Unlocking Joy: The Healing Power of Laughter with Dr. Erica Buchholz

Show Notes for Episode 100: Unlocking Joy: The Healing Power of Laughter with Dr. Erica Buchholz

Episode Summary:
In this special 100th episode of the Adventures in Learning podcast, we delve into the incredible benefits of laughter with Dr. Erica Buchholz of becomingplayful.com. Discover how laughter can reduce stress, boost creativity, and improve overall well-being. Dr. Erica shares her journey from burnout to using her understanding of applied developmental psychology for finding joy and healing through laughter. She explains the science behind laughter yoga and provides practical tips for incorporating laughter into your daily routine. Plus, enjoy a fun laughter exercise featuring imaginary confetti and glitter!

Episode Highlights:

• The benefits of laughter for stress relief and creativity
• The science behind laughter yoga and its impact on the nervous system
• Dr. Erica's personal journey from burnout to becoming a laughter yoga expert
• Practical tips for combating burnout with laughter and self-care practices
• A special laughter exercise to brighten your day

Key Chapters:
1. The Power of Play and Laughter (0:00:03 - 0:13:43)
   - Celebrating the 100th episode with a laughter exercise
   - Dr. Erica's journey and the benefits of laughter yoga
   - The science behind laughter and its positive effects
   - Resources on becomingplayful.com

2. Laughter Yoga and Child Development (0:13:43 - 0:23:08)
   - Dr. Erica's career shift and discovery of laughter yoga
   - Teaching stress management to parents and children
   - Personal stories, including her son learning emotional regulation

3. Healing Through Laughter and Play (0:23:08 - 0:26:08)
   - Techniques for combating burnout, such as scheduling brief laughter sessions
   - Accessible self-care practices like breathing exercises
   - A joyful laughter exercise with imaginary confetti and glitter

Connect with Dr. Erica Buchholz:
Dr. Erica Buchholz's website: becomingplayful.com

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Episode Credits:
Host: Dr. Diane Jackson Schnoor
Guest: Dr. Erica Buchholz
Producer and Editor: Dr. Diane Jackson Schnoor

Special Thanks:
To all our listeners for joining us on this 100-episode journey!

Next Episode Teaser:
Tune in next week as we celebrate the freedom to read and explore the power of storytelling with our special guest Beth Ferry.

Transcript

00:03 - Dr. Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
so, Erica, I'm actually gonna have you take the lead as we start this hundredth episode. Start us off with some laughter

00:11 - Dr. Erica Buchholz (Guest)
 okay, take your finger.

00:14
either hand doesn't matter. Okay, put it on your nose all right finger on the nose and giggle Congratulations, you have just participated in your first laughter game of the day.

00:47 - Dr. Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
Excellent. So welcome to the 100th episode of the Adventures in Learning podcast, and we have such a treat for you today Erica Buchholz, who is the most amazing doctor of play and laughter I have ever met. She is the founder of becomingplayful.com and she is going to be joining us for a big dose of play and laughter on today's episode of the Adventures in Learning Podcast. Erica, welcome.

01:12 - Dr. Erica Buchholz (Guest)
Thank you so much.

01:13 - Dr. Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
It's so exciting to be here, so thank you for starting us off with a laugh and for those who are listening. You're going to get more opportunities for that later, but I wanted to start by having you describe what becomingplayful.com is.

01:28 - Dr. Erica Buchholz (Guest)
Absolutely so I've gone through a whole bunch of nonsense in my life just like everybody else right and I've tried all the things to try to feel better, but what I've absolutely come to over and over and over again is that play is the way for me to feel better, to let go of the stress and to make better life choices, and it works out really well for the kiddos in my life too my kids and then the other kids that are around me and that I help support. So I came across laughter yoga, which is silly sounding but it is merely intentional laughter with the goal of feeling better, lowering your stress hormones, increasing your heart rate and breathing and just helping you feel happier.

02:16 - Dr. Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
And I met Dr Erica at the Play Coalition in Indianapolis this past year and I was in a room of probably close to 100 adults all laughing just like we did at the beginning. And these are adults who are in all walks of life. You had educators, librarians, you had doctors, you had researchers, you had people who were all about bringing play into everybody's life. What is the role of laughter in helping us to do better as educators, as parents, as family members, as doctors, lawyers, street sweepers, whatever we do?

