Evening Scholar: Ho, Ho, Ho, Holistic Health

From Serious to Silly Dahlem admits that she had a very “unfunny” childhood in an alcoholic family, and that she responded by becoming a “triple A” overachiever, determined to study and work herself into a better life through helping others in social work. After burning out, she discovered “adult onset” humor. Through counseling and therapy, she learned that she couldn’t survive if she didn’t lighten up. Nor could anyone else. This 1970s time of personal enlightenment for Dahlem was also a time of enlightenment for the Western medical community as it was discovering that the mind could, with training, control what were previously considered “unconscious” systems – breathing, pain responses, blood flow. By studying the abilities of “yoginis”, or practitioners of Eastern forms of meditation, medical researchers began to note the complex multi-level mind-body relationships. They discovered that the cells of the body have receptors, almost like magnets, that pick up the chemical and electric signals of things going on at other places in the body. So our bodies have running streams of information flowing in all directions on the cellular level. That is why it is so difficult to isolate factors that affect responses. The new field of science exploring these interrelated communication paths and responses in terms of fighting disease is called psycho-neuro-immunology. Because so many factors are involved, Dahlem points out, it would be naïve to think that a person could meditate themselves to health while living near a toxic dump or laugh themselves quickly out of cancer when one has a long line of relatives who have suffered from it. Instead, laughter, meditation, nutrition, exercise, vitamins, and herbs are all tools to help one’s body put itself in balance, fight off attacks, and heal. Cultures have used humor to survive through genocide, slavery, oppression, and displacement. From Student to Teacher Dahlem came to realize that she had to teach what she most needed to learn and she set out to do this in her usual determined but now laughing manner. She uses plenty of props and toys in her work promoting the health benefits of laughter and on her desk to keep her laughing when things get stressful. After many years of study, research, and practice in the field, she is now Director and Associate Professor of the Master of Arts in Holistic Health Studies Program at the Minneapolis campus of the College of St. Catherine. The Masters of Arts in Holistic Health Studies Program is an innovative graduate program that allows students to explore the philosophy, science, and art of the holistic model of health and healing --http://www.stkate.edu/holistic or 651-690-7836. Dahlem also works in the community offering workshops, keynotes, and presentations promoting the health benefits of laughter.

FUNNY FACTS Laughing actually changes one’s body and brain chemistry in positive ways; it opens up a “pharmacy” of natural chemicals in the body and brain for protection and healing. Laughter involves many muscles and is good exercise! Physically, laughing stimulates both sides of the brain and increases its function, improves digestion, stimulates heart rate, reduces blood pressure, increases respiration and oxygen intake, reduces headaches and increases heart health, stimulates production of beta-endomorphins (natural pain-killers), increases the production of catecholamines (which enhance alertness, cognitive intake, creativity, and memory), increases the production of immunoglobulin A (to fight infection), multiplies lymphocyte blastogenesis (the body’s natural killers of attacker cells such as cancer cells), and enhances the body’s production rate of white blood cells. Emotionally and intellectually, laughing distracts from anxiety, relaxes muscles, creates bonds with other people, puts things into perspective, provides hope, conveys information, increases energy, reduces pain, improves concentration and memory, opens up the brain to new and creative ways of thinking, lightens the spirit, helps one cope, and is plain fun! Laughing provides an escape valve, helping the body and mind heal from trauma. The positive physical, emotional, and psycho-social effects of a good hearty laugh can last up to twelve hours. So get yourself a good belly laugh at least once a day (or twelve times)! Laughter is physically contagious. Pass it on.

TIPS Look for ways to laugh each day, whether you want to or not! Keep a collection of your favorite cartoons, and display them. Take time to tell jokes, listen to jokes, swap funny stories, especially about yourself and your own mistakes – have your own “Laugh Club” or use the evening dinner table for this. Watch funny movies. Listen to funny radio programs (as opposed to talk radio). Listen to kids talk. Read Art Linkletter, Erma Bombach, and other good humor writers. Do the unexpected (like juggle eggs); wear the unexpected (like mismatched socks or shoes); be absurd. Read funny greeting cards; send some; plaster your walls Collect funny toys or games; set aside regular times to play them, especially with family and friends (remember charades?) Beware of the disrespectful, harmful, inappropriate forms of humor that saturate the culture, based on racism, sexist, agism, blondism, homophobism, etc, that aims to put others down. Bring humor into your job, office, home, school. Be as willing to cry when appropriate, or to be sad, as to laugh and be happy. Share these feelings with others. Help others heal with loving laughter.

LAUGHTER IS CONTAGIOUS Dahlem practiced her arts on the audience, getting them to stand up and sit down while singing “My Bonny Lies Over the Ocean” and tell their own stories, which were extremely funny. A music teacher shared how she was trying in vain to get her students to sustain the correct notes at the end of the phrase “leave your troubles behind.” Finally, in frustration she called out: “You have to hold your behinds longer.” No one could hold a note after that, they were laughing too hard. A grandmother, who had been losing her hair from cancer treatment, shared how gratifying it was that her grandchildren accepted her hairless state as perfectly natural. Then one day she dressed for a formal occasion and put on a wig. When her grandchild saw her, she said brightly, “Wow, grandma, your hair grows so fast!” A gardener told how she accidentally flipped herself head first into a huge garbage can, so that her feet were hanging out of the top. As she called for help to her husband, he called back: “Where are you? You sound like you’re in a cave.” A member of Laugh Club, where people just get together to share a good story or two, shared how great the experience has been. Then she added that the Laugh Club though had broken up because two members had had a falling out. (Guess they couldn't laugh about it!) An alumna from the class of 1967 noted that one of her classmates cajoled them into a synchronized swimming performance for their 50th reunion. Between them, the swimmers have a total of three replaced hips,two artificial knees, a number of cases of shingles, a broken arm, a few sets of ears that can’t get wet, and a couple swimmers wearing lifesaver belts. Imagine their practice! Reunion attendees ought to have quite the show on Friday June 21st! Dahlem shared her own story of being dressed up at the podium of a conference, and while she talked, she played with her shoe. Wouldn’t you know, she lost her shoe and was desperately trying to find it by feeling around without looking down. Of course, it got further and further away, so she finally had to fess up to the crowd that she’d lost her shoe or limp away from the podium without it. These and many more stories got the crowding feeling the full therapeutic benefits of laughing.

Related Links:
Lifelong Learning: Evening Scholar