Laughter Yoga builds in many ways on theatrical improvisational games. I have found plenty of brilliant laughter exercises ideas in http://improvencyclopedia.org/
All games aren’t relevant (I personally do not relate to the theatrical acting part) and still many are. All you have to do is leave your mind at home and speak with your body.

Two million people from 70 countries voted on 40,000 jokes in a 2002 study by Dr Richard Wiseman, of the University of Hertfordshire and the British Association for the Advancement of Science.

Here is the winner:

http://www.youtube.com/v/xNLSy8uXUK8&hl=en_US&fs=1&

The following is an excerpt from http://www.icnr.com/articles/thenatureofstress.html
Dr. Hans Selye (1907-1982) is one of the great pioneers of modern medicine and was the first to conceptualize “stress”.
I am posting this here because it is part of the discussion “how to be happy”.

Read in www.healingtaousa.com/pdf/innersmile_ch01.pdf:

…Smiling is energetically very different from laughing. “Laughter is the best medicine” the saying goes, and laughing certainly releases tension and is good for the body in a number of different ways. According to Chinese medicine, if someone laughs too frequently or too loudly they may have excess heart chi and are unconsciously trying to release it. Laughter is more of belly centered emotional release than smiling.

Smiling is more subtle than laughter, a more inward and more sustainable experience. Someone who smiles continuously is not considered in excess, assuming it is not a “phony” outer smile. Smiling is less about emotions, which are our response to outer life events, and more about subtle feeling. Inner Smiling cultivates this feeling to a high level, focusing on the spiritual joy that arises from our inner soul and radiates out as subtle presence.

There are two may theories when it comes to disease: the germ theory and the stress theory.

The germ theory states that germs are the culprits that make you sick. Get rid of them and health will return. It’s a multi-billion $ industry and the foundation of our current healthcare system. It’s also an easy way out because in that theory “I” am innocent. Always. If “I” get sick, it’s because of “them” (in 2009 terms: over 70% of all diseases in the USA are food related – the outcome of eating habits that can be changed – but nobody in power apparently wants to address that. It’s easier to keep eating poorly and dump more money into the system to be able to pay for more drugs

The stress theory states that germs are already inside of you, in bigger and larger numbers that you’ll ever know. You only get sick when you create an internal environment that is conducive to their growth. Put crudely: no dung, no flies. This one is harder to swallow because it makes “you” responsible, always. Needless to say that it’s still not that popular.

Let me explain in a bit more details.

Life is all about tension. You need tension to stand erect, move, do anything. If you didn’t resist your own movement each time you drank a cup of water, the said cup would crash into your face. Life therefore is also all about balance, or rather learning to be balanced in our thoughts and actions. Just like we must learn to fine-tune the push and pull forces in all our movements to perform smooth actions, we must also learn to relax and slow down (or engage and speed up, depending) in our daily life. If we don’t the tensions we naturally experience will escalate and create pain.

Pain is good for you. So is anxiety and stress. It is the voice of the body calling for attention, saying that something is “out of balance”.

More specifically: any pain, anxiety or stress that prompts you to take action is good for you. Otherwise it’s just a waste of time and energy. It’s like sitting on a rocking chair. You’ll get the illusion of movement but you won’t be going anywhere.

Pretending that these do not exist is a bad idea. The second you have felt anything, it’s already too late. Your brain has already fired nerve impulses and created energy that has to go somewhere. My personal working hypothesis is that what you don’t express, you repress. It will be safely stored somewhere until you are ready to express it (and that may be decades later).

Here is what Dr Annette Goodheart said years ago on this subject:

“Emotions are a force from within. If we keep them inside they become feelings (a force kept within). If you repress eventually you will somatize (= manifest mental pain as pain in one’s body) and create a disease.”

Laughter is a powerful healing agent because pain, anxiety and stress constrict while laughter dilates. Blood is food, therefore blood is life. Blood flows better through dilated tissues. Laughter is also all about the outbreath, letting go, as well as allowing you to vocalize your pain or tension without having to verbalize it. It makes everything more manageable.

Just like there are many different forms of humor, there are also many different understandings of Laughter Yoga and ways to practice it. Some you may relate to, and others you may not.

