Meet the pharmacist who prescribes laughter as the best medicine. In August 2008, Fung Lee Jean travelled to Australia to train herself to become a Certified Laughter Yoga teacher. She spent no time idling around. Just one month after graduation, she started her first “laughter” class, teaching a breast cancer support group on how to benefit from laughter. Equipped with unique knowledge and techniques on laughing, she has since trained 500 internationally-recognised Certified Laughter Yoga Leaders to spread laughter to everyone in their communities. Lee Jean envisions laughter blooming in the community, and in that spirit, she took the initiative to start free laughter classes in many neighbourhood gardens via the JB Happy and Joyous Club; a club she pioneered.
“Anyone can laugh. A real laugh or fake laugh has the same good benefits. Endorphins, your feel-good hormones, are released. Cortisol, your stress hormones, are reduced when you laugh,” she explains.
Lee Jean is a life-long learner: at sixty years of age, the retiree has attended classes on video-editing, photography, and casting, knowing such skills will come in handy. She believes that through teaching, one understands the subject deeper, so she conducts video editing and photography classes without charge which helps her hone on her own skills.
“I believe in the immediate implementation of what we have learnt. Our memory is still fresh from it. So I will immediately teach what I learn.”
Since winning IMSHA Human Empowerment in 2016, Lee Jean has been working around the clock. As a Publicity Director for the JB Happy and Joyous Club, a Training Director at Befrienders JB, a Toastmasters mentor, and a supporter of the Breast Cancer Support Group, Lee Jean empowers the people around her to be more positive and laugh more. She says that the interactions with many people have taught her to be more patient in life. Previously choosing to travel as a means of escape from the stresses at work, she now has a non-judgemental approach, not jumping to conclusions and understands that everybody has reasons to act a certain way. Travelling now is a means for her to spread laughter, packing them in her suitcase and sharing them with the world – she has visited over 70 countries so far.
“I’m grateful to be teaching and mentoring,” Lee Jean said.
