There’s no joy as the joy of the heart
(Chazal saying)
We are all born happy.
Smiles and laughs are the most natural actions for babies and children. When we are young, we continuingly smile and anything can make us laugh, and as we grow older, our natural happiness decreases. There are many reasons for this –bothers, stress, worries about school or livelihood etc. At some point we define laughter and happiness as childish.
In our regular routine, we might remember to make time for joy, but when there’s a medical problem, it becomes complicated because our body-mind balance is interrupted. Modern medicine takes good care of the physical aspect, but our mental side does not always get the support it needs, even though it is crucial for our physical wellbeing (for problems that might seem completely physical).
This is more apparent with children, elderlies, patients with fatal illness, patients who need nursing or disadvantaged populations.
The recognition in the importance of the mental/emotional aspect and a concrete need, has brought to the establishment of “Simchat Halev” organization which works to improve patients’ healing process, by using joy and humor. The organization operates a huge array of 2,500 volunteers from different therapeutic fields: Medical clowning, laughter yoga, positive psychology and more. We operate in dozens of hospital, medical facilities, rehabilitation centers and centers for people with special needs, all over the country.
Over the years we’ve raised awareness to medical clowning within the community and medical, governmental and public factors in Israel. We aim to achieve full recognition and a full integration of our services in the medical treatment.
We in Simchat Halev, believe that with joy, work and determination – We will succeed.
Sincerely,
Zvi Meir – Founder of “Simchat Halev”.
