Too Stressed to Laugh? Laughter Yoga for Burnout, Stress & Healing | Cathy Nesbitt

Laughing on purpose sounds ridiculous — until you feel what it does to your body.

In this uplifting conversation, Julie Fairhurst is joined by Cathy Nesbitt, a certified Laughter Yoga Teacher and Laughter Ambassador, to discuss laughter as a practical wellness tool for women who feel stressed, exhausted, overwhelmed, or emotionally maxed out.

Cathy shares how she went from running a worm composting business to teaching intentional laughter, and why this work matters even more in a world where stress has become the default setting.

Julie and Cathy explore what Laughter Yoga actually is — no flexibility required — and what a session can look like in long-term care, community groups, and everyday life. Cathy explains why group laughter is so contagious and how intentional laughter can help the body shift from stress and tension toward more joy, connection, and release.

In simple, grounded language, Cathy breaks down the wellness benefits of laughter, including deep diaphragmatic breathing, increased oxygen, nervous system support, and what she calls your daily D.O.S.E. of feel-good chemicals: dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin, and endorphins.

They also talk about mirror neurons, why laughter sometimes shows up at “inappropriate” moments, and how those unexpected reactions may be your nervous system looking for safety and release.

If you’ve ever thought, “I don’t feel like laughing,” this episode is for you. Cathy offers a compassionate way in, reminding us that simulated laughter can still support the body and that laughter can work alongside therapy, medication, healing, and other wellness tools.

This conversation also touches on supportive practices like tapping, Brain Gym cross-crawls, qigong-style movement, grounding outdoors, choosing music over doomscrolling, and building small habits that bring more lightness into your day.

If you are tired, stressed, heavy-hearted, or simply ready for a lighter way to move through life, this episode is a gentle reset.

Subscribe, share this with a friend who needs a lighter day, and leave a comment with one thing that helps you come back to joy.

Cathy's Chuckle Club
https://www.cathysclub.com/

https://www.cathyscomposters.com/
https://www.cathysclub.com/
https://www.cathyssprouters.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/cathynesbitt/
https://www.youtube.com/@CathyLaughter 
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61559438955975

If this conversation stirred something in you… good. That’s where change begins.

Make sure you’re subscribed, share this with someone who needs it, and if you’re ready to tell your story, step into your voice, or build a life that actually feels like yours… You’re in the right place.

I’m Julie Fairhurst, and this is where stories turn into power.

Go to my website if you would like to be a guest on the Women Like Me Stories & Business in the toolbar click Let's Podcast

Julie's Website

Transcript

Welcome And Meet The Laughter Ambassador

SPEAKER_00 0:16

Well, hi everyone, and welcome to another episode of Women Like Me Stories in Business. I am your host, Julie Fairhurst. And you know, I've had a lot of ladies on the podcast, but this one I think is going to be a little bit different. So let me introduce her to you and you'll understand why. So today I'm joined by Kathy Nesbitt, Laughter Ambassador, joining us from Brantford, Ontario. Kathy is the founder of Kathy's Chuckle Club. Makes me want to giggle just saying it. And she teaches people how to use laughter as a real wellness tool, not just a nice little bonus when life is going well. As a laughter yoga teacher, Kathy brings together laughter, tapping, brain gym. So we'll have to find out what that's all about, and simple practices that help people move out of stress and back into joy. She believes laughter really can be medicine. And today we're going to talk about how women can bring more lightness, health, daily joy into their lives, even when life feels heavy. Kathy, thank you so much for being willing to be here. Hi, Julie. I'm excited to be here.

unknown 1:31

Yay!

SPEAKER_00 1:32

Okay. Well, Kathy, let's begin with your story. How did laughter become such an important part of your life and your work?

SPEAKER_02 1:41

So I'll just zip back a little bit to bring the laughter in. So it's the 24th anniversary of my worm composting business. Selling. So I have worms too, everybody. Selling

Worm Composting Mission And A Turning Point

SPEAKER_02 1:57

worms by the pound for indoor composting. And you know, I really I was like, oh, this is so important. Everybody needs this because in 2002, I'm located just north of Toronto. In 2002, the landfill for the Greater Toronto area filled up and we started to export garbage to the United States.

SPEAKER_01 2:16

Oh.

SPEAKER_02 2:17

And I had a solution. So six million people in the Greater Toronto area, half live in condos, townhouses, places without space to do outdoor composting. And what I'm advocating is composting in the house with worms. And so 10 years into my worm mission, 2012, one more person said, ew, worms in the house. And I'd heard it hundreds of times, but I wasn't listening. I was like, no, no, no, you need this. But Julie, people don't buy what they need, they buy what they want, and they didn't want what I was flogging. So 2012, oh my gosh, that day I heard it, I felt it, and I questioned everything. I said, How am I going to keep on doing this important work when people still don't know what I'm doing? And the very next day I was introduced to Laughter Yoga. Wow. So laughter yoga is not doing yoga and laughing, it's laughing with intention. The laughter part of or the yoga part of laughter yoga is the practice of the laughter and the deep diaphragmatic breathing.

