August 13 2018
Monday, August 13, 2018
Continuing with our theme of Humor to Help Heal, laughter has been used in Healing for centuries. The Ancient Greeks employed clowns in Hippocrates time. And today studies show that laughter: reduces physical and mental stress levels, improves moods, lowers anxiety, increases alertness, improves immune systems, reduces pain and lowers blood pressure – all things Helpful for mourners. One study from the University of Berkeley followed recent widows and widowers and even found that those who smiled and laughed when recalling times with a loved one had lower levels of depression and anxiety at six, 12 and 24 months after the death.
(Adapted from the article first printed in the Centre Daily Times’ “Helping Hands” column on July 25, 2018)
Previous Posts
November 27 2023
To close this month, please read Anne Hillman’s poem, “We Look With Uncertainty” as you notice “something new is being born in” you while making new treasured memories.
We look with uncertainty
be...
November 20 2023
My favorite holidays is Thanksgiving. In terms of the meanings behind other holidays, I’m all in. But I can do without their hype and commercialization. So as we approach the Thanksgiving holiday, ...
November 13 2023
As I was writing this month’s posts about our theme of “Memories Become Treasures,” the song “Landslide” by Fleetwood Mac started to play. When our youngest child went off to college, this song mad...
November 6 2023
This month’s theme is “Memories Become Treasures.” In a recent grief education and support group I was leading we talked about looking at old photographs of deceased loved ones and how those pictur...
October 30 2023
To close out this month, read these words of poet John O'Donohue:
The dead are not distant or absent. They are alongside us. When we lose someone to death, we lose their physical image and presenc...
October 23 2023
In the book, A Grief Observed, C.S. Lewis wrote:
“And suddenly at the very moment when, so far, I mourned H. least, I remembered her best. Indeed it was something (almost) better than memory; an i...
October 16 2023
In connection with our theme, “I Am Gone but Very Near,” I’ve recently learned that in the Aramaic language, the word death means “existing elsewhere.” For some people, the death of a loved one mea...
October 9 2023
Nathasha Wagner once said, "I had to learn to have a relationship with someone who wasn’t there anymore." That can feel like an impossible feat, but grief shows us how. When listening to grief, mou...
October 2 2023
Welcome to this month’s theme of “I Am Gone but Very Near.” We all have our own beliefs about what happens after we die. Some of us believe in Heaven, others in reincarnation, still others in no af...
September 25 2023
To close out this month’s posts about “Surrendering Your Soul,” here’s a poem by Antonio Machado that answers the question, is my soul asleep?
Is my soul asleep?
Have those beehives that labor
at ...
Find Us:
Comments