Laughing as therapy?

I signed up for a laughter yoga leadership training course on a bit of a whim. I saw the link while considering doing a yoga teacher training course, and it sparked a memory of my mum telling me she did a laughter yoga session once, and how hilarious it was. I wasn't working, and I had some free time. Why not? I thought. At the very least, I might laugh a bit.

Understatement of the year, that one.

I arrived to the venue in a bit of a harried, mad state. I thought I had woken up early enough to not be rushing, but some bad time management, and a late decision to add a small bowl of porridge to my breakfast (it was so cold!) made me a little later than planned. However, walking up the stairs I entered a calm yoga environment, the beautiful Prana House in Thornbury, VIC. I wasn't late (phew!) and was able to take my shoes off and settle in to the small circle of chairs.

It was a bit of a mish-mash group of people. Young, old(er), tall, short, Australian, German, men, women, first timers (me!) and some people who had done a few laughter sessions before. We began with an introduction to laughter yoga. It was devised by an Indian medical doctor, Dr Madan Kataria, in Mumbai in 1995. He wanted to gain the health benefits of regular laughter, and got together with his wife (a yoga teacher) and a few friends in a local park. There, they laughed! His wife Madhuri added in a yogic aspect of deep breathing and some gentle stretching. They began by telling jokes. As people wandered past and heard them having a great time, they joined the group, until there were 50 people meeting up to share a laugh. However, after some time, the jokes started to run thin, and were occasionally offensive and rude. It was then that Dr Kataria realised that you can gain the physiological and psychological benefits of laughter, even if you 'simulate' the laughter, as long as it is a belly laugh (from the diaphragm) and is for a long enough period of time (at least 10-15 minutes).

Thus, laughter yoga was born: The simulation of laughter, incorporating a childlike playfulness and yogic-style breathing and stretching, to stimulate spontaneous laughter.

Why? There are many health benefits of regular, long duration (at least ten minutes) laughing. Just a few of these are lowered blood pressure, improved mood, boosted immune system, improved control of blood sugar levels and improved sleep. There are many more, and lots of research papers can be found documenting this evidence.

We began our session with some group introductions. Say your name, laugh. Say where you are from, laugh. Say why you are here, laugh! It was much harder than I may have anticipated to bust out a belly laugh when I felt a bit nervous and self-conscious. Luckily our group leader broke the ice by starting, with a huge laugh.

We stood up in a circle, and did a few yawns and deep breaths, until we were all feeling a bit more relaxed. Next, a bit of warm up – some animal faces (with noises), fish lips and gibberish arguing.

Then, onto the laughing.

The session consisted of 10 different exercises, all playful and childlike, and all about laughing. For example: hot soup laughter. Imagine having a big bowl of steaming hot soup in front of you. Take an imaginary spoonful, and it's so hot and spicy you burst into laughter and fan your mouth with your hands. The soup is so tasty you do it again!

Or another one: I love you laughter. Imagine you are a 4 year old, in front of someone you reckon is pretty awesome. You run up to them, tell them 'I love you!' (or 'I think you're beautiful!' or 'I think you're amazing!') and then run away giggling.

We got into the exercises with gusto, giggling and guffawing and hooting away. Many time the simulated laughter, (the laughter we choose to do) turns into spontaneous laughter, either at the hilarity of the exercises, or just the sight and sound of so many other people laughing!

After about half an hour of these exercises, we were all feeling light hearted and a bit silly. We moved into the next phase – laughter meditation. We began seated, in a circle, with our yoga mats and blankets ready to lie down when the time came. We began with 'pushing out' both hands in front of you, while saying 'ho ho' then 'pulling in the hands' while saying 'ha ha'. This cycled faster and faster until the cue, at which point we all burst into a mixture of simulated and spontaneous laughter. We then lay down, and, no exaggeration here, laughed, with no effort, for 10 minutes. It felt amazing. During all the exercises, most of my laughing had been simulated. It still felt good, but it wasn't life changing. However, during the laughter meditation, I just lost it. I laughed and laughed, more than I have laughed since I was a child. Every time I thought I might be slowing down, more laughter would bubble up out of the core of me. It was flowing out of me like squeezing a never ending bottle of tomato sauce. After about ten minutes, our leader soothingly calmed us and led us into a guided yoga nidra meditation: focusing on each part of the body, one at a time. After about 15 minutes, we were done.

Around the group, we had similar experiences. A feeling of cleansing, of losing tension and relaxing fully. A feeling of lightness, of inspiration. We all felt uplifted, energetic and, above all, happy.

The rest of the leadership course was a mixture of experiencing laughing as a participant, and learning about how to facilitate a class. Every one of us was exhausted after the first day – laughing is a workout for the lungs, heart, and muscles! There were lots of other helpful aspects included into the workshop like focusing on self-care and self-love, meeting your own needs before looking after other people, and the warning signs for stress and burnout. At the end of the second day I felt like I had known all these people for weeks. 

Imagine what our communities would be like if we all celebrated laughter and happiness, instead of being told to 'shhh!'. Imagine how depressed people could feel, if they had a laughter session twice a week as well as therapy! Imagine all the lowered risks of chronic disease that could occur, as people lower their  blood pressure, stress hormones, and work out their lungs and muscles, by having fun. Sounds pretty awesome, right? 

xx