SPEAKER_00 3:24

Interesting. Okay, I want to go back for a second to the worms because I have to tell you, when I was reading a little bit about you, I had to really think about the worm thing. I thought, worms. I don't quite understand. Do I want to discuss worms? I don't know. But now I get it. So can you tell me about before we get into the laughter? Can you tell me what is like how do you compost in your home with worms?

SPEAKER_02 3:53

How does that work? Yeah, so the same idea as composting outside in a pile or with a composter. The worms are contained, they're not free range, they're not roaming around the house. They're not roaming in my kitchen. They're not. They're in a container, you know, for the do-it-yourselfers, any plastic tote will do. It's creating the right environment. So there are systems that you can purchase, but it's still you need to create the right environment. So it's carbon-nitrogen. The carbon is shredded paper, leaves, straw, cardboard, any of your kind of browns. And then the nitrogen is your food scraps, your scraps from the kitchen, banana peels, apple cores, coffee tea, etc. The worms require both. So you add all those things in. You have a special worm. They're called red wigglers. And they're designed for composting. I believe they eat half their weight in food scrap per day in food scraps. So they have a voracious appetite. They don't have eyes, they can't go sight, like no point in going sightseeing. They can't see. They stay in the container. They're eating, you know, the paper and the food. And their poop is the black gold. That's what you want. But the waste management is kind of a side benefit. That's why I started my business. But it's the black gold, because in North America, we have destroyed the soil. Right? Corn, wheat, soil, soy, corn, wheat, and soy, acres and acres. That's not how nature intended.

SPEAKER_01 5:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:20

If we're going to do monocropping, like one crop, we need to add a lot of chemicals. And so we do. And that is not feeding the soil. That's what I'm again advocating for feeding the soil. And when we look after the soil and build up the beautiful soil, the soil takes care of the plant.

SPEAKER_00 5:39

So what so what so if I'm in an apartment building and I've got got the red worms working for me, what do I do with the with it when it's like when is it done? What do I do with it? Do I just go out to a field and release it? Or no, no, you don't release the worms because they're the workers.

SPEAKER_02 5:58

Right. So you you harvest, you separate the worms from the compost. There are several ways to do it. But if you have a like a bin, then yes, you would dump it out on a tarp, put it in small round piles. The worms are photosensitive or afraid of the light. They go down into the pile, scoop off the top. Like it's really beautiful work. I mean, if people are afraid of worms, they're like, ah, no way. Okay. There are systems for there's systems for you. Yes. Where the worms self-harvest. And then and then you you're getting the again, the black gold, the compost. You separate that, put that aside, put that on your plants, and then you add the worms back into the container and continue the process.

SPEAKER_00 6:37

Oh, it kind of sounds fun.

SPEAKER_02 6:40

It is. Unless you're afraid of worms, unless you're like definitely afraid, right? Not so right, right.

SPEAKER_00 6:47

That is that is the one of the most interesting things I've heard in a long time.

SPEAKER_02 6:52

Yay!

SPEAKER_00 6:52

I love that. There you go. There you go. Wow. Okay. Well, let's move on to Laughter Ambassador. So, what does that mean to you?

SPEAKER_02 7:03

Well, in 20, so I was introduced to laughter in 2012. So it was kind of a hobby, a little practice thing. I would go monthly with my mother-in-law. It was our date night. We'd go for dinner and then we'd go to laughter. It was fun. And then I started to get paid gigs, going into long-term care and working with special needs. So getting paid gigs. It was so beautiful. And in 2017, I was appointed laughter ambassador by the founder of Laughter Yoga. Because of the work that I was doing, I was advocating so much for this wonderful tool. It's something that everybody can do. Everybody can learn how to laugh. Even if you don't feel like laughing, you can laugh anyway, because our body doesn't know the difference between real and simulated laughter, which is like visualizing, right? Like athletes, professional athletes will visualize winning the race, and then they do because their body has done it. Same with laughter. We can just like so our mind, our ego might be saying, Hey, you look ridiculous. What are you doing? There's no jokes, there's no comedy. What's happening here? Stop laughing, right? You're in your head then. We say if you're if you're thinking about how ridiculous this is, you're in your head. So we want you to drop down into your body so you can feel the laughter.

unknown 8:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:22

Interesting. And so I just would love for you to just talk a little bit about when you go into care facilities and those types of places. And so what do you do? Do you stand up and do a comedy show or do you are you teaching them yoga? What is it that you're doing there to get them feeling better and laughing?

