Happy Mondays
Leading life and happiness coach
IF you were a fly on the wall in the house of Lisa Sturge you might have to rub your many millions of bug eyes with your hairy foreleg. It’s quite a sight. She might be blowing raspberries into thin air, bursting into song at any moment, uttering strange but humorous grunts and emissions and perhaps striking some peculiar poses which would allow her a lifetime’s membership into the Ministry of Silly Walks.
You see, Lisa is a laughter coach. She uses laughter to help move her clients on to their dreams, to aid them to bring issues into perspective and to, well, laugh at life.
“We are taught that we have to be sensible as adults but I want people to have the courage to stand up and say I want laughter and play in my life,” she giggles. “When you can laugh you are conquering, getting over and moving away from the burdens and traumas that can keep us stuck.”
Lisa confesses she wasn’t always a mistress of merriment and has suffered from depression in the past. She adds that she is not even very good at one-liners or witty phrases. She simply allows herself and others the freedom to giggle and guffaw at our own foolishness and this crazy journey we are all on.
“Everyone wishes they could laugh more so I help to give themselves permission. It can start with smiling more often. I smile on the Tube when I am in London and it helps people unlock themselves from their mental world of thoughts and brings them to the present.
“It unites the mind, body and spirit and is too good to not include every day in life. I keep a bottle of bubbles in my car and blow bubbles out of the window if I am in a traffic jam and if it makes someone smile I’ve done my job.”
Even talking to Lisa makes one chuckle as her conversation is littered with little bits of joy and gleeful exclamations. It really works on me and I am feeling considerably less heavy just chatting with her and she reveals that since she has been on her joy diet she hasn’t had a cold for more than 10 years.
Her new book Laugh (Everyday Laughter Healing For Greater Happiness And Well Being) published by Quadrille at £7.99 shows how laughter releases feel-good endorphins to make us feel elated, relaxed and stress free and Lisa offers some coaching techniques to get you from giggling to guffaw. Here’s a few warm-up exercises Answer the phone with a laugh. Speak in a strange voice. Mimic yourself in a bad mood. Be ultra, ultra serious. Keep a list of things that amuse you and keep adding to it.
Look for the laughter in ordinary moments.
Laugh in the shower, when you flush the loo or approach a red light.
Ask yourself will this be relevant in a week, three weeks or three years from now? Wear your pants on your head. As Lisa says: “The sooner we can start to play with our pain or our mistakes the sooner we can let go, forgive ourselves and move on.” I’ve already bought the bubbles.