Laughter therapy and women: 5 reasons why this technique empowers

Laughter therapy is a type of psychotherapeutic technique that allows to improve the physical, psychological and emotional state of people through laughter thanks to its multiple benefits.

Laughter is an innate biological response that we can already experience as babies, spontaneously or through imitation. As a person becomes an adult, their ability to laugh decreases considerably, due to multiple reasons such as daily demands, worries, stress, etc. We allow ourselves less and less to give space to play or fun "due to lack of time" or because "we are too old for it."

At the moment in which a person immerses himself in this functioning system, different pathological symptoms usually begin to manifest themselves, such as chronic pain, insomnia, anxiety, irritability, low self-esteem, among many other factors and it is here when laughter therapy can be considered as a tool to eradicate/reduce all this symptomatology.

Today many people go to therapy with the need to manage these situations, but in this article we are going to talk specifically about the female gender and

why laughter therapy can especially benefit women.

• Related article: "The physical and psychological benefits of laughter"

Laughter therapy applied to women

Women are more vulnerable to suffering from emotional disorders due to biological or social reasons; they experience numerous hormonal changes, they live experiences such as motherhood, conciliation family-work, menopause, and at a general level they tend to be more prone to worries, stress etc

In consultation we meet many women who feel that they "must" be effective in all possible aspects.: being a good mother and reconciling with work, growing professionally, having a good physical appearance, being liked by others and having many things under control concerns as a consequence of social pressures, insecurities, the education that has been received, the beliefs that a person has about himself or about life etc

A lot of women they demand more than they can assume, without allowing themselves to be wrong, constantly comparing themselves, clinging to the past or the future, without a space of time for themselves, and therefore they neglect something extremely important, enjoying the present, living life.

What does a laughter therapy workshop consist of?

The main objective is connect with our inner child through play, body expression dynamics and techniques that evoke laughter, to put aside our demanding part, the one that worries, the one that doesn't have fun and represses.

A laughter therapy session It is done at a group level and usually lasts between one and two hours.; During this time, relaxation and stretching techniques are applied at the same time, since we exercise many muscles throughout the body.

• You may be interested in: "Gender stereotypes: this is how they reproduce inequality"

Some benefits of laughter

Here you will find several examples of how laughing is good for our well-being.

• Helps reduce stress levels by decreasing the amount of cortisol in the blood.
• It allows to induce a positive state of mind thanks to the secretion of endorphins (known as happiness hormones).
• Improves blood and arterial circulation, enhancing the proper functioning of the heart.
• Improves the immune system, prevents diseases and helps recovery.
• It generates positive thoughts, due to the incompatibility of laughing and thinking negatively at the same time.
• Improves interpersonal relationships, fostering the generation of bonds and friendships.
• It helps to manage hormonal changes, alleviating the associated symptoms.
• Physical exercise is practiced, since laughing about 100 times is equivalent to 10 min of aerobic exercise.

Reasons why laughter therapy empowers women

These are some of the ways in which laughter therapy provides autonomy and empowerment to women.

On the one hand, allows you to get in touch with your most genuine part, her inner child, to allow herself to laugh, play, sing, dance... In this way tensions and worries are released.

In addition, it helps to heal self-esteem by overcoming fears such as the fear of meeting new people, of doing ridiculous, or to be yourself, thus allowing you to improve your self-concept (the image you have of yourself herself). In the process, it improves social and communication skills.

laughter too helps induce positive moods, thus making it possible to improve the course of depressive and anxious emotional disorders. By reducing the secondary effects of stress, the creative capacity improves, and this allows finding more effective solutions to daily conflicts.

On the other hand, through laughter therapy good humor and optimism are trained, and you learn to relativize and take another perspective on life.

Finally, through the therapeutic group affective bonds are generated, feeling that she is not alone and that many women find themselves in similar situations.

Conclusion

Choosing laughter therapy as a therapeutic tool is giving change an opportunity, to open the doors to optimism, to positivity, to fun. It is the path to happiness and longevity, without neglecting that happiness is not the absence of problems; We are not in control of changing what happens to us, but rather the perspective and attitude with which we face them.

Author: Alba Cabello Rodríguez, psychologist, head of the Coaching, NLP and emotional intelligence area at Psicotools.