Mwa ha ha ha ha. Bwa ha ha ha. Heh heh heh heh heh. Ho ho ho. Tee hee hee. Ha ha ha ha ha. Snort. *Fannie wipes a tear from her eye.*
Greetings funny names fans. In these times of change, sometimes a good belly laugh is required. You’ve heard the saying “laughter is the best medicine.” Tee hee.
Our next guest believed whole heartedly laughter was the best medicine. Laughter therapist, Dr. Annette Goodheart (1935-2011) started out life an as artist with a paint brush. She reframed her solitary painter’s life and found more benefits in the art of therapy.
She worked in the field of laughter therapy for eight years before she met fabulously named author, Norman Cousins, who wrote the book, Anatomy of an Illness, As Perceived by the Patient, about his healing from a terminal illness through laughter.
The laughter caught on, Goodheart approached the University of California about a workshop on laughter—laughter ensued. Her work spread to other universities who wanted her to conduct workshops for their hospitals, churches, clubs, welfare departments, etc., teaching the healing power of playful laughter.
The Surgeon General’s warning for laughter could read, “Warning, laughter produces chemicals known to the State of California to be cathartic and make you feel better. Other states of mind may follow.” Hee, hee, hee.
Dr. Goodheart’s Cathartic (laughter) Therapy involved four steps according to an article posted on Laughter Online University paraphrased here:
- Get in touch with your feelings.
- Release those feelings through catharsis (laughter).
- Rethink the situation or experience associated with those feelings, because it’s now become possible through the chemical re-balancing of your body to allow you to think more clearly.
- Take whatever sensible action is appropriate.
If you want to read the full article click here.
Here is Dr. Goodheart at work.
Your mission today: laugh. Heh, heh, heh.
Life is better when you’re laughing. It’s contagious, spread it around. Bwa ha ha. Snort.
Would someone please pass a tissue?
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Thank you to blogger, Aplscruf, for submitting today’s guest.
The Blog of Funny Names 
Reblogged this on Fannie Cranium's and commented:
Have you laughed today? Really laughed? Goodhearted laughter?
This month’s contribution to the Blog of Funny Names.
Oh, thank you, thank you, T! You would have made Dr. Goodheart proud–or maybe she would have just laughed! You captured the essence of what her practice was all about: Laughter and our health! It’s really hard not to laugh at the video–I unfortunately watched for the first time at work a few weeks ago and my head almost popped like a balloon trying to hold in the laughter. “The whole thing just may…blow up!” Tee hee.
It’s me who should say thank you!
When I watched that video for the first time, I laughed my head off. I watched it with my better half last night and we laughed just as hard as the first time. Great find!
That is the strangest thing. I very rarely belly laugh; I think I’m broken. I want to so badly. I’ll have to keep watching the video. Maybe that’s how to keep from getting congestive heart failure and have a good heart.
I don’t think you’re broken. I think you’re like the rest of us and had the laughter trained out of you. We just have to give ourselves permission to laugh.
“. . . Fannie really rips the . . . rips the . . . the BWAAAA HAAA HAAAAA . . .”
“If you haven’t read Fannie’s latest on Goodheart get your funny bone over there and . . . (chortle) over there and (choke) . . . and . . . BWAAAAA HAAAA HAAAA HAAAA HAAA . . .”
“Fannie’s latest p- p- PWAAAA HAAA HAAAA HAAAAA . . . stop it, stop it, this is BWAAAAA HAAAA HAAAA HAAAAA . . .”
You are so funny. I love it. Why didn’t I think of chortle and choke. As Tony the Tiger says, “They’re great!” 🙂
she was born laughing…
)))
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