🤣 Laugh It Off! The “Cheap Drugs” You Already Have – with Cathy Nesbitt

In this joyful, deeply inspiring conversation, Julie is joined by the amazing Cathy Nesbitt — laughter ambassador, worm composter, and eco-entrepreneur — to explore how laughter can transform your health, relationships, and the planet.

Together, they unpack how to:

• Trigger your body’s “daily dose” of happy hormones (dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin, endorphins)
• Use laughter as a vagus nerve reset and emotional detox
• Reframe arguments, driving stress, and online drama with laughter
• Connect across cultures, languages, and neurodiversity through joy
• Embrace nature’s cycles and composting as sacred, healing practices

Cathy shares about her free weekly Zoom laughter club, the science behind “simulated laughter,” and how laughter helped her evolve her eco mission from worm composting to global joy-spreading.

✨ If you're ready to laugh, breathe deeper, and reset your energy — this one’s for you.

Transcript

Julie Hilsen: 0:00

Hello dear friends and welcome to another episode of Life of Love where we gather to explore with curious minds and an open heart what our life of love looks like today. So I thank you for tuning in and subscribing and being part of this community. We're adding to this light grid, this beautiful message of hope and renewal. And so I'm really delighted to bring forth this guest today. But first I'm gonna set forth our intention

Cathy Nesbitt: 0:05

Thank you, Julie. I'm excited to be here for a conversation. Look.

Julie Hilsen: 0:10

Well,

Cathy Nesbitt: 0:15

Cheap drugs.

Julie Hilsen: 0:20

This is going to be a really good hook. So you like that one?

Cathy Nesbitt: 0:25

I do. They're free.

Julie Hilsen: 0:30

Yes, they're free. I want to shout from the rooftops we have cheap drugs available.

Cathy Nesbitt: 0:35

I hope we don't get banned now. ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

Julie Hilsen: 0:40

Okay, if I got banned, I'd be like shouting in the streets, I got banned, something was really good. yeah, so you know what I'm referring to, I would love for you to share how you create the dopamine and the feel-good hormones that are available and maybe just give a story about how it's transforming just to set the scene.

Cathy Nesbitt: 0:45

course the daily dose.

Julie Hilsen: 0:50

because I know that you've had much experience and you just came from a laughter session. So it's right here in the field for us to tap into.

Cathy Nesbitt: 0:55

Absolutely, yes. So I am a laughter ambassador and I wear that moniker very proudly. I laugh wherever I go and just changing the vibration. When we smile at someone they smile back so we laugh with somebody they laugh and talking about cheap drugs we can't leave them hanging any longer Julie. Have you ever heard laughter is the best medicine?

Julie Hilsen: 1:00

You

Cathy Nesbitt: 1:05

Right? It is. It's scientifically proven. My next question is, have you had your daily dose? Dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin, and endorphins. It's so beautiful. When we're laughing, we're secreting all of those love drugs, the happy hormones versus cortisol, adrenaline, epinephrine, the stress chemicals. We're literally in charge of our own pharma.

Julie Hilsen: 1:10

I it. And you know, that's what's come forward to me is there's been some really good comedy out of many things that have have shaken our world. And the comedians might be coming from a political stance or, you know, some kind of platform. if no matter what what your opinion is on on whatever side they might be for or against, I think it's really important to laugh at each other because

Cathy Nesbitt: 1:15

Mmm. ⁓

Julie Hilsen: 1:20

Gotcha.

Cathy Nesbitt: 1:25

The body doesn't know the difference between real and simulated laughter. So we can start laughing, ha ha ha. As soon as we make that ha ha and ho ho sound, it's like a trigger for our brain. Like, my goodness, I must be happy because I'm making that laughter sound. So our body's like, that's so great. And we're secreting all the love drugs. Our brain might be like, what are you doing? Why are you laughing? That's the ego.

Julie Hilsen: 1:30

Mm-hmm.

Cathy Nesbitt: 1:35

because we planted that in there. So we say simulated now, just so then we're putting that idea that, it's fake, because it is real, it's so real. And laughter has changed my life.

Julie Hilsen: 1:40

How has it changed your life? I'm curious. Did you used to be serious and not laugh at things or?