A fairly common discussion in the well-thinking circles of the world Laughter Yoga community is to try to (if need be forcefully) formalize what Laughter Yoga is and what it is not, how it can and how it can’t be practiced for the sake of “the movement” (allow me to remind you that the core concept of Laughter Yoga is to laugh for no reason.)

Yes, some people are truly incompetent and one may choose to believe that because they claim the Laughter Yoga affiliation, they also give everybody else a bad name.

Yes, and.

Think about fire. Think about dynamite. Think about nuclear power. Are these good or bad? The answer is neither. They’re neutral. Fire will cook the food and burn the house. Either way is your choice. Laughter Yoga is like that. Ney, life is like that.

Consider that it is like water. The only way to ensure that water flows far and wide is to allow it to take on the color, shape and any other attribute of the environment it is in, all the time and without any restrictions.

There is but one ingredient and one only: laughter. Everything else is man made and I chose to believe that whatever the flavor is, it serves a purpose.

You may have heard before the quote that says

“Love is a greater power than hate. Whatever you say, say it with love. Harm no one. Judge not others. Hate none, love all. Think of everything in terms of universality.”

As such understand that I echo and fully stand behind the position of my teacher, Dr Kataria: love them all.

Just a thought: you can’t be serious about laughter because that very seriousness eventually kills it. Laughter is unreasonable (read “outside of reason”) and as such playfulness is the fertilizer that makes it thrive. Take that away and what’s left will in time become stale and wither. The most successful laughter clubs around the world all know this, either consciously or unconsciously: playfulness is much more fun.

How to play? Dr Kataria pointed out last year that the thought had come to him in one of his daily meditations that “joy” manifests through laughing, playing, dancing and singing. I found that comment particularly relevant because it echoed what I later read in “The Gospel Of Sri Ramakrishna” (Sri Ramakrishna was an Hindu saint from the late 1800s):

“…God is directly present in the man who has the pure heart of a child and who laughs and cries and dances and sings in divine ecstasy.”

Practice makes perfect.

P.S.: The following 2 videos are unrelated to Laughter Yoga and still illustrate the importance of “being”. Enjoy!

I was recently made aware of the 1960s Japanese TV serie “Zatoichi the Blind Swordsman” (you can watch most of the 26 episodes of the original serie at http://www.joost.com/38jil7z/t/Zatoichi-the-Blind-Swordsman. It’s all very “clean” and while many die, there is no blood spilling all over the screen).

Zatoichi is a traveling masseur that goes from village to village (or rather from gambling house to gambling house since he can hear on which side the dice fall) on an apparent personal quest to help the widows and orphans of this world. He is also a blind hero with superhuman fighting skills.

What’s interesting in this serie is that the main character (Zatuichi) laughs/chuckles all the time (and so do all the villains by the way). He also happens to be invincible in combat and fearless in the face of death.

This feeds very well one of my many working hypothesis: laughter is the warrior’s rallying call. You can’t laugh and be afraid at the same time.

It could also be that people laughed more in the 60s and much less nowadays.

A “Zatuichi” movie was made in 2003 (you can watch it on google videos at http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=823850841199924683&hl=en#) but that one is really violent, filled with hemoglobin (sensitive of heart, be warned!), and Zatuichi doesn’t laugh anymore and barely chuckles.

Who knows?

Here is a nice stopwatch that I find very useful (from www.online-stopwatch.com):

So there you go: you have no more excuses if you say that you will laugh for 5 minutes every day

• Realize that each human being has a built-in capacity for recuperation and repair.
• Recognize that the quality of your own life is all-important.
• Assume responsibility for the quality of your own life.
• Nurture the regenerative and restorative forces within you.
• Utilize laughter to create a mood in which the other positive emotions can be put to work for yourself and those around you.
• Develop confidence and the ability to feel love, hope and faith, and acquire a strong will to live.

PS: In 1979, celebrated writer Norman Cousins published “Anatomy of an Illness“, a book in which he described his potentially fatal disease, ankylosing spondylitis, in 1964 and his discovery of the benefits of humor and other positive emotions in battling with it. He found for example that 10 minutes of mirthful laughter gave him 2 hours of pain-free sleep. His story baffled the scientific community and inspired a number of research projects.

