Laughter is the best antidepressant. We understand better why more and more carefree adults are taking up laughter yoga and other activities inspired by “fun therapy”. The principle is simple and starts from the bottom of the belly, more precisely from the famous diaphragm, already solicited for breathing. To banter, to laugh, allows you to play down the drama, to take life with more lightness. Contagious, this complete muscular exercise (with recognized anti-stress and anti-aging properties) is welcome to defuse tension.
If you apprehend the burial heads around the New Year’s Eve table, take these collective laughter exercises out of your secret weapon. Your biggest challenge? Convince your charming hosts to lend themselves to the game and above all, do not be afraid of ridicule. Chick!
An unusual welcome
Welcome your guests unexpectedly by taking small steps towards each one, hands joined and leaning over while saying HI-HANG before hugging them while laughing.
happy music
Rather than nostalgic and unexciting Christmas music such as “Mon beau sapin” or “Vive le vent”, warm up the atmosphere by playing a joyful song, at random “Happy” by Pharell Williams, “les Sardines” by Patrick Sebastien or again “Volare” by Gipsy King. The idea is not to impose your musical tastes (the more ridiculous the song, the more likely it is to amuse the gallery) but to instil a festive and positive character into the evening. And who knows maybe Aunt Jacqueline, who hasn’t said a word since her plate of oysters, will start singing a song?
A crazy toast
When toasting with a glass of champagne, instead of saying “Health” or “Ouistiti” (if some still dare to say it), ask everyone to laugh while raising their glass.
Parseltongue in coffee
At the coffee or between the cheese or the dessert, suggest to the table to pronounce these “tongue twisters” without forking: “Are the Archduchess’s socks dry, archi-dry?” ; “Five dogs are hunting six cats” ; “six hundred saws saw six hundred sausages”, etc. Mess-ups and laughs guaranteed.
A collective song
Does your family love the hits of French song like Monday in the Sun by Claude François? Improvise a special karaoke: ask the guests to transform the lyrics of the songs by changing all the vowels to I, for example. Also “Monday in the sun, it’s something you’ll never have” becomes “Li lindi i silil, ci ine chise qu’i n’iri jimi”.
Find more fun tips for decompressing in “50 Laughter Exercises”by Joëlle Cuvilliez and Martine Medjber-Leigner, Eyrolles editions.
>> To read also: Our holiday file
Christmas: how not to stress before D-Day
