Laughter and Life – a morning with Patch Adams

Last week I had an assignment due on laughter as a tool in our wellness toolbox. I spent a blissful hour reading a chapter in our textbook by Dr Hunter Adams, the real doctor behind the Robin Williams character in the famous Patch Adams movie.

Here are some of his thoughts which struck me:

1)    “To be healthy is to have a body toned to its maximum performance potential, a clear mind exploding with wonder and curiosity and a spirit happy and at peace with the world” – Doesn't this delicious description make you want it?

2)    “Life is a cascade of choices, and we are an expression of both the short term and the long term choices we make.” – What a wonderful phase, a cascade of choices. In these times, we have an overload of choices, of options, and that actually makes it more difficult in many ways because we constantly question the ones we make and wonder “what if we’d made a different one”. Whereas if we don't have a huge selection of choices, we tend to accept our choice and get on with making the most of it, focusing more on the outcome and therefore more likely to enjoy the process and feel more satisfied with the journey.

3)    “If love is the foundation for happiness, then fun, play and laughter are the vehicles for its expression.” – So true and created such a wonderful image in my mind of little fun coloured cars zipping around a map of love with a soundtrack of giggles.

4)    . . .”so few adults I have spoken with speak of life as a wondrous zestful journey, and most illnesses seen by a family doctor have a huge lifestyle component, frustrating the physician because they could have been prevented with self-care.” – We live in a time where this is unfortunately even more true but we’re fortunate that the wellness movement gives us so many wonderful tools with which to tinker with our wellness and take better care of ourselves so we can appreciate the wondrous zestful journey of life.

5)    And some myths about laughter that according to Dr Adams keep us from laughing:

a.    That we need a reason to laugh – oh, no. Laughter for no reason is the best kind!

b.    That we laugh because we are happy – the reality is that we are happy because we laugh!

c.  A sense of humour is the same thing as laughter – wrong! They are very different processes. Laughter just takes a willingness to let go and enjoy yourself. If you haven’t tried laughter yoga, go ahead and try it! It is an incredibly freeing experience and will keep a smile on your face all day!

I hope to share my laughter article with you at some stage. In the meantime, go out and have a great laugh. You’ll be happy you did! I’m off to get watch the Patch Adams movie again!