Cathy Nesbitt: 1:45

Well,

Julie Hilsen: 1:50

Mm-hmm.

Cathy Nesbitt: 1:55

So we started to export our garbage to the US. Sorry, whoops, not my fault, I didn't do it.

Julie Hilsen: 2:00

Okay, we've given you guys some stuff. It's time

Cathy Nesbitt: 2:05

Well, you know, yes, and

Julie Hilsen: 2:10

That's a good point

Cathy Nesbitt: 2:15

thought so so I really believed that everybody needed to have worms in their house when I when I found out about the worms and and What they do which is convert our food scraps and paper into black gold. They're the original alchemists Right. They turn our garbage into something usable

Julie Hilsen: 2:20

Mm-hmm. ⁓

Cathy Nesbitt: 2:25

but it does nothing to feed the soil. So that's kind of a short term plan for that season. Like, good, we got lots of corn for this year. Next year, now another story because we're creating a real dust bowl. Like we really are creating such a toxic soil that our food now has these chemicals in them.

Julie Hilsen: 2:30

Mm-hmm.

Cathy Nesbitt: 2:35

this is going to be so great, life-changing, but not really until people understand why they need what you've got. And if they're not willing to listen. So the problem with worms, one of the challenges is people might have been traumatized as children by worms. You know, after a rainy day, maybe somebody chased them around or a sibling put a worm down their shirt, or maybe a fishing incident, the green goo when you're fishing in the worm.

Julie Hilsen: 2:40

Yes.

Cathy Nesbitt: 2:45

you know, the green goo coming out of the worm. If you are traumatized as a child by worms or whatever, you're not looking to that as a solution as an adult. So, right? Yeah, do you have a?

Julie Hilsen: 2:50

Right? Right.

Cathy Nesbitt: 2:55

Mmm.

Julie Hilsen: 3:00

And I let my son's fourth grade science teacher keep it for the whole year. Instead of a hamster, she had a worm compost. And the kids took care of it. And it was so beautiful. And I was like, I'm making a difference. I'm showing these kids. But people don't want to talk about worms. So I spent some time reflecting. And it might go deeper to like ancestral.

Cathy Nesbitt: 3:05

Wow.

Julie Hilsen: 3:10

thing about, you know, when your body's decomposing, they say you're going to be food for the worms, you're going to be with the worms. And and so it I think it triggers people subconsciously, I don't think they're going around thinking about worms and death. But subconsciously, I think the stirs up some things. And, and to me, it's really sad, because I after it rains, I'll go down the street and I'll pick up worms off the street and put them back in the grass. I'm like,

Cathy Nesbitt: 3:15

Yes!

Julie Hilsen: 3:20

don't die in the street. The Georgia sun comes down and just cooks them by noon unless they find that patch of soil. And we have such red soil here, you almost have to have some kind of worm compost or some supplementation like with gold to grow a garden. Because like you said, if you're just putting chemicals on it, that's what you're getting. You're not getting nutrients. So yeah, I spent a lot of time trying to figure this out. so compassion, so it might be something.

Cathy Nesbitt: 3:25

Mmm.

Julie Hilsen: 3:30

we could work on, could say, released this narrative that no longer serves me, that worms are part of our end. They're actually a source of our beginning. And so many things have been trans, what's it called when things are turned upside down? Like the number 13, it used to be a sacred number. Now it's like a hex number because it's been converted. It's been, I can't think of the word, but it's.

Cathy Nesbitt: 3:35

Mmm.

Julie Hilsen: 3:40

there's sacred things in our environment that have been transmuted into negative, which really do serve us. But whatever needed to be submerged or held from us to help us break through to our ascension again, that's part of the whole thing. So there's, I've spent a lot of time deconstructing myths, like myths of scarcity, myths of

Cathy Nesbitt: 3:45

Mmm.

Julie Hilsen: 3:50

of not being enough, of being unworthy. Those are all myths. These are all things that people tell us to keep us safe or unseen because it used to be if you spoke out, you could be stoned or, you know, there's ramifications of being a truth-sayer. So, you you don't want to go sleep with the worms and be a truth-sayer.

Cathy Nesbitt: 3:55

Mm-hmm.

Julie Hilsen: 4:00

Mm.

Cathy Nesbitt: 4:05

not in charge. We're not in charge.

