Laughter Yoga Blog

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:

We are slowly getting official recognition throughout the world by leading medical professionals, and it cannot be otherwise.
Laughter Yoga changes lives. Consistently. Everywhere.
Some things you can’t ignore forever.

Do you want to see over 10,000 people laughing, all together, at the same time, for no particular reason?
Mark the date. That will be in Sydney, Australia, on Sunday May 2nd 2010 as part of the 2010 World Laughter Day Celebration as well as the 2010 Sydney Comedy Festival.

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

I was recently made aware of a new drug “Neurodex” created by Avanir Pharmaceutical to address a newly created disorder called “Involuntary Emotional Expression Disorder” (this is when patients find themselves laughing uncontrollably at something that is only moderately humorous, being unable to stop themselves for several minutes.), and asked what my thoughts about it were.

Involuntary Emotional Expression Disorder is most commonly observed after brain injury, people with dementia expressing a psychosis of some sort, or degeneration in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (also known as Lou Gehrig disease), a form of motor neuron disease. It affects up to 50% of patients or up to 17,000 people, particularly those with pseudobulbar palsy.[2] It also occurs in approximately 10% of multiple sclerosis patients[3], signalling a degree of cognitive impairment. It is also currently being considered for inclusion in the DSM as one of the two symptoms (of five possible) which must be present for a diagnosis of ADHD in adults. “

Critics may say that this proposed new disorder is one more illustration of how the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) is primarily driven by the psychopharmacological industry and pathologizes normal behavior, such as grief, sadness, shyness, healthy rebelliousness, and now…laughter.

See what theonion.com made of that news:

To be fair it’s also only part of the story as pathological laughter is not “normal”.

From a medical and therapeutic point of view there are 5 main kinds of laughter:

Genuine or spontaneous laughter is unrelated to one’s own free will and triggered by different (external) stimuli and positive emotions. It has been reported that spontaneous laughter causes typical contractions of the muscles around the eye socket (Duchenne laughter/smile).
Self-induced simulated laughter is triggered by oneself at will, with no specific reason (purposeful, unconditional), and therefore not elicited by humor, fun, other stimuli or positive emotions. (i.e. Laughter Yoga techniques, others).
Stimulated laughter happens as a result of the physical action (reflex) of certain external factors (i.e. to be ticklish, specific facial or bodily motions, by pressing laughter bones).
Induced laughter is a result of the effects of specific drugs or substances (i.e. alcohol, caffeine, amphetamines, cannabis, lysergic acid diethylamide or LSD, nitrous oxide or “laughing gas”, and more).
Finally, Pathological laughter is secondary to injuries to the central nervous system caused by various temporary or permanent neurological diseases and may also occur with certain psychiatric disorders. Pathological laughter is developed with no specific stimulus, is not connected with emotional changes, has no voluntary control of its duration, intensity or facial expression, and sometimes comes with “pathological crying”.

What to do if you know people displaying symptoms of pathological laughter? The answer is “I don’t know, ask your doctor.”

I will not take side for 2 main reasons.
(1) I know nothing of and have zero experience in the field of mental health.
(2) It is impossible to give collective answers to personal, specific situations. The only answer there is “it depends.”

While the risk of massive abuse exists with such a drug (e.g., in a mental hospital “Tommy gets on my nerve when he laughs, let’s give him some neurodex to have some peace”), you can reasonably conceive that in some specific cases, say someone with M.S. who wants to socialize yet can’t control their laughter/crying, such a drug can be justified as a short term solution.

I can only pray that the trained medical professionals who will be prescribing Neurodex will do so very wisely.

Read more at
http://www.stroke.org/site/PageServer?pagename=IEED
http://www.zurinstitute.com/blogs/index.php?blogid=4
http://irnewsservice.com

…this is a trace of where it all began:

“No joke is needed to get members of one of Mumbai’s 37 laughing clubs to erupt with glee. Instead, they breathe deeply, yoga-like, reach for the sky to reduce inhibitions, then force a ‘ho, ho, ha, ha’ until the laughter becomes contagious. It reduces stress, claims Dr. Madan Kataria, the clubs’ founder. ‘Laughing is my mission,’ he says, ‘I want to spread it all over the world.’”

—From “India: Fifty Years of Independence,” May 1997, National Geographic magazine

Read more: http://photography.nationalgeographic.com/photography/enlarge/laughing-club_pod_image.html

Expect to read a lot more news like this in the not so distant future: Staff and students from XYZ University take part to a ‘laughter yoga’ session because it makes them feel more optimistic, confident, assertive, adaptable, accepting and aware of themselves and others.

At the beginning of this week they were from Portsmouth University, England.

Today they are from the prestigious University of California, Los Angeles.

