Fake it until you make it–it works!
I saw a bit of a show on laughter. You probably won’t be surprised at this point that I cannot remember what show or even whether it was on television or the computer! At any rate there apparently is some research that indicates that even if you fake a smile or laugh, your mood will improve. In what appeared to be another country, a woman was leading a diverse group of people in, well laughing. The group would chant together “ha ha hee hee hee” over and over. Eventually everyone was truly laughing and the group appeared to be happy.
So tonight homework wasn’t going so well. My daughter just could not focus on her math and was very frustrated. We were both frustrated. It is always my goal (notice I said goal, I don’t always achieve this goal) to keep schoolwork enjoyable, or at least not unpleasant. I didn’t worry about this with my older children (just ask them!) but she is delayed and in addition to school, attends quite a bit of tutoring and therapy. So far she loves school and all her teachers and therapists, so I don’t want to mess that up by making homework miserable.
Anyway, tonight it was not going well. I was completely out of ideas when suddenly a picture of the woman leading the laughter group flashed through my head. Unfortunately it was not accompanied by the sound track, so I improvised. I said everybody say what I say: “Ha ha who who who.” Nobody joined in but I did have their attention. After a couple of minutes it started coming back and I remembered the chant resembled a laugh, and realized that” who who who” was probably not right, unless you are leading owls. Nonetheless, by the time I came to this realization both my little ones were giggling, so mission accomplished.
After a few minutes of fun, she settled right down and finished her homework! And we were all happier.
p.s. for those of you too shy to try this at the office, I read or heard somewhere else that I can’t remember, that holding a pencil in your teeth sort of forces your mouth into a smile like position and has the same happy effect.
on Monday, January 28, 2013