See http://www.laughangeles.com/club-list.php for a list of laughter clubs near you.

Laughter Clubs (also occasionally known as Laugh Clubs, Laughing Clubs, Yoga Laugh Clubs) are fully independent, not-for-profit, non-political, non-religious and non competitive gatherings of people where all are welcome regardless of gender, age, physical abilities, social or economic backgrounds. They practice the Laughter Yoga method of Laughing for no reason as a form of exercise. Most are free. Some ask for a (usually very low) fee to help cover their expenses.

Here is my latest working hypothesis: Laughter Yoga is powerful beyond what words can describe, both on a physical, mental, emotional and even spiritual level because it builds its very existence on laughing about nothing (we do not use jokes and do not even try to be or look funny) in the eternity of the present moment where the Divine resides.

Let me explain.

God (or any other word you use to describe what is Divine, far above human consciousness) can be summarized with the numerical number 0 because it is both everything and nothing at the same time, full and empty, the beginning and the end.

God is all about unconditional love, and that’s again all about the numerical 0 because “unconditional” by definition has no condition. It is and it isn’t. It gives and it keeps. It wants everything that you want and cannot say “no” (the challenge of course is on you to be crystal clear on what you really, really want, and that requires that you first take action to get it in the first place). I logically conclude that unconditional love pervades the present moment, here, now. Each time you truly access that space love starts permeating you just like water will whenever you get into a swimming pool.

I choose for this reason to see Laughter Yoga as a spiritual practice that has the power to help me get everything that I want because it helps me get out my mind and into my body.

My body can only exist here, now.

Anchoring myself in the eternity of now through laughter helps my mind to acknowledge, accept and love my present moment as it is. It forces me to take full ownership of my feelings here, now, and therefore of my life, here, now.

There are only 2 things I can do here, now, and they can only happen in the following order. First I must accept everything that I have and love it exactly as it is because it is the only thing that I’ve got. Then and only if I so wish, I have the opportunity to take action to change it, but that can only happen here, now (not tomorrow or the day after).

Laughter Yoga therefore trains me to constantly ask myself: what can I do now, with a positive attitude?

This is of course not the end of the journey (we’re still within the energy field of the numerical 0, neither at the beginning nor the end). It’s only part of the equation.

It is commonly said that laughter will take you half-way home to healing. This is very far, and at some point you will have to walk.

For me mastery of the mind is the ultimate goal, and Laughter Yoga prepares me for that. The mind you can control is a very powerful servant. The mind you cannot control is your worst enemy.

Here is what the 18th century Tamil philosopher and Hindu saint Thayumanavar said on this topic:

“You may control a mad elephant;
You may shut the mouth of the bear and tiger;
Ride the lion and play with the cobra;
By alchemy you may earn your livelihood;
You may wander through the universe incognito;
Make vassals of the gods; be ever youthful;
You may walk on water and live in fire;
But control of the mind is better and more difficult”

I am stubborn and actively working on it. Just like Paramahansa Yogananda said: “in the valley of sorrow, a thousand years or so tomorrow. But I’ll wait to see you, only you.” Everything will happen in due time with practice, patience, and lots of perseverance.

Ha, ha, ha.

No explanations required. This is utterly simple, and not negotiable: we are all one.

• Trust yourself and your partner in any interaction.
• Move things forward by saying “Yes, and…”. In other words, don’t negate or deny by saying “Yes, but…”.
• Go somewhere or say something; it doesn’t have to be perfect. Physically putting yourself in motion often works to get your brain in motion.
• Make statements rather than ask questions.
• Make assumptions to start moving the action forward. (Remember that you’re just looking for a place to start; you don’t have to stay there.)
• Give and take: this applies to attention, focus, ideas, and respect.
• Listen, watch, and concentrate.
• Play to the top of your intelligence. Don’t go for easy laughs — you’re smarter than that.

“Cursor Carve” your very own pumpkin!

Ha ha happy Halloween to you all! May the great pumpkin bring you heaps of blessings and many more smiles and laughter.

(I got the .swf file from http://www.cubpack81.com/images/carve_pumpkin.swf)

It hit me at 7pm, only a few hours ago. “It” was an email from Dr Kataria telling me that he would not be attending the 2009 All America Laughter Yoga Conference for personal reasons.

