Laughter yoga is not funny. During one of his daily Zoom meetings, Dr. Madan Kataria, a former general practitioner and the inventor of laughter yoga, is speaking to more than 100 participants. We don’t need jokes or humour to make us laugh. Laughter is something we do to exercise, but with practise, it develops into real laughter.I quickly learn this for myself. My controlled chuckle quickly turns into a gut laugh as my screen fills with workshop participants from all over the world, a mosaic of boisterous chuckles.
As she guides amusing fitness routines, Kataria explains, “It’s just a simple laughing and breathing exercise.” Even in difficult situations, we can practise laughter yoga, according to the author. Inhale. Retain it. Retain it. He says to “laugh it out.” Some of the loud guffaws are more forced than others, but as a result of my fellow participants’ chuckles and silly faces as well as the overall silliness of the exercises, I start to laugh deeply and honestly. Following a few yoga positions, Kataria continues, “It lowers stress.” “It boosts your immunity.”Though it started out small, the practise of “laughing yoga,” which combines breathing techniques and intentional laughter, has grown into a huge global phenomenon. Numerous clubs that are often free to enter have now sprouted up throughout Asia, Europe, and North America. In 1995, Kataria’s inaugural gathering in Mumbai was attended by five persons. He explains to me, “I’d read a lot about the advantages of laughter and how acting out emotions, particularly through facial expressions, may create them. Then he understood that he wouldn’t frequently witness laughter in Mumbai. I got the bright idea: why not form a laughing club?He went to a park close to his home and enquired about people’s interest in joining a new tribe. He recalls that “everyone started laughing at me.” “They questioned if I was OK. “Yes, why don’t you give it a try?” I responded. After the success of the initial meeting, he continued to arrange regular meetings, which he continues to do even now, 27 years later, often twice a day. As the crowd grew, Kataria discovered that the simplest and least contentious way to start the ecstasy was by laughing out loud without any rhyme or reason. Initially, he asked participants to tell jokes to start a chorus of contagious chortles. He also soon determined he preferred prescribing laughter to medications.
We simply pretended to laugh, he continues. I laugh heartily. “And at that point, people actually began to chuckle. We couldn’t stop because it was contagious. He soon added some simple stretches and Indian breathing techniques called pranayama to go along with the laughter, which by itself oxidises the body and exhales carbon dioxide, boosting energy levels. The duration of the individuals’ laughter also increased as their lung capacity grew. News of his activities circulated quickly. He was given a genius visa by the US, enabling him to go there, spread the word, and speak before a senate committee in 2010. There are clubs in 116 nations as of right present.Laughter yoga satisfies a deep-seated desire to laugh that is being suppressed for many reasons. Young children frequently chuckle throughout the day. However, as we age, the fun gradually comes to an end as our brains develop the ability to control our emotions in accordance with the demands of others. We learn to empathise. But we are also urged to quit laughing and take life seriously. Perhaps you can recall being in trouble for inappropriate laughter from your parents or teachers. There is frequently a perception that laughing indicates that you are not adequately paying attention, working, or learning. This is acceptable at times, but not always.Kataria believes that laughter is essential to our lived experience and is good for our health. Her 1999 book, Laugh for No Reason, has been translated into Italian, French, German, Farsi, Indonesian, and Korean. Why then would we rely on outside factors that are always tempered by life’s hardships to make us laugh?
A fundamental aspect of what it means to be a social animal is laughter (rats, chimps and bonobos laugh, too).According to one theory, it may have been essential to evolution, allowing our ancestors to form larger tribes than the neanderthals who coexisted with them. It is fundamental to the health of our mind, body, and relationships. It might have even changed so that we could become healthy. The endorphins that are released by laughing serve as the body’s natural painkillers. According to a recent study in the journal Preventive Medicine, older adults who routinely laugh with friends and family may have a lower risk of health issues than those who do not. According to more studies in the Nursing & Health Sciences, laughing significantly lowers stress hormones like cortisol, lowers anxiety by lowering adrenaline levels, and triggers the body’s natural relaxation response.
Do forced giggles have the same results? The 66-year-old Kataria, who has taught his method in institutions with the highest levels of security and for youngsters who are blind, is certain in its advantages. However, the body of knowledge is inconclusive, and only subpar pilot studies have been conducted. Having said that, if genuine laughter has advantages, laughter yoga might too. After all, the phoney laughter usually turns into genuine laughs. The effects of laughter are comparable to those of exercise in that they increase heart rate while decreasing heart-rate variability, according to a 2018 research from New Zealand that reports on an experiment with 72 individuals.According to a Scientific American article from 2005, it is becoming more and more clear that laughing can improve our physical and emotional wellbeing. The first meta-analysis of the trials that were available, which was published in 2019, revealed that therapies that induce laughing help with depression. However, it acknowledged that the findings lacked academic rigour and advocated for more thorough examinations. It stated, “With rising healthcare expenses and an ageing population, there is a potential for low-cost, straightforward interventions that may be applied by staff with little training.
