B1 – Intermediate
As the old saying goes, “Laughter is the best medicine.” Laughing reduces stress, increases energy, and it makes us feel good.
Hospital clowning continues to grow around the world because they help patients focus on something other than their illness.
Let’s read the article below about healthcare clowns.
https://breakingnewsenglish.com/2012/201217-healthcare-clowns-4.html
Discussion Questions:
- What do you think of the idea of healthcare clowns? Elaborate.
- Do you think “Laughter is the best medicine.“? Why / Why not?
- What helps reduce your stress or anxiety when you are or one of your loved ones is sick?
- What other things could clowns do to help society?
- Do you think clowns are scary? Why / Why not?
- How has humor help you pass difficult situations in your life?
22 replies on “Healthcare Clowns Help Patients Laugh and Recover”
1. What do you think of the idea of healthcare clowns? Elaborate. I think that it could help patients to spend a good time and to improve their wellbeing. I consider that humour is always a good tool to afront difficult situations, to reduce stress and to grow up the optimism.
2. Do you think “Laughter is the best medicine.“? Why / Why not? As I previously said in question 1., I consider that laughter could be a wonderful tool to going through difficult situations in life.
3. What helps reduce your stress or anxiety when you are or one of your loved ones is sick? Sharing your emotions, thinking in positive, maintaining your objectives in mind, could help us to reduce the strees or anxiety when experiencing illness.
4. What other things could clowns do to help society? Clowns could also be helpful visiting adult people who live alone or in residences.
5. Do you think clowns are scary? Why / Why not? I consider that clowns are not scary, but some people could consider them as not funny persons.
6. How has humor help you pass difficult situations in your life? Humour helps me to gain clarity and reduce stress when experiencing difficult situations.
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1.What do you think of the idea of healthcare clowns? Elaborate.
In my opinion is a good idea , overall with children but with other people too.Doing something to a different rutine day cna chnage your life and avoid the boredom
2.Do you think “Laughter is the best medicine.“? Why / Why not?
I thnik that when you laugh your body frees a lot of hormones that ar good for yourself and make you to forget the illness
3.What helps reduce your stress or anxiety when you are or one of your loved ones is sick?
For me one of the best options is to go outside in a forest and walk and breather fresh air
4. What other things could clowns do to help society?
As the things stands they could act on the street every day and make people happier and relax
5.Do you think clowns are scary? Why / Why not?
I dont think so but it depends on the make up .The film It didn’t help to much on this. The normal face of a clown is happy and funny
6.How has humor help you pass difficult situations in your life?
I think humor is one of the keys of life ,if people had good mood they would be happier, and sometime a little smile can make the difference
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1. I think they are a wonderful idea, especially for the kids and people with special needs. I think they bring joy to kids in a complicated situation and help them to forget, even for a while, the health issues they are facing. Also, I think maintaining a positive attitude and laughing is key to recovery and this way, it is easier for them.
2. Yes, when it is accompanied by medical treatment. When you laugh the body responds by increasing levels of endorphins and substances that help to maintain health.
3. Fortunately, I have not had to experience that situation so far, but I think that for me, it would be reading, because it is the activity that helps me to evade myself from the reality for a while.
4. I do not think clowns are scary in general, unless we are talking about the character from Stephen King’s book “It”. In that case, yes, absolutely!
5. By relativizing situations and also by making me forget complications during a time, when you laugh you are able to forget the difficulties for a time and face them with a better attitude.
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1. What do you think of the idea of healthcare clowns? Elaborate.
I think this is a great initiative. It’s often said that being in a good mood can help treatments work more effectively—or at the very least, it can help you cope with the situation in a more positive way.
2. Do you think “Laughter is the best medicine.“? Why / Why not?
I don’t think the sentence “Laughter is the best medicine” is entirely true. Laughing can help people relieve symptoms (partly due to hormones like oxytocin that may be triggered by laughter) but it’s not enough on its own. You still need to follow the proper treatment to truly overcome an illness.
