From Panic Attacks to Purpose – How Laughter Changed Everything
What if laughter wasn’t just something that happened to you, but something you could use on purpose to change your life?
In this first episode, I share the origin story behind Laughter Revolution. Three years of crisis, a full-blown anxiety disorder, and one unforgettable moment involving bleach and a fan cord that sparked everything.
This is where the Laughter Intelligence™ framework was born. And it might just change how you think about laughter forever.
Welcome to the Revolution.
Hey everybody. Welcome to Laughter Revolution. I’m Marla Simlett, your host for this podcast, which is built on the simple belief that while life can be heavy, getting through it doesn’t always have to be. Because one of the most powerful tools that we all have for growth, for resilience, for getting unstuck is something that we’ve been overlooking.
Laughter! And not just as an escape, but as a reset button for change. So here we’re going to learn and grow and laugh our way to becoming our greatest selves. Let’s get into it.
So you’re probably wondering, Marla, what’s the deal with laughter? What the heck are you talking about? And I was like you, only a couple years ago, because for me, laughter wasn’t something that I thought about very much.
Sure. I love to laugh. Don’t we all? And I love to make people laugh. That’s a core piece of who I am. But I didn’t really give a lot of thought to when laughter was happening. I mean, it just seemed like a happy accident. But that all changed coming out of, what I affectionately, like to call my “3 years of yuck”.
So let me take you back. April 2020. Now, we all know that there was something fairly big going on in April 2020. Hello, pandemic. So I, as well as all of you, was in the midst of that stress, and anxiety, and uncertainty. Such as we had never seen before in my lifetime at that point.
In addition to that, my husband Michel was heading into the hospital for some surgery. That was supposed to be fairly routine. I dropped him off at St. Paul’s Hospital here in Vancouver on the morning of April 27th, and thus began the 3 years of yuck.
Long story short, the original surgery did not go well. He almost died, and it began a process of three years of multiple surgeries, long hospital stays, uncertainty and stress and fear. We didn’t know whether he was going to actually be able to survive it, to live a normal life, to have the life that we had hoped that we would have. I still get a little emotional thinking about it.
It was a really rough time on both of us individually, on our relationship. In addition to that, in June of 2021, my dad died quite unexpectedly. And he was in Nova Scotia. I hadn’t been able to see him during the short time that he was sick. The death was unexpected and we couldn’t gather together as a family to process that because of COVID.
So these two things, combined with the fact that I had always had anxiety from the time I was a child, cumulated in me developing a full-blown anxiety disorder. I was having panic attacks. I was experiencing OCD type behaviors where I remember leaving the house and just being so freaked out that I was gonna lose my keys. They were gonna fall out of some hole in my pocket that didn’t exist and I was never gonna be able to get back in because Michel was in the hospital and there was no one around. So it got to some pretty extreme points.
One of the things that was happening with this anxiety disorder as well was that the symptoms of it were mimicking the symptoms of COVID. And so I was constantly in this struggle of “I might be sick, I might have COVID” and all the stress that went with that, but “I can’t go into the hospital. I can’t visit with Michel and help him out and support him and do the things I need to do because I don’t wanna make anybody sick”.
And so it was this constant battle that just added fuel to the fire.
Where this story is going in my 3 years of yuck is that it all culminated in what I like to call the “washer guy story”.
So we call my husband’s hospital stays season one, season two and season three because there was three of them.
And this was in season two, which was a particularly long and stressful stay. And our washing machine broke. So we needed to get a new washing machine. So the day comes and the washer guy comes in to install the new washing machine, and he’s got a mask on and he’s working away on the installation and I’m doing my thing.
About halfway through his visit, he took his mask off. And for whatever reason, I felt like I couldn’t ask him to put it back on. And as my anxiety started to rise, I started to go into this space of spiraling. And when he left, I lost it. I was running around the house. I had three fans set up. All the doors and windows open, in the middle of the winter, trying to blow out what I believed were the germs that he must have left behind that were going to impact me and impact Michel.
I had bleach and I was wiping everything that I thought he even might have touched in a frantic effort to soothe my anxiety. And about halfway through this, I tripped over one of the cords of the fan, landed flat on my back on the floor, spilling bleach all over everything. And I laid there for a moment, and then I started to laugh.
Because the ridiculous of it all just hit me. I’m sure part of it was some of that hysterical laughter. Part of it was, if I don’t laugh, I’m gonna cry. But whatever it was, that laughter turned into a real release for me. And it started me thinking.
