The women's health evening on Feb. 6 was a laugh - literally. Over 130 women packed into the Sunshine Coast Golf and Country Club to learn how to pat their own heads and hee hee hee loudly in response to speaker Lucinda Flavelle, a certified "laughter leader." Flavelle also taught what she described as yoga-style exercises in which the audience learned how to belly laugh, how to defuse stressful situations with humour and how to oxygenate their way to better health. Flavelle, who has studied how to laugh at a U.S. based organization or "laughter club," is a great believer in its power. It ups your endorphins, she says, and provides a muscle workout that acts like a cheap facial. Laughter reduces pain, and she advised the audience to try it next time they were at the dentist. For the mothers in the audience, Flavelle said that absurdity has been known to stop a teen in mid tantrum.
"I just put on my red clown nose," Flavelle said, demonstrating, also applying her fluorescent pink deely-bobbers on her head. "It changes the atmosphere right away. The kids are so embarrassed they stop."
What does this laughter nonsense have to do with women's health? It seems that laughter defuses stress, and stress is among the top three concerns of Sunshine Coast women as identified by a survey compiled by the Women's Health Advisory Network. The other big concerns were cancer, particularly breast cancer, and exercise, especially lack of time and facilities for exercise. Susan Lehman, chair of the organizing Women's Health Network explained they had sent out about 1,600 questionnaires between June and November of last year, and received 196 responses. Stress was showing up as a concern, probably more so now than on a similar survey a few years ago.
"We know we all love to have fun but sometimes we get bogged down in our lives," Lehman said.
Motivating oneself to make healthy changes in one's life was the subject of speaker P. J. Naylor, a counsellor from Victoria. Naylor walked the audience through the various stages of behaviour change, applicable to anyone, whether the focus is on exercise or smoking.
"Relapse is a rule," she said, and advised people to first contemplate the behaviour they would like to change and think about how that change will affect the rest of their lives.
Regarding stress, she said, "We've built our society around cars. We don't have restful places any more or restful moments."
The Women's Health Network continues to meet to plan further events. Contact them by phoning Lehman at 604-885-7930.