02:55 - Dr. Erica Buchholz (Guest)
Yeah, play and silliness can be the breaking of the ice. Right, it is an intentional tool we can use to feel better and and intellectually, we just know that play feels good. Right, as kids, we do this all the time. They play, they run around, they make up rules to games and then change them in the middle and they have a great time. There's not a whole lot of structure and it works. As grown-ups we kind of forget how to do that. There's some stigma attached. You say, oh, let's join a play workshop to a bunch of grownups and they're all like, oh no, no, this isn't professional, I can't. I can't do this.

03:29
However, play is really the way of being creative without a lot of rules attached to it, and laughter is a really good way to turn the play on, turn your right hemisphere on and allow you to be creative. So laughter yoga is one way of turning on your right hemisphere. You make the choice to giggle, even if it feels weird, even if it looks strange. You make the choice to laugh because it changes your body systems and also makes you feel really good.

04:00 - Dr. Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
And I don't know about you, but I'm actually feeling a nice little buzz after the laughter we did to start this.

04:07 - Dr. Erica Buchholz (Guest)
Absolutely.

04:08 - Dr. Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
So when I saw you, one of the things you talked about that I was really struck by is the science behind laughter and why laughter and play are so important for us, whether we're three or 103. Do you mind sharing a little bit of the science for our listeners?

04:25 - Dr. Erica Buchholz (Guest)
Absolutely so. The laughter itself is great for a whole bunch of things. I think the real moneymaker is the deep breathing that comes along with it, because when you laugh fake or real doesn't matter you have to breathe in afterwards right, and that deep breathing helps reset everything. So you got sympathetic nervous system, parasympathetic nervous system. Ultimately, the laughter resets your parasympathetic nervous system, which is your like rest and digest system, allowing new, good, fresh air and oxygen into your body.

05:03
A good deep laugh gets all the old, yucky stuff out of the bottom of your lungs, gets that out, decreases stress, cortisol, stress hormones, increases dopamine and turns a whole bunch of other neurotransmitters going the way that they're supposed to to give you that sense of relief. Plus, it turns on your right hemisphere, your creative side. Like I can't think of anything else that does all of those things so quickly. You didn't have to take a pill, you didn't have to get an injection, you didn't have to, you know, go through something scary. You are in control of that immediately. And the last thing I will say, brain-wise, is that your brain does not know the difference between fake, pretend, forced laughter and the genuine stuff, like. All of these things happen even when you pretend to laugh, and most of them happen, even if you just watch somebody else laugh and you don't even laugh.

06:00 - Dr. Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
It's wild it's so fun. So if you're watching this video and you're watching us do this, even if you're not laughing yourself, you're getting benefits from seeing us laugh.

06:09 - Dr. Erica Buchholz (Guest)
Yes.

06:10 - Dr. Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
Crazy. That's amazing and I know you offer. On the Becoming Play website, there is an opportunity to receive a number of activities that you can use in terms of laughter yoga. Can you describe a couple of those or take us through a couple of those?

06:27 - Dr. Erica Buchholz (Guest)
Absolutely so the quick reminders that I'll give about laughter yoga is one. You cannot do this wrong, so don't worry. If you do it differently than we do, it, it's fine. Two if it hurts, stop. If you're laughing and it's uncomfortable, go slower, go easier, take some deep breaths, and even just simply watching feels good. So if you're in a place where you're like I'm really not going to laugh out loud right now it's fine, it's all right, it's good. Watch again later and do it again later when you feel more comfortable doing it.

06:59
Okay, so let's do. Let's just do, giggle it out. So you're just gonna take a deep breath in, deep breath out, deep breath in hold it, hold it. Okay, now just giggle it out. Sometimes I lose myself.

07:34 - Dr. Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
today, and then when you laugh, it's contagious and you can't stop laughing beautiful.

07:45 - Dr. Erica Buchholz (Guest)
Okay, let's do another one called fill the balloon. So we're just going to take your hands and you are going to fill up the balloon, but we're going to fill it up with laughter. So you're going to take your hands and you are going to fill up the balloon, but we're going to fill it up with laughter. So you're going to go and now we're going to squish the balloon and all the giggles are going to come out. So the point of this is that you could do anything at all to make the laughter come. The laughter games are just a silly way to access them.

08:27 - Dr. Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
And how much laughter do you recommend a day for somebody?

08:31 - Dr. Erica Buchholz (Guest)
So I think 20 minutes tends to be a really good sweet spot. What I will say is, if you're not used to laughing for an extended period of time, it can feel really long to aim for 20 minutes and it can be like a whole cardio workout. So I also tell people do what feels good. If it hurts, stop right, like. And if you go much, much more beyond 20 minutes, 30 minutes, if you hit into like 50 minutes, you can kind of feel really lightheaded because you're doing a ton of deep breathing which you know you feel like walking around lightheaded, I mean, I guess that's your choice.