SPEAKER_02 8:42

Yeah, often with uh with seniors in in care facilities

Inside Laughter Yoga For Real Relief

SPEAKER_02 8:46

or retirement homes, they're often seated. The sessions are seated because people may be unstable. So it's laughing. That's the beauty of this laughter is you can do it if you're bedridden, you can do it. If you're if you if you have mobility issues, it's all fine. I do have a club and I do I do encourage people to stand because we are seating sitting a lot. So it works anyway. But when I go into a facility, what I do, first of all, people are generally I ask that they're in a circle. So because because it's making eye contact, the laughter is contagious. And I will go around to each person. I kneel down to their level if they're seated. I kind of kneel in front of them and I say hello, nice to meet you, and I welcome each one, each person to the circle. And then we start with gentle warm-ups. So in laughter yoga, there's clapping, and we're clapping palm to palm, we're activating meridians, and it's really powerful. And so the rhythm is one, two, one, two, three, and the words are ho ho, ha ha ha. Very easy to remember. Yeah. When we're saying ho and ha, those symbols or syllables are attached to our diaphragm. So our diaphragm is attached to all of our organs. When we say ho and ha, we're moving our diaphragm. And so when we're clapping ho ho ha ha ha, it's this priming, this powerful priming that our mind says, Oh, it must be happy time. So we start secreting all the love drugs: dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin, and endorphins, the love drugs, the feel-good chemicals versus cortisol, adrenaline, epinephrine when we're stressed. And I think the most important piece for laughter is the oxygen. When we're stressed, blood lymph oxygen leaves our frontal lobe and goes into our muscles so we can escape, even if we're escaping from our mind. Laughter forces us, right? Like if we're laughing, ha ha ha ha ha, we're exhaling. In order to continue ha hay, we have to so we can go ha ha ha ha ha ha. Ha ha ha ha. And so, although there are breathing exercises too, you know, we would say put your arms out in front, breathe in, hold it, hold it, hold it, and then exhale, ha. And when we exhale with a sigh, it's an auditory signal to our brain, like, oh, I must be relaxed. I'm making that that sound. Because we're never frantically looking for our keys, phone glasses if we've got to go, sighing, or running for the bus, sighing. Right. So for sighing, right? It's it's another way. I hope people are paying attention because these are what I do, Julie, is and I'm so grateful for the opportunity to share my passion for this, is I I I learn all kinds of things so then I can share with people like how simple it is for us to come back to ourselves.

SPEAKER_00 11:50

Yeah. It's beautiful because laughter is the best medicine. Yeah. So for women who are stressed, exhausted, or caring a lot, how does laughter actually help?

SPEAKER_02 12:06

Yes, I've already mentioned the love drugs and the oxygen. Those two are really important. When we're laughing, we're completely present. It's not a great survival mechanism. We can only laugh full on when we feel safe. Because otherwise our amygdala is firing and we're in fear, so we can't like we're like, oh, aware. When we're laughing, we're not thinking about that dumb thing we said yesterday or in that important meeting we have. We're not thinking at all. And even though I've been doing laughter since 2012, when I'm fully present in when I'm leading laughter, sometimes I I compl I forget everything. And it's okay because then I say, okay, let's breathe, everyone. And then I always do three breaths in a row, which gives me a moment to think, oh, wait a minute, what exercise can we do next?

SPEAKER_00 12:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:58

So that's how, you know, so it really gets us out of our head into our body, and so that we can be present. We're we're always thinking about yesterday, and we're we're we're often not in the present. We're in the past or the future.

SPEAKER_00 13:12

I love that because all I could think of is, oh wow, I get to forget all my problems for a moment, yes. For a moment, of course. Nothing is of course, you yes, of course, but for a moment you do. Yeah. So you talk about getting the daily dose. So D-O-S-E. Can you explain what that is for our listeners?

SPEAKER_02 13:33

Yes, the happy hormones. That's what I say. Ever heard laughter is the best medicine? Yes. If

Your Daily Dose And Nervous System Reset

SPEAKER_02 13:40

it is, and it's true, it's scientifically proven. My next question is have you had your daily dose? Dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin, and endorphins, the love drugs, the happy hormones. Truly, we are literally in charge of our own pharma. Yeah. We're fretting about a lot of things. We're swimming around in a stress pool today. We have made stress a normal part of our day. Like it's it's it has become so normalized that it's a challenge for people to experience joy. And we feel guilty about joy. Like, oh, people will say to me, Kathy, how can I possibly laugh? There's so many things going on in the world. I say, shut off the news, turn off social media, but keep listening, folks. Yes. Don't shut us off yet. Yeah. Because once we see those images on the news, once we hear all the stories, we can't do anything about those things.

SPEAKER_01 14:38

No.

SPEAKER_02 14:39

Except feel bad about it, except get stressed about war and famine, and we can't afford, and there's no jobs and all the things. Yeah. We can't do anything about that. All we can control is this. And for those listening, I'm I'm holding my body. Like all we can control is ourself. And the more the longer I'm in this laughter game, the more I realize all we need to do, and it's it sounds easy or simple, and it is not, it's a practice, is managing our nervous system. That's it. Because once we feel good, we can do good. The world needs more of us doing good.

SPEAKER_01 15:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:19

Yeah. It's um, I I totally get what you're saying. It's uh I I love the news and and politics, I love listening to it, but recently I have cut back because it depresses me, it stresses me out, and and you're right, there's nothing personally that I can do about all of that. I can just maybe save my little corner of the world, but you know, or my my people, but I can't and fix that. It is too big for for little me over here. That's why we have all those other people out there that are supposed to be fixing it for us. But it's it's it's it can be really depressing. And TV commercials, oh my goodness, right?