3. What helps reduce your stress or anxiety when you are or one of your loved ones is sick?
I think the worst part of getting ill is the uncertainty—there’s no medicine that can fight that, because we simply can’t see the future. In my opinion, the best way to reduce the anxiety this causes is by practicing meditation, putting your mind in a positive place, trusting your doctor, and trusting the process.
4. What other things could clowns do to help society?
Clowns could help reduce the stress of daily life. Performing gags in the streets could lift people’s moods and offer a moment of relief from their routines.
5. Do you think clowns are scary? Why / Why not?
I think films and books like IT by Stephen King have contributed to the idea of clowns being scary. Personally, I don’t really see how a clown can be frightening. Maybe for children, clowns can seem scary because they’re strange and hard to understand—but beyond that, I don’t find them frightening at all.
6. How has humor help you pass difficult situations in your life?
One of the places where the most jokes are made is the funeral home, and that’s because humor can truly help us cope with difficult situations. I believe the hormones involved are key to this effect.
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1. What do you think of the idea of healthcare clowns? Elaborate. I believe it is a great idea, especially for pediatric patients, because they could make people think in other things apart from their illness and have fun at least for a moment in their day. I think it is especially useful when patients are hospitalized because they are more vulnerables and very focused on all the analytics and tests that they are having and also they are sometimes really bored so it is a great moment to disconnect and have fun.
2. Do you think “Laughter is the best medicine.“? Why / Why not? Yes, I totally agree that “Laughter is the best medicine” and not only for the body, as it reduces the level of stress, but for the mind. I think that trying to see the positive part in all the circumstances that happen in your life and laugh in a plan with your friends is the best medicine to see your day to day problems with another perspective.
3. What helps reduce your stress or anxiety when you are or one of your loved ones is sick? For me the best therapy is to make activities that let me disconnect. For example, to read a love novel or watch a movie. When one of my loved ones is sick I try to make him think in another things, for example telling him about the my last trip or how all is going with the people we have in common, etc.
4. What other things could clowns do to help society? I think clowns could help a lot to bring humor in some professional context that are a little bit serious, for example in team building sessions. In addition, it could be great in the school, to help children to laugh of themselves and leave insecurities, do not be so focused only in their mistakes and their weakness, laugh of them and focus on their strenghts.
5. Do you think clowns are scary? Why / Why not? Trully, I am not really fan of clowns. I don’t think they are scary but maybe they are not so funny for me, I don’t understand or enjoy their humor.
6. How has humor help you pass difficult situations in your life? For me humor is fundamental in my life. I remember once that I was really overwhelmed with final exams, and I was in the library study with one of my friends and we have a laughing fit when we realized that we have still a lot to do and we need to go outside because we were disturbing people, but for me was the best moment of the week.
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Do you think laughter is the best medicine? Why / Why not?
Yes, in my opinion it is very important to have good humor for overcome an illness. If you fell depressed is too dificult face any situation in life, such as a job, an illness, common problems between people.
What do you think of the idea of healthcare clowns? Elaborate.
Well I heat clowns, for me this kind of hummor doesn´t work, but other different jokes I am sure it will be good for my in case of bad day or illness.
What other things could clowns do to help society?
I don´t know, maybe in the parlament it help to politicians to watch in their mirrors
Do you think clowns are scary? Why / Why not?
As I said before, I heat clowns even when I was a child. Perhaps it is about their masks, you can´t see what there are under. They seem a silly people with an adult body.
How has humor help you pass difficult situations in your life?
It must be some kind of joke, because I don’t realise that they are laughing at me.
What helps reduce your stress or anxiety?
I feel better when I get to think in other things
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1- Yes, I’m sure of that, because it reduces stress and brings us closer together as humans, creating good times.
2- I agree, because they create a good atmosphere in hospitals, helping patients get better faster and, in other cases, make their time in the hospital more enjoyable.
3- They could help businesses by creating good work environments to reduce stress.
4- It depends. For babies and very young children, it can have a negative impact, but for older children and adults, it creates good times.
5- Humor and being positive always help me in difficult situations.
6- Walking, running, listening to music, exercising, spending time with family, etc.
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Well done sharing your thoughts!
