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
https://breakingnewsenglish.com/2012/201217-healthcare-clowns-4.html
Discussion Questions:
- Do you think laughter is the best medicine? Why / Why not?
- What do you think of the idea of healthcare clowns? Elaborate.
- 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?
- What helps reduce your stress or anxiety?
8 replies on “Healthcare Clowns Help Patients Laugh and Recover”
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.
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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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