SPEAKER_02 16:08

All of that, and I I have no idea why. I don't, I don't, I really don't understand. But if you go to a medical center, a walk-in clinic, I I took my mom to a kidney appointment, and there was like a lot of people lined up for the dialysis, they have a channel for anyone that's not in Canada called CP24. I I don't know, yeah, right? It's the 24-hour news cycle, and it's and they have that blaring. And you know, it's like, oh, if you missed 10 minutes ago the tragic accident that happened, the shooting or whatever it was, yeah, here it is again. And yeah, so there you are trying to be healed. And I I I don't I just question like why don't they have relaxation music or the fireplace? Fishes, fish swimming, fish tank, right? So rather than horrible news. We can't again, we can't control that. We can only control this. But if we're we're inundated with all of this stimuli, it's it's affecting our nervous system.

SPEAKER_00 17:09

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 17:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:11

So one some women might think, I don't feel like laughing right now. So what would you say to the woman who feels too overwhelmed or too stressed to even try?

SPEAKER_02 17:24

I would say please do try.

When Laughing Feels Impossible

unknown 17:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:27

What we say, you know, when I came to Laughter Yoga, I was really surprised how many people, how many laughter professionals came to laughter from depression? So they made if they might may have been, you know, medicated, and we're not advocating for people to doff their antidepressants or any medication. Laughter is complimentary magic medicine. You can laugh and secrete the happy hormones and still be taking your antidepressants. Hopefully, it will help you lessen what you're taking, the dose. What we say as laughter professionals is if you don't feel like laughing, bring your able body and we'll encourage you to laugh. We will help you laugh. It is fake it till you make it. The body doesn't know the difference. So if you laugh, ha ha ha, ha ha ha, eventually it becomes real. And even if it doesn't become real, even saying ha ha ha, smiling, you send a note to your brain, even just smiling, you send a note to your brain, oh, I'm doing that curled up lip thing. I must be, I must be happy. So pew, pew, pew, you start secreting. Then you add a giggle, and then you secrete more. So, you know, it is a practice.

SPEAKER_01 18:38

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 18:38

And once you start to feel something like the challenge with depression, not feeling sad, not being down, you got bad news, and yes, and you feel sad. Depression, a lot of people say they're depressed, and and they may or may not be. Right. I think that quite often people bandy this word around, and it's and it's not true depression. True depression is when you're kind of in my mind, is that when you're feeling numb, you're below feeling anything. You're just like, there's no feeling. And so if you can get to the next level, which may be anger, if you're angry that you're not feeling anything or that you're this thing has happened, at least you're feeling angry, good. Even though it's like, oh, anger, we're afraid of anger in our society, right? Because we don't know what how it's going to express. But if you're feeling angry, good, that's something, that's energy. And then then you can move up the ladder from there and just and you you fake it, like you're just like, ha ha ha, okay. Hmm. Oh, and you feel you really do. Like, we know anytime if if people can recall a time it maybe from childhood, where you were giggling in the schoolyard with friends and you were laughing so hard, all of a sudden you don't even know what you're laughing at, but you can't stop laughing. Your stomach's hurting, your cheeks are hurting. Those are the laughter muscles.

SPEAKER_00 19:59

Yeah, yeah. I I find myself when I'm stressed that I I smile, and you start to feel better. Yes. Because it's true what you say, your body doesn't know the difference. Yes, absolutely. Yeah, yeah. So what is laughter yoga? And does someone need to be flexible, funny, or outgoing to do it?

SPEAKER_02 20:27

No, none of the above. None of that. Laughter yoga started in 1995 by a medical doctor in India, and his goal is world peace. Like, yes, please. Oh, there are clubs in over 120 countries. North America's a later doctor, so you know, yoga is kind of just arriving. So laughter yoga is still in the ocean trying to get here.

unknown 20:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:50

Yeah. And so it's it's not doing yoga and laughing, it's laughing with intention. There are little games to inspire the laughter. There are maybe gentle stretches or something, but it's not doing downward dog or doing child's pose and or any of those things and laughing. It's it's really laughing with intention. And it's it's really a fun thing. And once you get people together in a group laughing, it amplifies laughing by yourself. It's possible, just like doing sit-ups by yourself is possible, but in a group, it's probably more fun. Yes, laughing in a group changes everything, it's contagious, so you're like, okay, I've had enough, but then somebody else starts laughing off, laughing again, so it bubbles up again.