Julie Hilsen: 4:10

Yeah, so I mean, I, I had trouble with the balance of, of keeping my worms like happy and not like I kept getting too much moisture in it. And it made my husband crazy. And then eventually the the side of the worm hotel, it was like layers, it started, the plastic started to crack. And I was like, I just don't feel like I'm that good at this. But you can get really good at it. I mean, I'm not gonna

Cathy Nesbitt: 4:15

Well, how the laughter came,

Julie Hilsen: 4:20

So.

Cathy Nesbitt: 4:25

Right? And I don't do yoga. know yoga is a fine thing. I have other modes of exercise. I jumped right to the fun yoga. So it's not doing yoga and laughing. It's not jokes or comedy. It's laughing as a cardiovascular exercise and it changes everything.

Julie Hilsen: 4:30

It's true.

Cathy Nesbitt: 4:35

Mmm.

Julie Hilsen: 4:40

that at all.

Cathy Nesbitt: 4:45

I have that's wow that would be interesting. Yes that would be interesting to find out if it changes your aura. Yeah that's interesting. Wow.

Julie Hilsen: 4:50

Yeah, you have to let me know if you come. Yeah.

Cathy Nesbitt: 4:55

Yes.

Julie Hilsen: 5:00

children or adults to actually most of them are 18 and up with for tennis and one of my athletes last night was just snorting laughing she was snorting laughing she was so happy to be there and she's pretty much nonverbal she can type she's a great author but her verbal she she's on the autistic spectrum and she really has trouble expressing herself but

Cathy Nesbitt: 5:05

Hmm.

Julie Hilsen: 5:10

It can't be a coincidence that I'm talking to you about laughing after she showed me such a beautiful expression of joy that she was with the group and we were having this wonderful evening playing tennis with friends and being active. So, you know, it's hard to judge someone's laughter because it's just pure joy. It's another gift.

Cathy Nesbitt: 5:15

It's pure joy. That's it.

Julie Hilsen: 5:20

Mm-hmm.

Cathy Nesbitt: 5:25

It's on Zoom. It's on Zoom

Julie Hilsen: 5:30

Mm-hmm.

Cathy Nesbitt: 5:35

And as soon as we start doing ho ho ha ha ha, it's a little note to our brain. Like it kind of is priming because when we go ho ho ha ha ha, our brain says, my gosh, I must be happy because I'm making those happy sounds. So the yoga part of laughter yoga is the practice of the laughter and the deep diaphragmatic breathing. Cause you can't just ha ha ha ha ha, you're exhaling.

Julie Hilsen: 5:40

Mm-hmm. I believe it.

Cathy Nesbitt: 5:45

Because our diaphragm is attached.

Julie Hilsen: 5:50

I know I have a set of girlfriends and we play bunko together once a month and I really I My stomach hurts sometimes some weeks. We laugh so much that yeah, it's an ab workout like that intense laughter and how many chance how many times in our Day, do we really give ourselves a chance to really fill up with a full belly breath?

Cathy Nesbitt: 5:55

Like with intention, it's laughing with intention. And it is, as you said, I love what you just said with the vagal reset and the deep breathing, because when we're stressed, we're not breathing, we're breathing shallow, we're secreting those stress hormones, and we're living in this perpetual state of stress today, Julie. And then we dip into joy every now and then. My goal is for us to live in this joy state.

Julie Hilsen: 6:00

package. So that's great.

Cathy Nesbitt: 6:05

and then dip into stress every now and then to go, no, back to joy.

Julie Hilsen: 6:10

What a beautiful sentiment. Your homeostasis is joy. Gratitude, joy. Yeah.

Cathy Nesbitt: 6:15

Right?

Julie Hilsen: 6:20

Mm-hmm.

Cathy Nesbitt: 6:25

You know, so what I say to people, if

Julie Hilsen: 6:30

Yeah.

Cathy Nesbitt: 6:35

you see something on social media or someone says something that you that disturbs you either just go to the next post, like don't even respond. But people are like, how could someone say that? And then they want to start composing something. What I want to say is rub your hands together, shake them off, put one hand on your forehead, one hand on the back of your head and what this post and then take a nice deep breath in.

Julie Hilsen: 6:40

Mm-hmm.

