online? I don't know. Who knows, right. And it's been so successful. I'm doing work with Alzheimers. I grew up that our early, like early onset 40s 50s 60s. And now we do it online. And we can reach people that couldn't come before they didn't have access or across Canada, people can come or even into the states, if you want to go you know, it's so beautiful. So it does make access for more people. And then so back to the forest. So I'm walking in the forest. And I was given this whole vision. And I still don't know, it's still forming. Like, I don't know how to do it, but it was given to me. Here it is your what's Here's what's coming. Okay. So I was doing laughter yoga was trade doing a training, because I'm a teacher, teaching folks with special needs. And I saw if I don't want to offend anybody with the proper term, and specifically folks with down syndrome, and I was I was actually training a friend's daughter and I haven't met her daughter. I know of her, but I didn't I don't know the daughter. So I was like, That's funny. Weird. I mean, I don't I didn't know what to make of it. But I was training that group of folks with the intent for them to train or to lead laughter sessions for their demographic. Okay. And I was like, because in Canada, I think it's at either 18 or 21. They are kicked out of school, like thanks for stopping by, then they get put on. It's like a disability pension. And it's very small amount of money. It's you can't live on that amount of money, by the way. And if they work, the money is taken off their pension. So there's no incentive to work, but they don't want to work for the money. It's to be part of society. Anyway, so that's my big goal. Anyway, so I phoned up this woman and I said, I had this weird dream, or vision or whatever you might call it in the forest. I don't know what you're gonna think of this, but I feel like I need to share it. So she connected me her daughter attends a group called San it's full access network. And it's a daily club for folks that are out of the school system, so young adults, and she hooked me up with this man who is so dedicated to these people. He just loves them so much and wants them to survive and thrive in life. So when I told him my mission, he was like, wow, okay, let's do something. I don't know if it's gonna work. So I said, let's do something for free. Let's see. Let's see if they're gonna like it. And they loved it so much. We're now in our third month, every Friday, we get together, you know, now we're just introducing it like we're just teaching them laughter yoga right now, like, not talking about training anybody right now, let's just see if anybody like it is getting benefits. The parents are loving it, that their you know, their kids are easier to get along with. They're not having flare ups. I'm giving them tips on when you do get stressed when you're just like, ah, why don't they get me that I'm teaching them to just laugh and that and doing techniques like when we get stressed the blood, lymph, oxygen leaves our brain. So these are the conductors, right? We are electricity, putting your hand on your neuron, sometimes when we're stressed, right? Where we're like, ah, how am I going to do all this stuff? overwhelmed, right? Oh, there's so many things are neurovascular is are here. So when we put our hands sometimes when people are thinking they do this, that those are the neural, right. So you just automatically so I teach them you do this, you can close the loop, putting on your on your back of your head, and then you take deep breaths. And that calms you right down. I tell people to do that before they respond on social media to interesting like, you're like, Ah, it's like, Okay, calm down, because now you're in fight, flight or freeze. Like you've gone into reptile mode. Get out of there, because that's not helpful. As soon as you press send, now you've opened up the floodgates for negativity. Right? If you're responding to something, right,
Roy Barker 31:41
I just say if you think about it, really laughter is a universal language. It's something everybody knows. And even like you said, if you're non verbal, they can still probably laugh. And in that the other thing I was thinking about the for, you know, like the dementia is, is probably good for the caregivers, to know as well. Because when they you know it's in Terry can speak to it more than I can. But I know that it's a very tedious, it can be very stressful at times. And so instead of letting that stress, overwhelm you, is just laugh with.
Terry 32:18
Yeah, just let it out. Because it does get, you know, you just don't think about taking care of you, especially if you're a caregiver, and all of us are in some form or another. But if you're caregiving for a dementia patient, patient on Alzheimer's patient for special needs child things, you know, you just don't take care of yourself. And it's so important that you do because who's going to take care of that person? If you're not around to do it, and you won't be you don't take care of yourself?
Cathy 32:46
Absolutely. Before COVID I was actually going into long term care now, with you know, the, I don't not sure what's happening in the States, but in Canada, they're still not really allowing outdoor activities really, or like outdoor people coming in. But I was going in and they would say, you know, how many people would you like, and they kind of wheel everybody in or people would come in. So it was seated on like my classes that are and so one woman was wheeled in. And she was sleeping like she was kind of like hunched over and she was kind of sleeping, it seemed like she was sleeping her worker stayed with her the whole time. And at one point, so we're, you know, playing along doing our thing. And at one point, the worker said, look at it, she's smiling. So she wasn't playing, she didn't you know, wake up at all. She didn't open her eyes, but at one point she was smiling. So it's like, maybe she was somehow receiving that beautiful laughter energy. It's high vibration, right? When you're stressed when we're afraid when we're in a pandemic. We're just like, worried about we're afraid. And if we watch the news, we get more afraid. Like so you know, just limit your intake of news is one way but so you know, that's not helpful when we're when we're afraid I'm and by the way we cannot heal when we're in stress mode. Because we're in stress mode, we need to get like so when we're in sympathetic mode. We're not we're just again in fight flight or freeze, we need to get into parasympathetic, like, so we need to get into relaxation mode. And that's the only time that we're healing. So even if we're, if we're stressed, and we're still drinking the water eating the good stuff, we're moving exercising, we are still not doing our body any benefit, not not what we're doing benefit, but not, you know, our body's not going to receive the best benefit if we're in stress mode.
Roy Barker 34:38
Yeah, definitely. And it's funny, I need to keep harping on it. But I don't think if you never do this, you don't understand the power of when Terry starts laughing. I can't help but follow along. I mean, no matter what just happened is is so infectious that you just can't not join in. And then when you do it's like You know, I guess all this luck, the dose that you were saying everything that's released, it's like, all of a sudden what you were worried about, it's really not that important anymore. All of a sudden, you're talking about this crazy person laughing.
Terry 35:14
What's going on? That's around. Yeah. Oh my gosh. And Roy has an awesome I mean, he, he has a full body and laughter I'm telling you, he just goes, and I feel like I'm like, sometimes it's in my head. Sometimes it's in my diaphragm. Sometimes it's my belly. When I get a good belly laugh. That's, that's what's the most important right there. That's what really makes me feel high energy.
Cathy 35:42
You want to know why? Here's why. Here's why. The more I learned about laughter, I mean, now I've been laughing full on since 2013. And you know, now the more and more and so every day, I really make sure I get a good belly laugh. And we have, we have blood. So we our heart pumps our blood, we
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