SPEAKER_01 21:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:37

And there is that, there's a thing called mirror neurons. Have you heard of mirror neurons? No, mirror neurons were discovered at the same time as Laughter Yoga, same year, 1995. Ever notice that when you smile at someone, they they might smile back? Yes, or if you see somebody crying, you might feel sad too. Mirror neurons. Humans have them, apes, some birds, and there's probably others that haven't been identified as yet. But it's that contagion. We see somebody laughing, then we want to laugh, and and that's where the contagious part comes in, and that and it's a beautiful. It's primal. It's something that's in us. Like, why do we laugh at inappropriate times, Julie? At the funeral, or we see somebody trip and fall. Not funny, but because they may be hurt. Yes. But it's uh but it's our instinct to to laugh. And I believe it's our body is so tight, we're so stressed, then it's like the pressure cooker. We laugh, ha ha ha, whoops. And then we we might feel bad if we're at the funeral that we that we laugh, but it's it's that mechanism where then we start secreting the love drugs, we're oxygenating our body, and it's that release.

SPEAKER_00 22:51

Yeah, wow. So you use tapping, which I know what that is, and brain gym. I don't know that, and something I'm gonna probably pronounce it wrong, but q gong? Kai qi con Qi Kong. So how which is like Tai Chi? Oh,

Tapping Brain Gym And Healing Stories

SPEAKER_00 23:08

it's like Tai Chi. Okay. So how do those practices help together with laughter?

SPEAKER_02 23:15

Yeah, so my whole I my whole, especially since 2020. You know, it was I was since 2020, I took, well, in 2020, I took a deep dive into the expression laughter is the best medicine. I've been tapping since 99, and I'm happy that it's becoming kind of mainstream a little bit. Yeah, these are all modalities that are complementary. They you can stack modalities. We can't multitask, but we can stack modalities. So we can laugh and tap. And so I tap on, although I do the whole mantra sometimes, not in club, but I tap on four spots. This tapping on my uh cheekbones just under my pupils. This is stomach meridian, and so it's the laugh, breathing, and tapping that helps it work. Kidney meridian, thymus, and spleen are the four spots that I tap on every in every club that I do, just to get us into our body. Brain gym is is some exercises to connect our lobes. So you can do cross-crawls, so you take your hand, tap the opposite knee. Whenever we're going across the center of our body, we're connecting our lobes. And I would say that whenever somebody's feeling frustrated, really stressed, anxious, any of the low vibrating frequencies, they probably are homolateral, meaning their energies are not crossing over. It's very difficult for our body to heal when our energy isn't going where it needs to go. So doing cross-crawls helps to remind our energy. Oh, you need to over you go. Oh, and and again, I will do that at the beginning of my club, so then everything else that we do in club is better incorporated into our beautiful body. And qigong is just qi kong is about a 5,000-year-old practice and it predates tai chi. So where tai chi is more a martial art, yeah, the the dance and the moves. Yeah, qi kong is it it predates tai chi, so it it does incorporate some of those moves, but it's more, it's it seems gentler if that's possible. I know Tai Chi is very slow. Qi Kong is also slow and breathing, and it and and it moves every muscle in your body and just again gets you fully present, and it's it's wonderful.

SPEAKER_00 25:38

Ah, and so uh I'd love to know with and maybe maybe you don't know this, but but you go into the facilities or or other people that you've worked with. I'm curious about what types of of reactions or are you seeing healing in people? Like, I don't I mean, you know, healing in themselves, or what what kind of uh results are people getting with laughter?

SPEAKER_02 26:03

So many, Julie. Oh my I have so many stories. I would love to share one. A couple years ago, I was doing an in-person laughter in my club in my backyard, and a woman sent me an email and said, I'd like to come to your club. So she she actually brought eight of her galpels, which was wonderful. It was so great. Yeah, and she arrived and said she had knee surgery eight weeks prior, and she hadn't slept more than two hours per night in eight weeks. Our body can't heal if we're not sleeping. Anyway, at the end of a laughter club, I say to people, notice how you feel. Your body just had a party, fully oxygenated, secreting all the love drugs, and notice how you sleep tonight. I hope you sleep well tonight. I hope you sleep well every night. It's how we heal. Okay, that's how I end my club every time. Sh they they left. A couple days later, she wrote me and said, Remember, I said I had knee surgery and hadn't slept for more than two hours. She said, I slept through the night after laughter. Wow. So I was like, oh my gosh, I was so moved. And she continued to say, when I arrived home, my night, I didn't know this woman, so I don't know the story, but she said, when I arrived home, my 19-year-old son was having an existential crisis. And she said it was like somebody took over my body. She was able to hold space for her beautiful son. I can only imagine stress, maybe shouting, crying on the son's part. Usually mom is like gets into stress, maybe shouting or whatever, just right, stress, stress, stress. Yeah, and she came from laughter, right? She was fully oxygenated, all the love drugs. So she was in like a cocoon of of love. And so she said, I was able to hold space for my son the first time ever. And I was like, wow, like what a gift. That I mean, that's huge. And there, and I've had so many people that that's huge. That that's a really big example that I gave. Yeah. Other ones, you know, people are, you know, they have their arms crossed, they're they're totally logical people thinking, oh yeah, oh yeah, I'm gonna feel better from laughing, and there's no jokes or comedy. What you want me to laugh? Right? And you can see it on their face, and it and it's kind of hilarious. Yes, yes, yeah. Because laughter is contagious, it takes so much energy to be like, mm-mm, nope, I'm I'm not doing it. Like, I'm not even gonna smile. No, and it takes so much energy to hold that like that thing. Yeah. So when I can kind of I'll say if I can break those people, they become the best advocates because they're like, I was a skeptic, and wow, now I'm now I'm healed. Yeah, I'm convinced that this is the best medicine.

