"Everything you want is because you think you will feel happier if you had it. So why don’t you go straight to feeling happy by just laughing more, because laughter instantly makes you happy."
This is the lesson that Cape Town’s laughter coach Bronwyn Kilroe wants participants to take away from her Laughter Workshop.
Based on the concept of ‘fake it till you make it’, the Laughter Workshop encourages participants to laugh ‘without intellect’ and teaches people the skills to achieve sustained hearty laughter without involving cognitive thought.
"Laughter assists with stress management, health promotion and happiness development, enabling teams to perform at high levels, maintain their composure in a crisis and take better care of their organisation, leading to long-term business success," says Kilroe.
"A workplace that feels fun and friendly increases team morale and engagement levels and reduces absenteeism caused by illness. Employees are the greatest contributors to a company’s reputation and Kilroe wants to help build happy and productive teams," Kilroe adds.
Laughter, whether real or simulated, releases endorphins and serotonin into the bloodstream and encourages ‘real laughter’, which is hard to stop once released.
These happy hormones trick the body into bypassing the intellectual system, which normally acts as a barrier to genuine laughter.
Isn’t it funny that something as simple as laughing could be the secret ingredient to take your business’s reputation to the next level? It's a win-win scenario for the company and your colleagues’ general health.
For more information, visit www.reputationmatters.co.za. You can also follow Reputation Matters on Twitter.
*Image courtesy of Vecteezy