Tomorrow they may be from your local University.

Laughter Yoga has a lot to offer. That’s for sure…

Nearly 400 clowns and doctors skilled at clowning took part in an international conference in Buenos Aires (Argentina) last week to present scientific evidence, backed by their own experience, to show why laughter was healthy. It was the third International Congress of Hospital Clowns.

This is not a new scientific research that shows that laughter is a valid and powerful healing modality, and it’s not far off: what defines scientific is a specific protocol (in this case just laugh) that anybody can try anytime anywhere, and get the exact same outcome (which is the case here: laughter heals people the same in the North, South, East and West).

The future of medicine is upon us, coming faster than we think.

(if you read this article and have more info about what was presented at this conference please email it to us at laugh@laughangeles.com. We’ll help spread that far and wide. Thanks!)

Read more

As more and more people demand a holistic, comprehensive cancer care that cares for the person while treating the cancer, more and more cancer centers in North America are adding Laughter Yoga to their list of services.

The last hop on the train is Mercy Medical Center from Ohio (550 physicians, 2500 staff).

Laughter Yoga helps cancer patients, one center at a time. This is not a joke.

Statistics have shown that 5/5 people will eventually die , and it will always be more fun with laughter than without. Besides – who knows? – it may even make you much healthier!

Read more at http://www.the-press-news.com/news/article/4713403

PUNE (INDIA): It was a day for sex workers of Budhwar Peth to laugh, and laugh their hearts out for no reason but just for the sake being happy; a break from a stressful routine which they indulge in just to earn their bread and butter.

With the initiative of Saheli HIV/AIDS Karyakarta Sangh, an NGO, Kishore H Kuvavala, the founder of a popular laughter club, taught about 200 sex workers to laugh. His witty remarks and an interactive session had the audience in splits as he stressed on the importance of laughter therapy.

“Aap kaise ho? (how are you?) asked Kuvavala. “Hum bohot achey hey” (I am very happy), was the reply. Kuvavala says, “though I made them repeat these words, it’s difficult for them to say that they are very happy. But during the session they were happy, though for a short period of time.” The participants raised their hands and laughed together. It was also a sort of get-together for them.

One of the participants said she thoroughly enjoyed the competition. “It is good to laugh. I am tension free now (sab tension chala gaya). ” Another participant said, “I do not think I have laughed so hard in a long time.”

“Laughter gives a positive energy and this can help them fight disease and misery. When they are happy they can deal with business, people they meet and their children in a better way. They do not have a family as such. So the positive vibe can help them unite in a group,” said Kuvavala.

Tejaswi Sevekari, director of the NGO, said the idea was to use laughter as a therapy for sex workers. “We plan to introduce laughter therapy in all our meetings and also in HIV support group. We plan to start a laughter club in Budhwar Peth with help from other NGOs working on HIV/AIDS,” she said.

Read more: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/pune/Laughter-club-brings-smile-to-sex-workers/articleshow/5245009.cms

Amid simmering political tensions, a fierce post-election crackdown and a depressed economy, reasons to be cheerful are hardly in abundant supply in Iran.

Now Tehran city council has found an antidote to gee up down-in-the-mouth inhabitants : the good old belly laugh.

It is starting laughing clubs in an effort to reach out to people “who have lost the power of laughter”, according to the Tehran-e Emrooz newspaper, which is linked to the city’s mayor, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf.

Participants will be urged to guffaw away the blues in group sessions designed to tackle the stress of urban living in a city of 12 million people. The classes may also lighten the morbid atmosphere left over from President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s disputed re-election, which triggered a clampdown that opponents claim left at least 72 people dead and resulted in many others being tortured or raped in detention.

Clubs have been established in two cultural centres normally used for more high-minded pursuits such as concerts, further education classes and poetry readings. Eventually, the council hopes to expand the events to pensioners’ groups, health centres and even prisons.

The classes are based on methods devised by Iranian laughter therapist Majid Pezeshki, who developed his technique from a discipline practised in India based on the principle that laughing has physical and psychological health benefits.

However, applying it in Iran may be no joke. Since the 1979 Islamic revolution, public laughter has been officially frowned upon by the religious authorities, perhaps mindful of the maxim attributed to the late Ayatollah Khomeini, the revolution’s spiritual leader: “There is no fun in Islam.”

The difficulties were illustrated last year when an earlier attempt to start the classes was aborted because of the two-month religious mourning periods of Moharram and Safar, despite 6,000 people having enrolled.

The new sessions also challenge another longstanding taboo: they are open to women. Traditionally, it was considered uncouth and unfeminine for Iranian women to laugh uproariously.

Until recent times, brides would pose for their wedding photos with a deliberately glum expression.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/nov/19/tehran-laughing-classes