Cathy Nesbitt: 6:45

And if you still want to respond to that post, keep going, like do it again. Because you haven't got out of stress yet. You're still in it. Yeah, you know, we are in charge and it is up to us. And we can do it. Because when we're connected, when we're feeling good, we can can move mountains, we can move mountains in a good way.

Julie Hilsen: 6:50

And I love it and it's safety like you're safe

Cathy Nesbitt: 6:55

Right? Thank you for the driving

Julie Hilsen: 7:00

Okay.

Cathy Nesbitt: 7:05

When somebody cuts me off, because it happens, that triggers me to do my laughter yoga. I'm like, instead of getting mad, rah, I go, ha ha ha, and I flail my arm around, I whip my arm, I'm laughing, ha ha ha ha. So the person looking, they're like, my gosh, she's nuts, she's cuckoo that woman. And I get more space. So they're like, try to get away from me. I'm laughing, ha ha ha ha ha. So I'm secreting all the love drugs, I'm fully oxygenated.

Julie Hilsen: 7:10

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Cathy Nesbitt: 7:15

We're not laughing at the situation. We're laughing because of.

Julie Hilsen: 7:20

Mm-hmm.

Cathy Nesbitt: 7:25

Hmm, right?

Julie Hilsen: 7:30

There's, so he's had to deal with a lot of things that you wouldn't realize. But I always find it interesting to hear people's stories and how they deal with it. And I love, when I'm in the car, I love to just wave and be like, that's cool. There's space, you're good. I'll just wait. There's a moving truck in our neighborhood yesterday and the guy jumped out and he stopped, he put his hands out and I was like.

Cathy Nesbitt: 7:35

As you said laughter changes everything It diffuses that said it diffuses it if you're there's a thing in in laughter yoga if you're having an art and this you got to know who you're arguing with like someone could get really mad, but if you're having an argument You're not in your head anymore. You're you're right. You're now you're in reptile brain You're just reacting and sometimes people will say I was so mad. I couldn't even think straight. That's right

Julie Hilsen: 7:40

So you can diffuse things, right?

Cathy Nesbitt: 7:45

That's right, because you're operating from reacting rather than responding. So something to do is start laughing. Both of you just laugh. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. Get it out. And then you're really laughing for real. You're laughing full on. Then you're able to have the adult conversation. Then you can actually talk about what it is that's on your mind from a logical, calm.

Julie Hilsen: 7:50

Mm-hmm.

Cathy Nesbitt: 7:55

You know, because when you're arguing, forget it. Like you're just going back and forth shouting things and you can't put them back in once you've once you've said it out loud, it's out and you can't you can't take it back.

Julie Hilsen: 8:00

Right.

Cathy Nesbitt: 8:05

Hallelujah.

Julie Hilsen: 8:10

you

Cathy Nesbitt: 8:15

you

Julie Hilsen: 8:20

that I need clarity on it's there for a purpose and I can choose to deal with it this argument, or I can choose to bury it and ignore it and I'm going to come back like I've seen it through my 52 years of life if I avoid something it's just going to come back in a different form. So hallelujah. I'm just gonna I'm gonna take this opportunity to find out more about myself and you know maybe it's that I don't want to be around that person I have clarity on my space, my boundaries but

Cathy Nesbitt: 8:25

Mm.

Julie Hilsen: 8:30

least I've given myself a chance to explore it personally. yeah, love that the angels are saying, Hallelujah!

Cathy Nesbitt: 8:35

You know, I really wish more of this stuff was taught in school. So we knew that we are valuable. We are worthy. We are loved. We are love. Never mind, you know, so much competition. We're collaborators. And if we look at things in this way, it just helps us to go through life, navigate life in such a different way, looking at the person, not as the other, but as part of us. We are all one.

Julie Hilsen: 8:40

Yeah. And that's the beauty of everyone having their role. And that also illuminates how important each role is, because it's their individual signature. And we're so miserable when you don't honor our signatures. So I encourage and I applaud people who are brave enough to slip into their signatures, just like you. mean, you're passionate and you fought and

Cathy Nesbitt: 8:45

Try it again. Well, you know, it's funny,

Julie Hilsen: 8:50

Okay.