SPEAKER_00 29:00

Wow. Well, it's like yawning. Yawning's an odd thing, isn't it? Because if somebody around you yawns, the next like even thinking about it makes me want to yawn. Just the word, right? Just the word.

unknown 29:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:12

So that's good. Yeah, so but it, you know, it makes sense that that laughter is contagious as well.

SPEAKER_02 29:19

Yeah, so yawning, tapping, laughing, deep breathing, humming, singing, dancing, playing, these are all good for our vagal tone. Our vagus nerve governs our joy. It also is the one is the is the the nerve that puts us into sympathetic or parasympathetic. It governs the systems. And so if we can build our vagal tone and really practice being in parasympathetic, that's how we can manage our nervous system.

SPEAKER_00 29:52

Yeah. Wow. So, what are a few simple things women can do at home to bring more laughter into their day?

SPEAKER_02 30:01

Oh, so many things. Well, I mean, you can watch funny videos, but videos, you know, if you're laughing too hard, you're gonna miss the next line and people might be mad. Same with same with a comedy club, you know, they're gonna be like, okay, ma'am, stop laughing, nobody can hear

Simple Daily Joy Practices You Can Do

SPEAKER_02 30:17

the joke. Yeah. You know, something that I really recommend if people are have self-esteem issues or they're just feeling beat up, they're feeling overwhelmed. This simple practice that is not simple, it is a practice. We go into the washroom many times a day. I suggest I do uh hoapunoponi, which is Hawaiian sacred prayer, but I don't know why I mentioned that because that's not what I'm going to talk about. I I would suggest looking at yourself in the mirror, and it's a challenge, build up to a couple of minutes. Do your power pose, stand with your hands on your hips, or like the the victory sign with your hands over your head, look at yourself in the eye and say to yourself, I love you. I love you, I love you, I love you. And it might just squeak out at first because you might not believe it. The more you say it, the more you believe it. If you can't love yourself, it's gonna be challenging for other people to love you because you don't love yourself. So we emanate what it is that we want, and this power pose is so powerful. Before you're gonna have a conversation, what a challenging conversation, doing that power pose. Work up to two minutes and just looking at yourself. It's a challenge, looking right in the eye, like you're looking at yourself right in the eye, and and then add a smile and and just say, I love you. It's it's it's not easy, but working up, then you get more self-esteem, you feel better about yourself, and you you your posture changes because you walk around with your head up. Yeah, it really changes everything.

SPEAKER_00 31:58

It no, you're absolutely right. And and I loved what you said is that if we don't love ourselves, it's difficult for others to love us. Yeah, yeah. Wow. Well, thank you for that. So you need your so you love working with seniors and people with special needs. What have they taught you about joy?

SPEAKER_02 32:22

That it's spontaneous.

SPEAKER_01 32:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 32:25

That it's spontaneous, you know. Once you, because it's not jokes or comedy, you don't need to have like not that they don't have a frontal lobe, it just maybe they may be have some sort of cognitive decline. Yeah, I have a weekly gig at a day program for seniors with cognitive decline. And as soon as I walk in the room, everything changes. They start laughing as soon as I walk in the room, almost nothing for me to do because it's that that primal thing of so what they've taught me is incredible patience and just being open, just knowing that I'm making a difference. It's it's that that we can change how we feel just by smiling, just by doing deep breathing, and not to take things personal. If somebody's not playing, maybe they're having a bad day, maybe they got news or something happened, they have an upset stomach. Like I we don't know what's happening in somebody else's body or mind. We have no idea. We can surmise, we can make up stories, but we really have no clue. So I laughter has has given me the grace of incredible patience. Yeah, yeah, it's not personal. That's that's what I understand too, is what when I'm doing something, if somebody's playing or not playing, that's not on me, it's on them. Yes, and it's never personal. We take it personal, but it's it's it's not personal.

SPEAKER_00 33:56

No, exactly. And and I mean sometimes it's hard if somebody's grumpy around you or something like that, but but I I always try to look past that because you know it has nothing to do with me, it's to do with them, and and to try to give them some empathy because they're going through something we will never know what they're going through. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, exactly. That's it. Yeah. So you have a free online laughter club. Uh, it's been going for about six years, I think. I read. And what do you think people are really coming for? Are they coming for laughter? Are they coming for connection? Are they coming from healing, or are they coming for all of it? All of that.

SPEAKER_02 34:43

And you know, in my club, because I incorporate so many healing modalities, it's it's I do very little actually laughter yoga in my club.

SPEAKER_01 34:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 34:52

Because I'm doing all these healing modalities. I have many laughter professionals who join to learn from me.