09:07
But I would err on. The 20 minute tends to be really good and a lot of laughter. Yoga classes will go for about 30 minutes and have like a period at the end where it's like a laughter meditation where you laugh for two, three or five minutes straight and that can feel totally wild and fun. But normally you're sitting down or laying down so that you don't fall over.

09:31 - Dr. Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
Probably a really good idea. So if you were an educator and you wanted to apply this in a classroom with kids, how would you go about doing this? Because you might not be able to pull 20 minutes at a time.

09:48 - Dr. Erica Buchholz (Guest)
So what would you suggest for an educator? Yeah, I think knowing classroom management is so important. Whether you were with the kindergartners or you're with the 11th graders, I think the laughter works best as a transition tool. Right, you tell everybody, you practice it beforehand. A laughter game is this you can always end a laughter game with very good, very good, yay, and then three big breaths to reset and it settles everybody down and then you can give that next. Here's what we're doing next, or let's now go line up, or whatever. It's a really good transition tool. And when you've got the kids who are around and not really able to listen, not really attend in, if everybody starts giggling together for whatever reason, it's a great attention grabber.

10:33 - Dr. Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
So you can tend to get the ones who are on the edge to kind of come in and then settle in after that Well and I love that because you just kind of touched on a couple of really key things, I think, for educators, in that there's that classroom management and I think also the executive function that you're trying to help kids learn, cognitive flexibility to be able to move into their line, the working memory and that inhibitory control and knowing when it's appropriate to stop and when, or start and stop, and it sounds like you can do this in very short segments if you practice and teach it.

11:11 - Dr. Erica Buchholz (Guest)
Absolutely, and I mean emotional regulation. It doesn't have to always be like here's the lesson on emotional regulation this is it, this is that practice, right? Especially when you know their bodies are like going crazy, right, exactly, but you're not really going to PE next. Can everybody stand up? I actually don't know where I came up with jellyfish laughter. I think it was like a conversation without jellyfish don't have bones, so would they move like this? I mean, I don't think I've ever seen a jellyfish actually move like this. Right, that's what we assume here in this household that jellyfish dancing would look like this.

11:52
And so you can have kids intentionally stand up or sit down if that's what they prefer again, can't do it wrong and you do 20 seconds of jellyfish dancing and giggling at the same time and then you can get some of that big body energy out. You can do some of that like intentional physical energy, push out, release right, and then you can take the big breath to kind of resettle and help them feel and you and you can describe in the moment.

12:17
Like what did your body feel like when you're going like this? Does it feel like prickles and points and wiggles and giggles? And then when you sit down and you take those big breaths, are you feeling that shaking, kind of calming down? That's what it means to come back. You could teach them the word grounded, if that means something to them, or connected whatever feels right for your age group, because I've never met any human who doesn't need more of this right I don't know how old they are, and what a fun way to do it right absolutely calm and quiet.

12:48
Some people are really good at calm, quiet meditation. I've been trying for a lot of years and I'm still not good at that. This I can do. I can giggle and breathe and I think I get the same kinds of benefits.

13:20 - Dr. Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
So, Dr Erica, that was a really good transition, and what I'm wondering is how did you start on your own adventures in learning? I can't imagine you as a little girl thought I'm going to grow up and be a play doctor. I'm going to teach people how to laugh. So what was that transition? Tell us about your adventures in learning.

13:42 - Dr. Erica Buchholz (Guest)
Yeah. So I got my graduate degree. I got my doctorate in applied developmental psychology. I really thought I was going to go in and support kiddos with autism for my whole career and I've done that for a really long time and I absolutely love it. But I had a baby, and when I had a baby my commute got really bad. So I needed to change and so I tried on some other roles and things like this, and then I got really burnt out. I didn't know about burnout, I didn't know about regulating my own stress. I had a lot of body pain. I didn't understand.

14:15
So I went on a health journey to figure out what in the world was happening and ultimately one day I was feeling really bad and so I googled something like how to feel better now, and the first thing that popped up was something called laughter yoga and I said no, there's no possible way. That's, that's real. So I had to Google it more, because that that's who I am. I'm a researcher at heart and apparently it's very real. It's created by a doctor and used throughout the world. It's got these huge research studies that support it plus, just again, common sense wise. You understand, laughing makes me feel better, so that's a pretty easy in for me. So I went down, I got certified with my sister who is as silly as I am and came back and realized that laughter could be one of the tools I use to get out of burnout.