Cathy Nesbitt: 8:55

And I cried, it made me emotional because I realized, man, looking back, it's like, I did so many things. I was so brave, I would say, I was courageous. Not at the time, at the time it was like, man, this is really hard. Because people didn't get what I was doing, they said, you know, because of their programming. And so I kept on going, I was like, no, no, this is important, I'm gonna keep going.

Julie Hilsen: 9:00

Yeah, and you don't worry

Cathy Nesbitt: 9:05

We're judged all the time. It's fine. It's funny because

Julie Hilsen: 9:10

no!

Cathy Nesbitt: 9:15

I think we need to be ourself. That's what I really want to encourage people. As you get older, it gives you you have wisdom. I'm 62, you have wisdom, you have years and you really literally care less. Because you realize, you know, our time is limited here. We don't know how long nobody knows. So we need to enjoy every day we need to have be in awe. Every morning I wake up and I'm like, what is going to wow me today? I don't know what.

Julie Hilsen: 9:20

Mm-hmm.

Cathy Nesbitt: 9:25

Who is going to awe me? What is it just going to be like in Ontario in fall? It's so beautiful. The colours are changing, the leaves. It's nature's magic show or art show. so I would encourage people that are listening just to think about every day, what can I find that brings me joy? Something that maybe it's a butterfly or something. The other day I was sitting on my deck.

Julie Hilsen: 9:30

Right.

Cathy Nesbitt: 9:35

The dragonfly, think, was injured. And then the wasp came to come back. And so I blew. And then the dragonfly was so light, it just blew. So I don't know what happened to it. ⁓ But I was like, well, at least I saved it for that moment.

Julie Hilsen: 9:40

Yeah.

Cathy Nesbitt: 9:45

But was so cool. It really like, was

Julie Hilsen: 9:50

It really is. And, and when you look at, like you said, your totem animal, you start looking around and you notice that the creatures that come into your field on regular basis and you start recognizing my one of my favorite thing is when I'm walking my dog to listen to the birds calling back and forth. And in that binaural beat, like I'm like, thank you. Thank you. Because I do think that wakens your DNA. And when you laugh and you can open up these channels of

Cathy Nesbitt: 9:55

Hmm.

Julie Hilsen: 10:00

of energy that have been closed off for whatever reason because what I mean how often do we just give ourselves a chance to just laugh you know just because right but that's

Cathy Nesbitt: 10:05

Mmm.

Julie Hilsen: 10:10

No, no.

Cathy Nesbitt: 10:15

730 she calls, I don't say hello, we start laughing. Two minutes of full on belly laughs. One minute of deep diaphragmatic breathing, followed by two more minutes of deep laughter. Five minute practice. And then now we chat for a little bit. If we don't have time to chat, like if it's like, I got a meeting right after, as long as we get our giggle, we'll say, today I got a giggle and go.

Julie Hilsen: 10:20

you

Cathy Nesbitt: 10:25

Right? It changes. Five minute practice, Julie. It changes everything. Instead of starting the day. Here's what people often do. The alarm goes off and they start going through their to do list. today I got this. I got that. so they're already before they even set foot on the ground. Stress has taken over like, no, that conversation with the boss.

Julie Hilsen: 10:30

Thank

Cathy Nesbitt: 10:35

hahahahah ⁓

Julie Hilsen: 10:40

that run our bodies and not taking those for granted. I modified it for someone just waking up in their own bed doing their own private, you know. And so that rings so true to me. I think we're on the same page. Wisdom traditions usually have a lot of merit when you cut down to the

Cathy Nesbitt: 10:45

Right?

Julie Hilsen: 10:50

intention of them. So I honor I honor so many religions, but I'm spiritual and not identifying with one solely because I think everyone you can pull from thing from different religions, beautiful things and, and then you don't have the control factor and guilt and shame, which lowers your frequency at times.

Cathy Nesbitt: 10:55

Mm-hmm.

Julie Hilsen: 11:00

So fun.

Cathy Nesbitt: 11:05

It does.

Julie Hilsen: 11:10

Okay, I'll put it... Yay.

Cathy Nesbitt: 11:15

it is, but it

Julie Hilsen: 11:20

What, so dogs don't have it?

Cathy Nesbitt: 11:25

Okay.