SPEAKER_01 34:59

Oh.

SPEAKER_02 35:00

And I'm I'm honored, I'm grateful, I'm I'm thrilled that they come because laughter professionals are the funnest group of people. We don't need games. We don't, we we're just like, okay, laugh. Ha ha ha ha. And we're laughing. Although there are little games to inspire. So they come, yes, connection to feel better, to learn from me, and to get their dose. Because, you know, my husband is a laughter yoga leader. I'm a teacher. I I trained him. And he doesn't laugh every day, but he comes every week to to Laughter Club and he'll he'll laugh in the club. And I and I think that's the same with with a lot of the people. If at least if they come to club every Tuesday, they're getting their giggle for the Tuesday. And I'll ask people, do you tap? Like I suggest that people tap on the four spots every day to do the things that I'm suggesting every day, do it every day. And sometimes I'll say, How many people do these things other than just on Tuesday? And not many people put their hand up. Like it's, you know, because it is in the group. We come to the class and we're like, okay, and then we we do it.

SPEAKER_01 36:10

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 36:10

You know, lots of people go to yoga and they don't do it on their own, but they go to they go to a class and it's in the class that you're, you know, you do it. You've you've paid your money, so you you'll do it.

SPEAKER_00 36:21

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I'm gonna let everybody know right now that uh we're gonna have Kathy's information in the show notes. So if you're wanting to jump on that to that laughter call with her, uh joining the club or or getting any information at all, Kathy's links will be there. So you can certainly reach out to her and find her. So if you're sitting there wondering, you know, how do I find this lady? It'll be easy. Just go to the show notes. So when women who are listening, if they feel stuck or stressed, what is the first tiny step they can take today that will help?

SPEAKER_02 37:04

My go-to if somebody's in a really challenging state is to put on a happy song. Music changes everything, right? It's it uh like I would say laugh, but if you're not feeling it, it's it's gonna be a challenge to laugh. So I would say put on a happy song, like I don't know, there's whatever your favorite song is, put on that, not but not a country and western song.

SPEAKER_00 37:27

Yeah, not a sad song, not a sad song. Yeah, no, right?

SPEAKER_02 37:33

Put on an upbeat song like walking on sunshine or something, you know, right? Uh something upbeat and or happy by yes, I know what you mean. Yes, yes, yeah, his name's not coming at the yeah, put on any Bruno Mars song. I mean put on a happy song and dance literally like nobody's watching, and it and you can't be in the same state, you cannot be in the same state as before the song, or you or you've or you're those people that are like like how can you how can you be dancing when you're all stiff? So just like be and another thing I would say, Julie, is to go outside and earth, go outside with bare feet on the grass, if you're near the ocean. Oh my gosh, put your feet in the ocean on the sand, be in nature. We are so disconnected today from nature, and nature is our healer. As soon as we started wearing shoes, we started to get more disease because we're we're wearing shoes all the time. Uh even in the house, people wear their shoes or their slippers or whatever. So we're like our soul, the soles of our feet very rarely touch the earth, and people will be like, Oh, what if a dog peed there? It's like it gets washed away in the rain. Like, who cares? Yeah, who cares? You're not gonna lick your feet or something, like it's fine. No, like if you stepping poop, okay, that's different, but watch where you're stepping, right? But we we are literally connected to the earth's energy when we go out on earth, and if we've got pent-up energy, it diffuses into the earth, it will reduce inflammation, not in one go, but you know, you can just sit, you don't have to walk around. Although walking in first thing in the morning when the the grass is wet from the dew and you get first sun on your eye, so it helps to reset your melatonin. These are really simple steps. Yeah, you know, we we have all this modern technology, which is great. It's it's allowed us to connect, yes, right? We we met each other because of technology. I am not anti-technology, but we have no boundaries, especially the kids. You know, you see people walking around with their cell phone, so even if you needed help, they couldn't help you because they're only they only have one hand.

SPEAKER_00 39:53

No, that's so true, so true.

SPEAKER_02 39:56

Yes, you know, so there's simple things like yeah, just really simple things for us to just get reconnected with ourselves, with nature, looking around, looking up. When you go out for a walk, I see so many people on their technology, like just be present, yeah, just look around. When I go out, I my goal is to make eye contact. It's not easy because everybody's here and we're so I don't know what it is. I don't know how to describe what the state that we are in right now where people are so uncomfortable being alone that then they pull out their phone, so it's like they're not alone anymore. Yes, yes, they're talking to someone or they're scrolling, or what I don't know what they're doing.

SPEAKER_01 40:40

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 40:40

But just like I just want to make eye contact and just say hello to people.

SPEAKER_01 40:44

And yes, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 40:45

And I want to know something about the person that I'm seeing that I do end up making eye contact with, like, hey, I want to learn from everybody because everybody has a story to tell you.

SPEAKER_00 40:55

Oh my goodness, they sure do. I think the saddest thing is going to a restaurant and seeing a couple out for dinner and they're not talking, they're just looking down at their phones. I make my husband put his away. I'm like no phones at the table.