But what really got me thinking is telling this story to a friend as something that was funny. And she said to me, “You know, Marla, probably that’s why you’re so resilient in, in this experience and just in life in general, is that you always find the funny and you always use laughter to work through things”.
And you know, at that moment it hit me like a washing machine to the head. I had always used laughter in my life to cope with difficulties, just as she said. At work, in relationships, in my own personal growth. And it wasn’t that I was using it as a distraction, as not even just as a coping mechanism, a way through, but also as a way in.
To be able to think differently myself, to shift my perspective to change patterns. And also with other people – to disrupt and reset the energy of various situations to help myself and them get unstuck.
And the more I thought about it, the more I thought: “Marla, there must be something to this”.
So with that in mind, I took a deep dive into the research, because I’m a bit of a research geek, to figure out what it was all about.
Now, I bet you didn’t know this because I didn’t know it, but there’s actually a scientific study of laughter. It’s called Gelotology. Coined by a man named William Fry in the 1960s.
Now, contrary to what I had hoped, it’s not named after Jello. Gelos is actually the ancient Greek word for the term laughter, which actually makes a lot more sense.
And what I discovered that there’s decades of research that show that laughter works, not just as an accident or a happy reaction, but as regulation.
Laughter actually disrupts the stress cycle. When stress hits , your brain narrows its focus, looking for threats. It’s preparing itself for survival. And that’s really helpful if you’re being chased by a bear. But not so much if you’re trying to think clearly, if you’re trying to communicate effectively or even just get through the day-to-day in life.
But what laughter does is actually shifts your physiology. It decreases stress hormones such as cortisol and epinephrine. It acts as a natural painkiller because it releases endorphins, your body’s feel-good hormones. And it increases oxygen to the brain, which is what we need to think clearly.
And research is really clear on all those physical benefits of laughter. And of course it’s true, because anytime you reduce your stress alone, it has positive impacts and benefits for your physical form. They don’t say that laughter is the best medicine for nothing.
Laughter also helps lower resistance. As your brain shifts out of threat mode, we lower our defenses and we’re able to think more clearly and become more open to different ideas, different perspective, different ways of thinking. And there’s tons of research as well that shows that laughter increases and improves our ability to be creative and to problem solve because again, we’re relaxed. We have more oxygen flowing, and we’re no longer looking around for that threat.
And then there’s a relationship component with that, which I’m particularly interested in. Because laughter also releases the bonding hormone, oxytocin, which is what babies actually get when they’re breastfeeding. And that hormone helps us connect to others. It helps us build trust and safety with the people around us. And you probably know that yourself. When people laugh together, they immediately trust each other more. They find a common ground. I know I’ve had lots of experiences where I’ve met, you know, strangers and in the short conversation we have, we somehow share a giggle and that helps us know, yes, this is somebody I can trust. This is somebody that I don’t have to feel threatened by. It’s a very old physiological reaction, that response to threat, and one that our laughter works to soothe.
One of my favorite theories about social bonding – there were some researchers in, 2002 who were linking the social bonding aspect of laughter to what apes and monkeys do, which is nitpicking.
So in that primate world, in order to have social bonds and connect with each other and have that pleasure response of being with each other, apes pick nits off each other. So laughter, these researchers speculated, does the same thing for humans.
So I love to have that image when I’m making people laugh. It’s really just me picking nits off them and, showing them that I love them. So there’s an image that can stick in your mind as well.
Now, having learned all this, I thought: Whoa. If laughter has all these benefits when we’re using it pretty much by accident, imagine if we used it on purpose what could happen!
And it was from there that my Laughter IntelligenceTM framework was born. And for me, Laughter Intelligence is about learning how to use laughter intentionally to improve our lives and our relationships, both with ourselves and each other.
And for me even more than that, the power of laughter is so much more than just learning when to giggle. It’s about that place that laughter takes us to. That space where stress is low and there’s feelings of love, of connection, of relief.
Because that’s the space of positivity. And because we’re feeling that in the moment and focusing on that type of energy, there’s less room for negativity because what you focus on expands.
And so that’s gotta be good, right? More focus on positive, less focus on negative. Good for ourselves, good for our relationships. Quite frankly, good for the world.
