Page 202 - Creating Spiritual and Psychological Resilience

“To Do No Harm” Spiritual Care and Ethnomedical Competence 171

• I wish that these sessions were offered soon after the earthquake to all
the relief workers.
• The skills I learned today I will pass them on to other people in the com-
munity who suffered a great deal due to the earthquake.
• Relaxation exercises should be produced on CD and computer so every-
one could learn how to relax.
• The session on alternative healing methods was very useful. The dis-
cussions we had and the exercises we shared were very simple and
beneficial.

Finally, I inquired about traditional healing practices or local healers that
might be of use to the relief efforts. The NGO and iNGO staff were unaware
of accessible practices or healers. When my queries were met with a lack of
interest or inquisitiveness, I decided not to pursue this line of inquiry.

Tsunami in Sri Lanka (Chronic, in Between, Phase)

Harshada David Wagner was invited by a development NGO, Foundation
of Goodness (FG), in Seenigama to return one year after the tsunami to
build resiliency within a mixed group of Sinhala Buddhist workers—
most were first responders to the tsunami, some were new FG members.
Wagner invited me to teach Laughter Yoga during the daylong training
in which he would teach meditation, physical activities, and group reflec-
tion. While Laughter Yoga was unknown to FG, methods of yoga were
not foreign. My hope was to provide an intervention that would be con-
sistent with the recommendation that culturally based rituals and tra-
ditions be retooled as the basis for innovative interventions (Norris &
Alegría, 2006).
Laughter Yoga involves three major components that I have adapted for
use in disaster resiliency for workers:

1. Instructions to laugh in various ways (e.g., milkshake, cell phone, lion,
and electric) so that the physiological act of laughing, through a neu-
rological feedback loop, induces a psychological state of well-being and
joy.
2. Interactive group activities that stimulate further laughter through
being socially contagious; some interactions ask that people act out
social “values” (e.g., handshake, shyness, appreciation).
3. Breathing activities from yoga traditions. In addition to the other deep
breathing techniques taught during a Laughter Yoga session, laughter