The humour vaccine - three simple activities to help you get through the next few months with a smile!

Welcome back! Seems like an odd thing to say as the majority of the country and world have stayed at home.

Though hopefully you’ve had a break from Zooming, maybe worn a party outfit just for a change and drank some mulled wine during our first (and hopefully last) Covid Christmas. 

Now let’s not fool ourselves, we know the start of this year is going to be tough with Lockdown 3.0 and working from home. If you’re deciding your new year’s resolution is to do Veganuary, dry January or any of the other words they can blend with January, good luck. However just being good to yourself and getting through the next few months is good enough!

And don’t worry, Laughology (which sadly doesn’t blend with January) is here to help! We have planned regular free webinars to cheer you up, build your resilience and keep Cadbury’s in profit with enough Curly Wurly giveaways that would challenge even Augustus Gloop’s voracious appetite.

But if you can’t wait until then, check out how you can vaccinate yourself with humour:

Reimagine your commute to work

Bet you never thought you’d miss your commute! However, it was something that gave us structure and a way to see other people and places. These things are really good for us and give us a boost of feel-good hormones, as when we see people we know, even an distant acquaintance that stands in front of us in the coffee queue, we get a social boost. 

As we’ve lost these little journeys where we see people, reimagining and reinventing this can help.  Even if this is just twice a week - get yourself out in the mornings for a walk, take the same path at the same time. Maybe grab a coffee if you can.

This will give you structure and you might bump into one or two people, giving you these much needed social boosts, feel good hits and a sense of security.

Create a humour bank

A humour bank is like any other bank - you need to put stuff in to take stuff out. Make time to actively look for or take part in three things a day that make you laugh.

Neuroscience tells us this will boost your happy chemicals and, even better than that, it will train your brain to look for these things unconsciously.  At the end of the day think back to these things and remind yourself how they made you feel. 

By laughing with friends you can get a double whammy. Your laughter will release feel good chemicals, and the sound and look of your friend laughing will give you a second hit.  Doubling your amount of feel good hormones.

NB* Laughter should be done in a safe, socially distant and immature way.

Take a cold shower

If you’re brave enough to do this, it will help you feel euphoric. The cold water sends many electrical impulses to your brain. They jolt your system to increase alertness, clarity, and energy levels. Endorphins, which are sometimes called ‘happy hormones’, are also released. This effect leads to feelings of well-being and optimism.

What’s even better is if you leave it on cold and tell your kids or partner you’ve left the shower running for them, they’ll jump in and scream, making you laugh. A double laughter dose.

Webinars coming to a screen near you Zoom (soon)

We’ve teamed up with some partners and will continue to let you know through the year what to expect. Keep an eye out on our free webinar page, as well as email updates from us. If you haven’t already and someone has passed you this email, you can sign up here.

Don’t Look Back in Anger: Reflecting on 2020 and a Look Forward to 2021

To get your new year started and to laugh in the face of Blue Monday, Dave Keeling and Stephanie Davies bring you Don’t Look Back in Anger: Reflecting on 2020 and a Look Forward to 2021. 

Save the date - Monday 18th January (12.30 – 1.20pm) - for this free, interactive and fun lookback at the top behaviours we’ve all been part of due to Covid-19 and the importance of hope as we go through the next few months. 

Bubble Trouble: The Art of Getting On and Staying Sane

If you’re in the teaching profession or work in a school, we salute you and want to say thank you in our own special way. 

We have teamed up with the brilliant Ian Gilbert from ITL to bring you ‘Bubble Trouble – The Art of Getting On and Staying Sane’. We understand how difficult it must be for teaching teams and schools with the new lockdown restrictions, so we want to support you with this webinar to make you laugh and give you some tools and techniques to keep going and continue being our heroes.

So join Ian and Stephanie for free on 19th January at 7-7.45pm.

Building Resilience and Staying Motivated

Stephanie Davies has also teamed up with PA forum for all you PA’s out there, this FREE event on 3rd February is for you.  Stephanie will be presenting a 50 minute webinar on building resilience through humour.  You need to be a member of the PA forum or email Daniel Skermer daniel.skermer@birminghampaforum.co.uk to sign up. 

The session will include a Q&A, as well as top tips for keeping you motivated over the next few months - as we all know, personal assistants and executive assistants are the real workers. 

To book any of the Laughology team for a dose of motivation and happiness get in touch. We can deliver short sharp motivational keynotes and workshops to give you and your team the tools and techniques needed to get through the next few months.