Laughter therapy has been used for many years. After laughing became a subject of scientific study for the first time in the 1960s, Kataria’s method substantially streamlined earlier iterations. Dr. William Fry, a psychology professor at Stanford University, became the first gelotologist in 1964 after publishing a number of important studies on the physiology of laughter. Gelos is a Greek word that means to laugh. After examining blood samples from people who watched comedies, his research concluded that laughter may increase the effectiveness of immune cells that combat infectious infections.With his assertions that it might have saved his life, peace activist and editor of the Saturday Review, Norman Cousins brought the therapeutic use of laughter into the public eye. His bestselling 1979 book, Anatomy of an Illness, advanced his theory that a patient’s attitude can have an impact on their illness. He was diagnosed with a fatal form of autoimmune arthritic disease in 1964. 15 years prior, he started belly-laughing for 10 minutes every day, which gave him two hours of pain-free sleep after all other treatments had failed. Cousins claimed the procedure, combined with massive intravenous doses of vitamin C, increased his life expectancy. He died in 1990, aged 75.Whatever he did, Cousins outlived his medical forecast by a significant margin. He writes, “I made the happy discovery that 10 minutes of real belly laughter had an anaesthetic effect. He wrote another best-seller, Head First: The Biology of Hope, in 1989, in which he examined the impact of emotions on the body’s ability to withstand illness. Even though Cousins, who often employed comedies to make people laugh, acknowledged that “this treatment – like everything else I did – was a demonstration of the placebo effect,” it still seemed effective.A later editor of the New England Journal of Medicine, Dr. Arnold Relman, criticised his “anti-scientific, illogical approach to medicine,” taking offence at the idea that “an optimistic attitude will treat a terrible sickness.” Relman acknowledged that he did concur with “the essential verities” that had been made, saying that “there is no doubt that an enthusiastic and determined patient handles the vicissitudes of disease better than one who is sad, negative, and miserable and defeatist about his illness.”Kataria, who acknowledges that she doesn’t have a good sense of humour, agrees. “Laughter gives you a coping strategy during stressful times,” he claims. “No matter the weather, it is a terrific activity to improve your mood.” It secretes mood-enhancing chemicals like endorphins, dopamine, and serotonin, according to studies. Immune cell generation, antibody levels, and the body’s inborn anti-carcinogenic response are all increased.
The advantages of laughter are becoming more widely acknowledged. Care UK, one of the biggest care providers in the UK, started providing laughter sessions for its caregivers during the initial Covid lockdown. As part of a social prescribing pilot in Bristol, the NHS has lately started providing laughter yoga to patients through GPs. Professional comedians will assist people with mental health problems in not only examining the nature of their problems but also in searching for the humour inside them. This summer, workshops were offered at a number of music and cultural festivals, and western yogis are now more frequently providing sessions. According to Kataria, many yoga classes in India now end with a round of laughter.
In a 2016 Ted Talk in Montreal, laughter yoga instructor Liliana deLeo declared, “It’s time we let go and laugh more. “There was a time when I sought for amusement from something or someone. But when I was dependent on those outside things, I was unable to laugh for days. The former fitness instructor, who was trained by Kataria to teach laughter yoga, suggests including conscious laughter in daily activities. She tells me, “I adore funny movies, but we can’t always stay behind our screens.” “I want everyone to have the freedom to choose to laugh, no matter the situation. If you’re at home doing some chores, stop and consider it: take a deep breath in and a loud laugh out. I’ve started teasing myself multiple times a day on my own, even when I’m stressed out. It definitely tends to help me unwind and see the lighter side of things. Craig Benzine, a.k.a. WheezyWaiter, a YouTuber, recently laughed for five minutes each day for a month. On the first day, he observed, “I really feel more exhausted today because it relaxed me so much.” After 30 days, he came to the conclusion that laughing with others is always more enjoyable and that it “makes your entire body feel fantastic and it lasts for several hours.” He asserts that humour is whatever you make it. “Nothing is really funny, or not funny.More importantly, the question is whether you can see the humour in it. I’ve learned a new tool that I can use whenever I want to feel wonderful legally.
Benzine is simply the most recent illustration of how the pandemic’s forced self-reliance of people led to a large increase in the practise of laughter yoga online. Although interest has grown as a result of Covid, according to Kataria, who makes a profession by training teachers and arranging events, many individuals all across the world might still go days without laughing. The next pandemic, according to him, will be around mental health. And while there are many methods for reducing stress, nothing beats laughter. It’s time to take laughter seriously right now.