SPEAKER_01 41:14

Yeah, come on.

SPEAKER_00 41:15

Yeah, there's nothing that urgent. But it's such a it's just such a disconnect. Like the home, like, yeah, I'm with you. I mean, I love technology, and I just can't, I want to live forever because I just want to see what new cool things are gonna happen, but we can't lose our relationships, our our our connectness to people. That's or we're in big trouble.

SPEAKER_02 41:40

That's it. That's it. You know, technology is designed to make us addicted. So we are. So we are, yeah, right. Like when like we get the dopamine hit. Yeah, we we see the things, people like what we share. So we're like, oh, ping, ping, ping. Oh, somebody shared it. Yay, boom, boom, ping. It's like so. Again, we're looking for the external, yes, yeah. External like of somebody else validation, thank you. The external validation where we it really needs to come from us, like, hey, I am a good person, I know it, I know it's true. Hopefully, you know it's true too. But if you don't, that's not on me, that's on you.

SPEAKER_00 42:20

Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Well, Kathy, what do you want women to remember after listening to this conversation?

SPEAKER_02 42:27

I want them to know that they are super powerful, that we have so much power, but we've dimmed it down, we've dimmed our light down. And especially as

Boundaries Purpose And Final Takeaways

SPEAKER_02 42:37

women, we're told be nice, don't rock the dough, don't rock the boat, you know, don't cause trouble, just go along, you know, whatever. No, rock the boat, everybody. Yeah, just don't be satisfied with something that is causing you discomfort. If it, if you've got that feeling like, oh, I wish I didn't say yes to that, then you can just undo that and say no. Just say, you know, I had on second thought, I've changed my mind. I used to be a people pleaser. I'm not even recovering. I'm recovered, I'm fully recovered. And now when somebody asks me, hey Kathy, do you want to do this thing? I pause. I don't answer right away. Oh, yes, I would. And then I go, ah, crap. I said yes, and I don't want to do that. Now I pause, I to ask within, is this for me? And if it's not for me, I say, that sounds like a great opportunity. Maybe later, but for now I'm gonna say no. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 43:31

Yeah, yeah. That's uh that's a a difficult spot for a lot of us to to to get to.

SPEAKER_02 43:39

There's a lot of programming that it's decades, right? Of programming, of of messaging that that we're not enough, or you're not enough, you're not enough. You are enough. I'm here to say you are enough as you are. The world needs you. And I would like just like to end by saying, I think that we are all like a giant mosaic, we're like a giant jigsaw puzzle. We're all here for something, and if we are here and we're doing our purpose, then we're completing the puzzle, and the puzzle becomes complete, and the mosaic is so beautiful because we're here, we're here now at this time because we chose to come here at this time, even if it's challenging. Yeah, we came to experience something, and so find out what it is that you're meant to do. And it's not easy, people are like, oh, how do I know what my purpose is? Well, that's for you to find out. Like, like, what do you like to do? Make a list. What do you like to do? What do you not like to do? Okay, here's your list, and then how do you do more of the things you like doing? Do more of that, yeah. You know, volunteer, just I don't know. There's so many ways to uncover what it is.

SPEAKER_00 44:50

Yes, there are, there are, but when we're when we feel stuck or we we keep ourselves stuck, we're it's difficult to see that. But that is that is the best advice. So thank you for that. Thank you for sharing that because I think there's a lot of people that have such such beautiful gifts and wisdom, but they they don't and they don't see it. And they they you know, and even those tough times we go through, as horrible as as horrible as some are there's always positives that we can take out of that to help other people. Right?

SPEAKER_02 45:31

Yeah, and maybe it's sharing your horrible message so somebody else can go, oh, they survived that. Yes, I'm okay too. Yes, and look at them now, they're out talking about it. Yes, yes, and right, somebody needs to know what you what you've gone through so they can know that they're okay too. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 45:52

Well, that is an excellent place to land. Uh that is all about women like me, stories and business. And so I appreciate that statement from you. That's a good one. Well, everyone, I'm I don't really want to end our conversation with Kathy because I am enjoying it so much, but but we have to because our time is up. So remember, her information will be in the show notes. So if you want to investigate, do a little, get a little laughter going on, join her club, I don't know, whatever it is that you'd like to do, Kathy can help. And if she can't help, I'm sure she can direct you to where you could go. So please go into the show notes and and don't be shy of reaching out to her. Kathy, I just want to thank you so much for being so open and honest. And you have such beautiful wisdom. And thank you so much for sharing it with it with everyone. I I have learned a few things. Yay. Yeah, I'm putting on some, I'm putting, I've got a few good tunes I want to listen to today. So, and maybe instead of listening to the news in my vehicle today when I go to my appointment, I'm gonna listen to music. Yay! Just that alone. Yeah, yeah. Thank you, Julie. Yeah, well, you're very welcome. And thank all of you for being here on another episode of Women Like Me Stories in Business. And we will see you again next time. Take care, everybody. Bye bye.