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A laugh a minute…..

30th May 2007 by Helena 6 Comments  

We had an unusual guest to stay as soon as Marguerite had packed her beret and headed off home. He is a laughter yoga coach called Jeffrey, whom I met on Laguna Beach (see blog in March). This is a man who spends most of his days laughing. The Laughter Yoga movement was started by an Indian doctor and is rapidly spreading across the world. There are over 3500 groups in India (some of whom meet up to eight times a day) and around 2000 throughout the rest of the world. Apparently there is even a group in Toulouse though quite what they have to laugh about beats me.

Just laugh

We were all sitting in the kitchen Monday evening when it suddenly started pouring with rain. The sort of rain that can soak you within three seconds. I had just hung out a mountain of washing so started weeping.

“Who turned on the rain?” asked Olivia.

“Ha ha ha ha ha ha hahahaa,” said Jeffrey. I scowled at him.

“Sorry,” he said, sounding like a US Marine. “We’re trained to laugh in times of adversity.”

So this is what we should do when faced with a traffic jam, a sulking child, an over-cooked piece of toast, an empty bank account: we should laugh. Jeffrey, or Present as the children called him, maintains it is possible. You just have to train yourself to laugh and the health benefits are enormous.

The children called him Present due to the fact that he didn’t bring them one (how spoilt are they?): “OK, then you’ll be the present,” they said.

Last night Present led a Laughter Yoga session for us all. My parents-in-law came as did my friend Mary and her children. After about a minute Bea stomped off saying: “This isn’t funny, it’s just silly.” Half an hour later Leo followed. “I’ve had enough of this laughing,” he said.

I liked it, although my cheeks ached after a while. I have to admit the session I had on Laguna Beach with the waves of the ocean crashing against the shore was probably more relaxing than the one in my garden wondering where my two smallest children were and if my mother-in-law would ever speak to me again but it was fun and, having been in a rotten mood all day, I felt happier. I guess it stands to reason that if you laugh your body thinks you’re happy and so you are. And as Present says; “Laughter and stress cannot coexist for any length of time.”

He has gone now but I will try to carry on his work and laugh at the challenges the day ahead bring. Looking at the dismal state of our bank account ha ha ha ha, look, no money! ha ha ha ha. The mess in the kitchen ha ha ha, what a mess! ha ha ha. Henman out of the French Open in the first round ha ha ha. Oh well as long as Safin is still in, I’m laughing.

Copyright: Helena Frith Powell 2007


Filed Under: Children, France, Life, blog --> Tagged With: laugh, minute

6 thoughts on A laugh a minute.....

  • Jonathan Miller says:
    30th May 2007 at 12:01 pm

    hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

  • lady macleod says:
    30th May 2007 at 4:53 pm

    I remember reading in some journal or other about the benefits of laughter. It has a fabulous effect on the immune system apparently. Keep hanging on and remember to breathe.

  • Peggy says:
    30th May 2007 at 5:56 pm

    And apparently, if you bob your head up and down in a gesture of affirmation, you feel more positive. No joke! So laugh and nod; you’ll feel better about the world.

  • aminah says:
    30th May 2007 at 8:04 pm

    it is fun…although not everyone agreed with me when our lecturer turned a bit mad and started clapping his hands and saying “Ha Ha ho ho Ha Ha Ho ho ho ho” and getting us all laughing!!!

  • debio says:
    31st May 2007 at 2:18 pm

    My husband makes me laugh all the time – at myself, at the world, at everything. That’s one of the reasons why I love him so much.
    Laughter is that good for you.

  • Helena Frith Powell says:
    15th June 2007 at 9:29 am

    […] “Ha ha ho ho ho,” said my mother-in-law, as she’d been taught at our laughter yoga class (see below post). “Ha ha ho ho ho.” […]

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Helena Frith Powell was born in Sweden to a Swedish mother and Italian father, but grew up mainly in England. She is the author of eleven books, translated into several languages including Chinese and Russian. She wrote the French Mistress column The Sunday Times about life in France for several years. She is a regular contributor to the Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday, The Times, Daily Telegraph, Tatler Magazine and Harper’s Bazaar.

Helena has been the editor of four magazines, including M Magazine, a supplement for the Abu Dhabi-based National Newspaper and FIVE, a high-end fashion glossy, also published in Abu Dhabi. Helena was also editor-in-chief of 360 Life, a quarterly glossy magazine published with the Sports 360 Newspaper in Dubai, part of the Chalhoub Group.

Helena contributes regularly to UK-based newspapers and magazines and holds a Masters in Creative Writing from the University of Cambridge. She is working on a thriller set in Sweden as well as a novel about the relationship between Virginia Woolf and Katherine Mansfield called Sense of an Echo.

In 2022 her short story The Japanese Gardener came second in the Fish Publishing Short Story Prize. One of her stories was also shortlisted for the Bridport Short Story Prize. When she’s not writing, she works as a headhunter for the media and entertainment industry for the Sucherman Group. 

Helena, who was educated at Durham University, lives in the Languedoc region of France with her husband Rupert and their three children.

Bibliography

More France Please, we’re British; Gibson Square 2004

Two Lipsticks and a Lover 2005; Gibson Square (hardback)

All You Need to be Impossibly French; (US version of above) Penguin 2006

Two Lipsticks and a Lover; Arrow Books (paperback) 2007

Ciao Bella Gibson Square; (hardback) 2006

Ciao Bella Gibson Square; (paperback) 2007

So Chic! (French version of Two Lipsticks) Leduc Editions 2008 (also translated into Chinese, Russian and Thai)

More, More France; Gibson Square 2009

To Hell in High Heels; Arrow Books 2009 (also translated into Polish)

The Viva Mayr Diet; Harper Collins 2009

Love in a Warm Climate; Gibson Square 2011

The Ex-Factor; Gibson Square 2013

Smart Women Don’t Get Wrinkles; Gibson Square 2016

The Arnolfini Marriage; Amazon Kindle December 2016

Smart Women Don’t Get Wrinkles (paperback); Gibson Square spring 2018

The Longest Night; Gibson Square spring 2019

 

 

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