Coping Strategies
Part 13 - Close-up on 7 ways of coping

If your home is overrun because more things are coming in than are going out, you may benefit from making a pledge to yourself to readjust the balance and focus some of your energy on removing items either to the bin or to be recycled. Hopefully such an act will provide you with the following benefits:

• More structure
• More control
• More space to breathe
• Less chaos
• Less stress
• A sense of achievement

If the act of laughing is good for you – and a lot of people seem to think it is – could you make a conscious effort to do it more often? Could you actively find things that are humorous or find ways in which your body is in a pleasurable state of fits and convulsions?

This could involve setting time aside to see a funny film, or to watch a comedian, or listen to comedy on the radio. If you were more serious about laughter, it could be something that you perform as a matter of routine, either on your own or in a group of people.

One thing that may stop us from letting go of ourselves and giving in to laughter is being self-conscious or feeling silly or stupid for doing so. Nonetheless, if we don’t give it a try, how will we ever know the benefits of what we are doing?

All of these suggestions can be undertaken either on your own, with someone else or as part of a wider group. (The advantage of laughing with other people is the contagious aspect of laughter.) These can be done singularly or combined; standing or seated; with or without a mirror. All of these possibilities require a willingness to want to laugh for the good of your health. If you are resistant or just not in the mood, then perhaps it is better not to do it at that moment in time. By all means fake-laugh if it helps you get to the real stuff. Once you are up and running, find ways to stoke up, prolong and enhance the quality of the laughter.

• Pull a variety of absurd facial expressions
• Contort your face with your hands
• Form noises in your mouth and throat that are not usually part of your range
• Form and repeat words that amuse you
• Judder your shoulders
• Rub your tummy up and down
• Puff out your cheeks, blow a raspberry
• Mimic the mechanics of your usual laughter
• Mimic the laughter of an archetypal insane or evil person o Snigger, gurgle, guffaw
• Make up nonsense words
• Find ways to gently poke fun at yourself
• Exaggerate ridiculous movements or dance routines
• Find ways to clown around
• Pretend to be someone else
• Pretend to be an animal or an alien or an object
• Imagine someone has let off a canister of laughing gas o Sit on a whoopee cushion

Our stomach is sometimes referred to as our second brain, due to the fact that as well as receiving messages, it also sends messages to the brain.

Inside our gut we have millions of neurons that communicate with billions of bacteria. How healthy the bacteria inside our tummy are goes some way to determining what type of signals our neurons send to the brain.

Bad bacteria from too much junk and processed food can create a toxic environment that can affect our mood, with higher levels of stress, depression and anxiety. Conversely good bacteria can help to reduce these things.

Below are some possible ways to improve the health and diversity of our stomach microbes:

• Fibrous food
• ‘Live’ yoghurt
• Plant-based food
• Fermented food
• A varied diet
• Probiotics (e.g. lactobacillus or bifidobacterium)