And so that’s why laughter. And hopefully that piques your interest in learning more, and certainly we’ll do that in upcoming episodes. But it’s also a great segue into the next segment of our program, which is the Laughter Lever. Because every episode I wanna make sure I give you practical strategies and takeaways that you can use right now for more intentional laughter in your life.
So one of the pillars of Laughter Intelligence, the framework I’ve developed, is L, which is leveraging laughter. And laughter, like other similar feelings of joy and gratitude, and those things that shift us from the negative to the positive, can sometimes be really hard to conjure up. Some days, even finding something to laugh about can be hard.
But the good news is our brains truly aren’t smart enough to always know the difference between fake and real. That’s where the term fake it ‘til you make it comes in. So we can activate the same positive benefits of laughter even on the toughest days.
So I always consider myself particularly lucky, and this isn’t something I’ve told a lot of people, but I was actually born with something called IGG. And you may have been born with it too and may not even know it.
IGG stands for Internal Giggle Generator. And what that means is that I can actually turn laughter or a giggle on and off at will. Something like this.
[imagine giggles turning to full blown laughter here]
Yeah, sometimes it’s easier to turn on than it is to turn off. Because the thing is oftentimes when we start out with a fake laughter, because it’s so contagious and infectious, it instantly or pretty soon turns into real laughter. And you see that in groups, and you would’ve seen that here today. If we were together in one room, my laughter would’ve sparked your laughter, which would’ve sparked someone else’s laughter.
Laughter is actually only one of two of these automatic responses that we have as humans that are contagious. The other one is a yawn.
So I encourage you to check out and see if you actually have IGG as well, and try that in your life. Practice it on your own. You can even take it out into the world. I mean, I don’t know if I’d recommend you immediately go out and start laughing randomly in public. Because you might get some strange looks. But you know, maybe you like a strange look. I always do once in a while ’cause at least you know people are paying attention.
But in any case, I encourage you to check out your own IGG and see where you can bring that into your life.
And now, one of my favorite parts of the program, the Laughter Lounge. Because my hope is that this isn’t just going to be a podcast, but that it’s going to be a platform to build community. Somewhere where we as people thinking in a common way about bringing positivity into the world and learning to use laughter intentionally can connect and grow and really help redefine how change happens.
So I would love to hear from you. Tell me about your experience with IGG. Tell me about what you’ve been laughing about. Send me pictures or videos of things that have made you giggle. Send in questions about places where you’re wondering, “how can I leverage laughter in this place in my life?”
And what I would like to do is to be able to share those here in the Laughter Lounge, so that we can learn from each other and share those experiences and those giggles together. And in particular, you know, if you’ve got a laugh that launched a thousand laughs, I’d love to have a recording of that so that we can play it to help each other leverage our own laughter.
So you can drop that information in the comments below if you’re able. Connect with me on Instagram, or you can send an email through my website at [email protected]. And send those in ’cause it’s a little lonely here in the Laughter Lounge right now. There’s nobody here. But hopefully next episode I’ll have some insights and learnings to share with all of you from our listeners.
So what’s around the corner? What’s next on Laughter Revolution? Well, speaking of focus, it turns out that I’ve shifted mine in the last few months from work to adventure. Because on June 14th, I’m heading out on a six-month solo adventure traveling around the world. But don’t worry, I’m taking y’all with me.
It’s gonna be really a personal growth journey for me as well as a great adventure. So over the next six months, I’m going to be continuing with the podcast and sharing stories and insights and adventures that I’m having on the road about all things growth and giggles.
Sometimes it’ll be just me. Sometimes I’m hoping to have guests come in from different cultures and countries that can talk about their experience with laughter, which should be great fun and great learning.
I am calling my journey “Where Laughter, Learning, and Luggage Collide”. And as I come face to face with opportunities to combine giggles with growth, I’m gonna share them with you.
So I hope that you’ll stay tuned. Next episode, I’m going to actually share more about the demons that I needed to battle with laughter to make this happen. So I do hope that you’ll join me.
Well, that’s it for this episode, but remember, the conversation doesn’t stop here. Comment below or connect with me on social media or through my email so that I can answer your questions, share your stories, and giggles, and experiences in the Laughter Lounge. If you enjoyed this episode and know that you want more, hit the subscribe button now.
And also feel free to pass on this link to anyone you think might wanna join the Revolution with us and really would enjoy a giggle and some growth in their life.
Thanks so much for being here. I’m Marla Simlett and this is Laughter Revolution. Until next time, remember:
Laugh more, be well, become your greatest you.