15:04
And as I was doing that, I already knew I wanted to start my business, and so I shoved them both together at the same time, because I apparently never do one thing at a time. So I shoved them together and I got my coaching certification and I've been teaching kiddos since I was in high school. My mom had a dance studio and I used to teach kiddos there and I volunteered at my cousin's autism school. So I have been around kiddos and doing this for a long time, even without the words. But when I started the business, I said no, I'm intentionally bringing this to the humans, because it makes you feel so much better and it's so fast, and not only does it help the grownups, but the grownups can help the kiddos.

15:45
And I didn't know what to do with my stress when I was a kiddo. I just I didn't have the words, I didn't know what to do, and having the tools of even just being like what is anxiety? That's a word I didn't even know that was a word when I was a kid, right, and what does it mean for your body to feel funky and what do you do with that? Like you could put it in your imaginary box and you can put it on the shelf and you can come back to it later if you want to Like these tools I never had as a kid. I really love presenting them in a way that feels light and easy and they can access them when they need them.

16:20 - Dr. Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
So do you do? Is it one-on-one consulting? Are you going to classrooms? Tell us a little bit about where you go to find people or what you do.

16:29 - Dr. Erica Buchholz (Guest)
Absolutely. I do a little bit of everything because that's who I am. So I do one-on-ones with parents and their kiddos. I'll do one-on-ones with just the parents, because sometimes their stress is so big. Help manage that stress, get it to feel manageable and then teach the tools which they can bring home right. Most of the times, anything I teach with the parents, they're just going to bring it home and then their kiddos learn it from there.

16:52
I also do laughter yoga classes online and in person. So if you need to know when the schedule is, you send me an email and I'll let you know when the next class is. And I am moving into doing larger in-person workshops in my local area too, because it's just so silly to get together with a group of people and have the kiddos with you and everybody's just giggling and playing and talking about the topic at hand. So, whether that is, how do you make play possible at home when you're all so busy all the time? Okay, and using stories either from your childhood or the books that you have at home to teach the things you wanna teach, but not in a? Okay, we're gonna learn about this now. How can we make it a little bit more silly. We know kids access that information so much faster and it gets absorbed and coded so much faster when you can make it fun and silly and attached to something that feels good to picture books connected to explanation and demonstration and meeting other people who are involved in that field.

18:06 - Dr. Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
All of those things sort of help ground the knowledge, and so it sounds to me like this is sort of one more layer, that you're giving kids a way to be able to communicate and express themselves and get in touch with their deeper emotions.

18:22 - Dr. Erica Buchholz (Guest)
Absolutely. My son came home from school one day and he was like we learned about the brain today and this is something you told me. I was like, oh, cool, what in the world did I tell you? I talk about a lot of things. Tell me he makes his hand like this and he's like this is the brain. And he's telling me all the different parts. And he goes, and inside is the messy amygdala. I was like wait what? And he goes the amygdala is the inside. That's the part with all the emotions and all the crazy feelings that I have. I was like, yeah, you're exactly right.

18:50
So he's telling me all about what he learned at school and he said something like you know, that time I was really angry about my. I probably got monster truck broke or something. I don't remember't remember because that was my amygdala yelling and screaming. That's like you're right. And he's like so. So I did the big deep breaths, like you told me, and it calmed it down. He's like that's what I gotta do. It's like, oh my gosh, yes, your list, it's getting in. Yes, absolutely. And he's like I told my friends at school take deep breaths.

19:23
Oh, I love it, I'm like oh my gosh, it's working right, Like all the things we're all doing, everything we're trying, it's working. Teaching him about the brain and giving him words for the different parts of his brain has helped him to see like it's real and it's actionable and you can have influence over it, Not just the picture at school. So I loved the whole arc that happened.

19:49 - Dr. Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
The whole thing connected and I think that's beautiful. You know I love picture books, so I'm going to ask the question are there particular picture books you like to use when you're working with kids?

20:00 - Dr. Erica Buchholz (Guest)
My favorite one is Key and the magic sunglasses. Have you seen this one yet?

20:04 - Dr. Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
Oh yeah.

20:06 - Dr. Erica Buchholz (Guest)
So what I like the most about this one is, you know, he goes through and he meets all of his different friends. He meets the grumpy toad and everybody else. So he walks around, he's got these big magic blue sunglasses and he puts them on and it changes the way that you see the world, and so he goes through and he meets the grumpy character and he meets the sad character and the frustrated character.