Do you think laughter is the best medicine? Why / Why not?
YES, because usually when you laugh, you also create new and happy memories. Laughter helps the soul to be present and happy.
What do you think of the idea of healthcare clowns? Elaborate.
I think is one the kindest and humane things to do for others. People who sing up or study clowning to bring happiness to those in need, is the most humanitarian action that can be done. I think our society needs to have more people enrolled in humanitarian actions.
What other things could clowns do to help society?
Maybe more clowns bringing happiness to the elders, to people in vulnerable situations, helping kids at school or with family issues.
Do you think clowns are scary? Why / Why not?
I don’t think they’re scary. I think they’re funny and colorful. I love when they also do magic tricks and make all the family laugh.
How has humor help you pass difficult situations in your life?
Once, I was passing a difficulty and I decided to watch a humor serie in Netflix in between. Watching humor, helped me to reduce anxiety and to “scape” for a moment from the problem. Also, it helped to give me a different perspective.
What helps reduce your stress or anxiety?
• Being alone for a while and just try to chill and relax
• Talking about it with friends
• Wait a little to reply back or to take any action.
• Drink and eat my favorite food.
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1. Do you think laughter is the best medicine? Why / Why not?
I don’t know if it’s the best medicine, but I’m sure that it helps to be better so much. I think it help to
2. What do you think of the idea of healthcare clowns? Elaborate.
I think it’s a great idea because it’s very important to care the body and the soul
A good mood increases the desire to live and feel better
3.What other things could clowns do to help society?
Help appreciate the simple things. His humor is based on simple things
4.Do you think clowns are scary? Why / Why not?
I don’t think so because they are lovely. I’m sure If a children be afraid of them, early the clowns know make smile
5. How has humor help you pass difficult situations in your life?
It helps me to relativize and to separate the important problems from those that aren’t
6. What helps reduce your stress or anxiety?
Stop and breath deeply are the two things that help me to keep calm
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1. Do you think laughter is the best medicine? No doubt. Why / Why not?Because it makes you feel alive and makes you forget about your problems for a little while.
2. What do you think of the idea of healthcare clowns? Elaborate. Fantastic idea. When you are ill your mental health gets also worse. Healthcare clowns are a nice idea for those moments that you feel down to get back up again.
3. What other things could clowns do to help society? Cheer everyone up. We live in a society that most of the time is angry, sad or has anxiety. If you ask anyone, few of them will tell you they are happy. We need happines.
4. Do you think clowns are scary?Yes. I always had that idea in mind when thinking about clowns. Why / Why not? Because they have been shown as a scary thing.
5. How has humor help you pass difficult situations in your life?It has helped me to calm down, to disconnect from that difficult situation
6. What helps reduce your stress or anxiety?Reading, doing sports.
Well done sharing your thoughts about healthcare clowns!
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1. Do you think laughter is the best medicine? Why / Why not?
Yes, I think so. Laughter activates lots of muscles, it reduces stress and it estimulates blood flow
2. What do you think of the idea of healthcare clowns? Elaborate.
Healthcare clowns are very interesting and needed, not only in order to improve people’s health and reduce stress of the ill people. I think laughing helps to feel better and it may even reduce the pain of the patient as it may forgot its physical problems. Also, it may encourage the patient to overcome the disease because the clowns makes them feel more animated.
3. What other things could clowns do to help society?
Clowns can show us than it doesn’t make sense to take life so seriously, as every situation can have a funny point.
4. Do you think clowns are scary? Why / Why not?
No, I don’t think clowns are scary at all. This was an invention of the cinema. They are originally made for making laugh and it shouldn’t change
5. How has humor help you pass difficult situations in your life?
It helped me making me feel better in hard situations when I was not able to find a solution for a problem I had.
Also during lock down, humor was the best tool we had to pass that situation and it was helpful in some sad moments.
6. What helps reduce your stress or anxiety?
It helps me to think: what can I do to solve this problem?
If the answer is nothing, I try to not get overwhelmed with that and not to think about it.
If the answer is that I can do something, then I take action to solve it.
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