Laugh and live 🤣🤣😂😂

Laugh and live

Did you laugh today? No? That is the big mistake you are doing, because you do not know the importance of the laughter.

Ros Ben Moshe explains the importance of laughtrr in her book ' The Laughter Effect- How to build joy, resilience and positivity in your life'.

Let us see how:

Chapter 1 - History of Laughter:

Ros explains that the laughter has very old history. Religious textbooks like Bible emphasize the importance of joviality. In ancient Egypt, Pharaoh's and queens were entertained by jesters and bafoons.

Chapter 2 -   We laugh not to Survive  but to Thrive:

Children laugh more, grown-ups tend to laugh less. We, as grown-ups, have to find more and more occasions to laugh, finding humour in  different situations. In her view, laughter is contagious, it spreads.

Chapter 3 - Best Medicine:

Ros elucidates that the laughter acts as a stress buster. It produces a good effect upon our immune system. It also helps to relieve pain, to get fit, to reduce calories and so on.  The laughter recharges you when you are tired.

Chapter 4  - Laughter Yoga and Laughter Wellness:-

Laughter yoga is a new   concept, originated from the east . It involves stimulating laughter through a structured formula of deliberate laughter exercises.  It uses techniques like clapping and deep breathing. Laughter yoga produces health benefits for the body, mind and soul, which is especially useful when you face the periods of harsh conditions. Ros explains that the sunset years are difficult for everyone, but the laughter will help to alleviate their harshness.

Chapter 5 - Our sixth sense -Humour

According to Ros, humour is an innate sense, a complex behaviour which involves cognitive, emotional and motor responses.  Once a stimulus is perceived as humorous, it will start a conscious or unconscious reaction resulting in a physiological (laughter), cognitive (wit) or emotional (mirth) response, or a comb. This makes humour, the sixth sense.

Chapter 6 - Playing with the Laughter Effect:-

She explains the laughter effect can be boosted by   games such as wordplay, board games, online games, jokes, witty banter, physical play and so on. She suggests turning the workplace to work play. Ros makes it clear that the laughter effect can make the driest of the subjects interesting.

Chapter 7 -'Smile and the Whole World Smiles with you'

According to Ros, smiles are not just limited to our personal life; they also filter our working environment and prompt the nature of our interactions. A smiling person is not only more likeable, but also is found more courteous but also more compete.

Chapter 8 - Gleeful Gratitude

Ros clarifies  the importane of the gratitude. Expression of gratitude produces positive effect and helps to think about the silver lining of the dark cloud. Gratitude can be expressed by writing gratitude journal, gratitude letter, using language of gratitude and so on.

Chapter 9 - Self-Compassion with a Smile

Ros narrates that Self-compassion with a smile is associated with numerous wellbeing benefits, including higher levels of positivity, optimism, happiness and lower levels of anxiety and depression. It offers a powerful opportunity to replace inner judgment with inner joy, inner loathing with inner loving, and inner grief with inner gratitude.

Chapter 10 - Joyful Journaling and Positive Reframing.

Ros maintains that joyful journaling is different from writing a mere diary. It integrates the Laughter Effect into the written word, providing another means to strengthen neural pathways  towards humour, laughter and levity.

Chapter 11 - The Last Laugh

Ros concludes by stating that Leaning into the Laughter Effect may not conquer the world's ills, but will align it closer to love, and ripple out into the broader community. 

The Laughter Effect in Practice:-

After the book is over, Ros gives a few  tips on putting laughter effect in practice. This includes a number of activities and techniques . It involves creating opportunities to have fun and laugh together. It improvising funny bedtime stories and inviting own child to contribute.

Review

Now I briefly summarise my views:

The book can be divided into three parts:​

Laughter philosophy : Chapter 1-History of Laughter, Chapter 2-We laugh to survive 3. The best medicine Chapter 5. Our sixth sense-humor .​

Laughter Practice: Chapter 4-Laughter Yoga and Laughter Wellness Chapter 6-Playing with the Laughter Effect ​

Positive attitude: Chapter 7-Smile and the whole world smiles with you 8. Gleeful Gratitude 9.Self-Compassion with a Smile 10. Joyful Journaling and Positive Reframing 11. The Last Laugh ​

As a scholar on the subject, Ros starts the book by explaining the historical roots of the laughter and then explains its application in modern wellness practices. The book elaborates upon the different dimensions of the laughter, such as its therapeutic benefits, the concept of laughter yoga and the importance of humor as an inborn sense. It also discusses the positive impacts of laughter on our physical and mental health, and how we can incorporate it into our daily lives so that the lives will flourish with resilience and joy.​

The book explains mainly all the concepts of positiveness such as gratitude, self-compassion, journaling but with additional dimension of laughter and humor​

The book lays stress upon  the value of natural laughter and at the same time highlights that artificial laughter is equally beneficial. This conforms with the idea that laughter, whether spontaneous or induced, can have a positive influence on our well-being.​

Ros also discusses a few cases in the book to corroborate her points. One such example is on page 91 where she has narrated how the Jews imprisoned in the Nazi concentration camp, defeated the purpose of Nazis by their unabated  laugher, amidst the torture inflicted upon them by the Nazis. This proves the triumph of the laughter over tyranny.​

All the efforts made by Ros to elucidate upon the various features of the laughter  makes the book a must-read and worth keeping in your collection.​

My rating of the book   is ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐.

About the authoress

Ros Ben-Moshe, the authoress of the book  is a well being expert. She is an  an academic researcher and specializes in laughter positivity and resilience.

About the book

The Laughter Effect

(How to build joy, resilience and positivity in your life)

-by Ros Ben-Moshe

The book is authored by Ros Ben-Moshe and published by Nero.

The contents

The book starts with a brief introduction. Then Ros has arranged the book into eleven chapters explaining the whole philosophy and practice behind laughter effect. After the book is over there is an essay on practical aspects of the laughter effect. There are further appendices such as  glossary and the resources. These appendices show the hard put in by Ros to write the book. Then there are acknowledgements for those  who have helped to write the book. There is a brief biography of Ros. At the end there are brief notes. 

Reviewer's disclaimer

This is a brief review of the book 'The Laughter Effect-how to build joy, resilience and positivity in your life.

This is only a book review. The reviewer  does not claim any copyright over the book. The copyright rests with the author/publisher. The references to the book and discussion about its content is only for educational/entertainment purpose

Book Review:

-by Dr Hemant Junnarkar 

© Dr Hemant Junnarkar, All rights reserved.

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