Life happens, and we’re 3 weeks away. 46 people have signed up so far to his Monday 9/28 workshop. Over here we call that a real bummer.

Did I get stressed? Read on. This is where it gets interesting.

The answer is no, not really. 5 years ago I would have blown a few fuses. I am good guy. How could life do this to me? Today I immediately took a few deep breath, smiled and instinctively took the view that life is friendly and this was a blessing.

Laughter Yoga is a major enhancement in the field of emotional intelligence and cognitive restructuring. You gotta love it for that. I have been practicing faithfully for over 5 years now.

…and I was right. As I went on to find out why this was a blessing I was effortlessly led to an experienced and charismatic woman with an equally outstanding program who somehow was there and ready to go. Don’t ask me how or why. It just happened. Her name is Katie West.

Dr Kataria was going to talk on laughing alone. Katie is going to do the same with a very different spin and immediate practical applications. Participants will actually also learn the basics of how to do this with clients as well. Laughter Coaching is a transformational process which creates or re-establishes the practice of laughter into one’s life. By combining the benefits of laughter with the focused approach of coaching, clients are able to bring more laughter into their lives and direct this energy towards their goals. Click here to read more.

Life is good. You are never alone.

May you thrive.

I recently read the following quote that summarizes very well something I have observed over the years:

“It’s easier to maintain the illusion of control if you hold on to the handle. But it’s more fun if you just let the wind carry you.”

Many people teach that Laughter Yoga is a body-mind approach to laughter, that it is exercise and not comedy, yet comparatively few truly practice what they preach. They’ll use “funny” props such as wigs or red noses, will go through entire routines of what is to them funny faces or movements, or will punctuate their classes with lots of jokes or funny statements in an effort to make others (hopefully) laugh more.

They get results and do get people to laugh – laughter is genuinely amazingly powerful stuff – and yet my current belief is that they’ll never get to experience how liberating laughter truly can be.

It takes courage to be you, as you are, and I’d urge you to try. There is no need to hide behind humor, no need to try to shine. You’re shining already.

Laughter Yoga is a blessed activity for class instructors because you simply can’t fail since people are invited to laugh on their own terms. In the worst case scenario you will not manage to get them out of their heads and they will laugh at you. That’s still a win and a good learning curve.

The trick is to get and keep people engaged in physical activities. Avoid silence and anything “funny” because it effectively brings people back into their critical mind, and since simulated laughter exercises aren’t “normal” behavior for sane adults this always backfires and creates conscious or unconscious resistance and only reduces the group laughter dynamic. The Laughter Yoga formula that works best in my experience and that you should keep repeating for about 30 minutes is clap, breathe and laugh faking it with enthusiasm (after that sit down and alternate silence with laughter).

Don’t use props to make people laugh. Their only useful purpose is with low cognitive individuals who don’t hear, don’t see, don’t function very well.

Don’t even try to be or look funny. You don’t need to.

I smile and laugh a lot in public for no particular reason and don’t see myself as an idiot, and not even really as an eccentric. I don’t see myself as a clown either and have no interest in finding the clown in me. I am at peace with myself, and that is good enough for me.

A few months ago Reverend Will Bowen, a pastor in Kansas City, Missouri, asked his congregation to make a simple pledge to not complain for 21 days. Each participant was given a purple bracelet as a reminder of the pledge, and with each complaint, the bracelet is switched to the other wrist and the 21-day count restarts.

The no-complaints movement has quickly become mainstream, and so far over 5 millions no-complaint bracelets have been ordered. Requests for the bracelets are coming in from as far away as Australia and South Africa, as well as from American troops in Iraq.

Some participants tried up to seven months to achieve 21 complaint-free days, but even with relapses, all efforts have resulted in millions of stopped complaints. As Rev. Bowen sums it up, “that’s a lot less ear pollution.”

Challenge:
Could you last 21 days with no complaining, criticizing, gossiping or sarcastic remarks? Take the no-complaints pledge, and encourage those around you to do the same. It takes an average of 4 to 10 months to successfully complete (just to show how deep negativity runs in most of us). Read more at http://www.acomplaintfreeworld.org/faqs.html