20:25
And I'm going to pull the quote up because I love how he says it these cool blue magic sunglasses make the blues go away. They help you see the things in a whole new way. So then they put the sunglasses on, they say, ooh, the birds are singing, the sky is bright, the sun is shining, I'm feeling all right. So that alone, spectacular right.

20:46 - Dr. Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
Right.

20:48 - Dr. Erica Buchholz (Guest)
At the end the glasses break. No, the drama right. Then he looks at the wise owl and he goes Pete. I love how, like I feel, the owl right. You don't need magic sunglasses to see things in a new way. Just remember to look for the good in every day. And they think that laughter is the same thing as those glasses. It is a great priming mechanism. You laugh and then the world looks different because you got your dopamine up, your cortisol down, down, like it is the same thing. And I love to show them that you have magic sunglasses in you already in lots of ways, and one of them is laughter.

21:31
So let's giggle a little bit and then let's talk about how you feel, because I bet it's better than you felt before you started laughing.

21:39 - Dr. Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
So I love the idea that we have our own magic sunglasses and that's our laughter. That is so awesome. It really is. So if you are a teacher who is facing burnout and I think that that's probably one of the biggest issues facing education today is teacher burnout. Are there some? I know there's no quick fixes, but are there a couple of things they could do just to shift gears and pull themselves out of that?

22:10 - Dr. Erica Buchholz (Guest)
Yeah, I think you, you know as much as you can, depending on youry angry, sad feeling, and it's just so hard to figure out what to do. If you can come up with a phrase that feels even 3% true, that feels more empowering than the other things that you know are going through, I hate this. This is ridiculous. Why do I have to do this? They're all so blah, blah, blah. All of those, okay, but if you can find like a three percent truth phrase for me during mine it was this will pass. So I got a bracelet that said this will pass. Just because I needed a physical reminder when I couldn't access it intellectually, I wore the bracelet all of the time and just this will pass, this will pass. And that felt at least 3% true. So I used that in combination with literally scheduled laughter. I wouldn't do it on my own, otherwise, just like I wouldn't go to the gym and I wouldn't eat healthy food. I didn't do any of those things. That was too hard at that point, but I scheduled in laughter because I knew, if I did it for 20 seconds, that I could tell past Erica and future Erica that I tried, I showed up, I did what I needed to do today. It's 20 seconds. It's giggling. I need no materials. I could do it in the bathroom. I can do it at home. I could do it in the bathroom. I can do it at home. I could do it when nobody's around. I can do it in the car. I could do it on a lunch break that was accessible to me.

23:47
So I would encourage you to find a phrase that feels a little bit true and force yourself to laugh for 20 seconds, if you have to, as you get out of that burnout feeling and that heaviness. You can access more right. You can work on the good, healthy foods, if that feels right. You can move your body more. If that feels right. You can reach out for help. There's so many humans who are helping people with burnout. You can find the right ones, whether it's a therapist or a coach or a mentor, whoever. Wherever you're at, wherever your zone is right, and then, as if the only thing you can access is your breath, just breathe and breathe, and breathe and breathe. And that works too. Even if the laughter is too hard, the breathing will absolutely work.

24:34 - Dr. Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
Wonderful. Well, thank you so much for sharing all of that with us. Today You've been listening to the 100th episode of the Adventures in Learning podcast. I would love it if you would give us a review, if you would share this with your friends. Download, subscribe all the good stuff. If you want to find more and learn more about what Dr Erica Buchholz is doing, where do they find you?

24:58 - Dr. Erica Buchholz (Guest)
It's becomingplayful.com. That's all nice and easy. 

25:02 - Dr. Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
And Erica, would you lead us out with one more laughter exercise, cause that feels like it's the perfect way to end this episode. 

25:09 - Dr. Erica Buchholz (Guest)
Absolutely so. It's your 100th episode, so we're totally going to do confetti laughter, right? So the scoop up all the confetti that you have around. You have it everywhere, I know you do. It's some sparkle dust in there. Get some glitter. Even if you have around you have it everywhere, I know you do. Get some sparkle dust in there. Get some glitter. Even if you'd hate glitter, it's fine. 

25:26 - Dr. Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
This is special disappearing glitter I was gonna say well, you don't have to clean it up. 

25:30 - Dr. Erica Buchholz (Guest)
Exactly, it's magical, okay. So you're gonna put it all in your hand, you're gonna shake it three times one, two, three and we're gonna throw it and laugh and all this happy confetti is falling on you and it's everywhere. Thank you so much. You are welcome.