Month: March 2025

“Harmony with land is like harmony with a friend; you cannot cherish his right hand and chop off his left.” Aldo Leopold.

I was dismayed to watch the public spat between Presidents Trump and Zelensky and Vice President JD Vance in the Oval Office last Friday in front of the assembled media and tv audiences. It was so sad and unedifying that there should be such open anger and hostility given all the lives that have been lost in the three-year war between Russia and Ukraine. Surely, there was a better way for the participants to communicate and conduct themselves.

It’s sad that there is so much negativity, disagreement and conflict in the world. Opinions seem to be getting more and more polarised. I believe the world needs to move to a more harmonious state. When there’s more harmony people are more peaceful and tend to agree with each other more. It means that things seem to be right in the world and perspectives seem to be more balanced.

Some of the challenges in the world are outside of our sphere of control and influence. It’s difficult for us to persuade people with deeply held beliefs and views to look at things in a different way and maybe see things from other people’s perspectives.

Whilst we may not be able to influence some of the cultural and political conflicts, we can seek to ensure that we help to create and promote harmony in the environments we operate in and in our relationships.

We are the conductors of our own life and the relationships we have are like an orchestra. When all the instruments are in sync, tuned and in harmony with one another it creates a great sound. When one instrument happens to be out of tune, it has a negative impact on the sound and things become discordant.

It’s important that we spend time ensuring that we are in harmony with those important people in our life. On occasions we also need to take some time out to ensure that we are in tune with ourselves. This includes ensuring that our actions are aligned with our values and beliefs. When they are, life flows effortlessly and we feel at peace.

Creating harmony in groups requires effort, commitment and practice. When you’re able to encourage and influence a group of people to be in harmony then they become a very powerful unit.

We create greater harmony in our relationships by accepting people as they are rather than how we would like them to be. We can reinforce this by encouraging people to express their unique talents and grow and evolve in the way that they wish to.

When we show greater empathy and compassion towards people, we automatically signal our desire for peaceful and harmonious relationships. Different opinions and points of view can be aired in this way without things becoming too heated or tense.

We also create more harmony by releasing our expectations about the standards we expect people to follow. When we do this, we don’t set ourselves up for disappointment further down the line.

Harmony in relationships also flows from having an intention to create clarity in communication. We do this by committing to developing an understanding of where people are coming from rather than sticking to our own point of view rigidly.

When we are inflexible in our thinking and approach, we can fall into the trap of always thinking “I’m right, you’re wrong.” Quite often there isn’t a right or wrong just a different perspective and view.

In the event that conflict does arise, we can navigate it calmly by listening deeply to what people have to say and asking questions to get to the heart of what they are feeling and thinking.

Imagine how the world would be positively transformed if we were all to make a commitment to create more harmony in it.

This week, why not pause for a few moments to reflect. Consider what action you can take to create and promote greater harmony in your life.

To arrange a free no obligation consultation, please contact Stephen Pauley via the contact form or by e mail: Stephen@befirstclass.co.uk;

“A day without laughter is a day wasted.” Charlie Chaplin.

Recently, I was interested to learn that NHS Trials are underway to see if “comedy on prescription” can help improve people’s mental health and reduce NHS costs by being an alternative to antidepressants. The scheme will offer stand-up and workshops to people struggling with their mental health.

Craic Health has secured funding for a scheme which uses stand-up shows and workshops to help people who are isolated, lonely and vulnerable. Its project is aimed at helping the government work with the comedy industry, communities and organisations on comedy-based social prescriptions, in the hope the health service can use them more widely.

One of the sayings that I remember from my childhood is “laughter is the best medicine.” As a result, the health benefits of laughter was one of the topics that I featured in my book Be First Class, which was published in 2016. I have included some of the content of that particular chapter below.

Whilst researching the benefits of laughter I came across an interesting story about Norman Cousins who was an American political journalist, author, professor and world peace advocate who died in 1990 aged 75. Remarkably, Cousins was diagnosed in 1964 as having a serious disease and was told that his chances for survival were one in five hundred and that he had just months to live.

But Cousins had a strong will to live, so he decided to assume most of the responsibility for his own healing. Having been told that he had little chance of surviving, he developed a recovery programme.  It included big doses of Vitamin C, along with a positive attitude and laughter induced by Marx Brothers films and anything else that he could get his hands on to make him laugh. Cousins developed a systematic programme for getting daily doses of hearty laughter.

He said “I made the joyous discovery that ten minutes of genuine belly laughter had an anaesthetic effect and would give me at least two hours of pain-free sleep.”  It’s remarkable that he was able to laugh having been told he had an irreversible disease and didn’t have long to live. He wrote of his healing experiences in “Anatomy of an illness.”

Medical tests done since then have established that there’s a physiological basis for the theory that laughter is good medicine. After his remarkable recovery, Cousins continued to study the effects of positive emotions on the human system. Eventually, he joined the medical faculty at the UCLA Medical School, a rare appointment for a person without a medical degree.

Cousins was one of the pioneers in linking laughter to healing. Since his initial explorations, his research has been duplicated by many both in and out of the medical profession. These include Dr Bernie Siegel and Dr Patch Adams. Both have written extensively about the power of humour and hope in the healing process. A film called Patch Adams about Dr Adams work is worth watching. It is heart-warming, funny and based on scientific evidence.

Laughter Yoga is gaining in popularity worldwide. It was made popular as an exercise routine developed by Indian Physician Madan Kataria. It’s a practice that involves prolonged voluntary laughter and is based on the belief that voluntary laughter provides the same physiological and psychological benefits as spontaneous laughter. It’s done in groups and laughter is easily stimulated and sustained with eye contact, exercises and playfulness amongst the participants.

Sessions start with gentle warm-up techniques which include stretching, chanting, clapping and body movement. These help break down inhibitions. Breathing exercises help prepare the lungs for laughter, followed by a series of laughter exercises.

During my research, I found the following information from the Mayo Clinic about the short- and long-term benefits of laughter: –

Some of the short-term benefits that laughter can bring:

• Enhances intake of oxygen-rich air, stimulates your heart, lungs and muscles and increases the endorphins that are released by your brain.
• Activate and relieve your stress response and lead to a good relaxed feeling.
• Soothe tension, stimulate circulation and aid muscle relaxation.

 
Some of the long-term benefits that laughter may bring:

• Pain relief by causing the body to produce its own natural painkillers. Laughter may also break the pain-spasm cycle common to some muscle disorders.
• Increase personal satisfaction and can make it easier to cope with difficult situations as it helps you to connect with other people.
• Improve your mood, it can reduce depression and anxiety and increase happiness.

This week why not pause for a few moments to reflect. Consider what steps can you take to introduce more laughter into your life.

To arrange a free no obligation consultation, please contact Stephen Pauley via the contact form or by e mail: Stephen@befirstclass.co.uk;