A group of adults is
walking in a circle around a workout studio. They suddenly begin to roar, “Ho,
ho, hah, hah” at each other. They belong to a Laughter Club and are practicing
an offshoot of yoga called “laughter yoga” or “hasya yoga”. Over the next 20
minutes, the group works through a variety of exercises, from conventional yoga
stretching through laughter techniques like hearty laughter, silent laughter,
lion laughter, swinging laughter, one meter laughter, cocktail laughter,
gradient laughter and many others. Soon, everyone in the room is laughing
spontaneously and uproariously.
It might seem odd that something
as ordinary as laughing has become the focus of an exercise class. But in these
stressful times, we have apparently either forgotten how to laugh or just don’t
find much that’s funny. According to a study done by Dr. Michael Titze, a German
psychologist, in the 1950s people used to laugh 18 minutes a day, but today we
laugh not more than six minutes a day. Kids do better, laughing up to 400 times
in a day, compared to the adult laughter rate of just 15 times a day.
Since laughter is good for our health, some
people are “faking it ’til they make it”...and reaping great benefits. According
to the principles of yoga, laughter gives a constant massage to the digestive
tract and also improves blood supply to all the internal organs. It stimulates
blood circulation, which helps to transport nutrients all over the body, and it
also strengthens our respiratory apparatus, which supplies oxygen to the body.
Boosting your immune system through laughter may prevent the more
than 70 percent of illnesses that have some connection to stress, such as high
blood pressure, heart disease, anxiety, depression, frequent coughs and colds,
peptic ulcers, insomnia, allergies, asthma, menstrual difficulties, tension
headaches, stomach upsets and even cancer. In addition to physical health
benefits, laughter can also have a positive effect on mental, social and
spiritual well-being.
It has long been known that laughter is a great antidote to
negative emotions. In the 1960s, Norman Cousins, an editor at the
Saturday Review,
was struck with ankylosing spondylitis, a degenerative disease of the connective tissue. Reasoning that
positive emotions could have a healing effect on the human body, he conducted a
grand experiment, which consisted of watching hours of Marx Brother movies and
reruns of the television show
Candid Camera
One of the things Cousins discovered was that a ten-minute belly
laugh could give him two hours of painless sleep. Other research has confirmed
that endorphins released as a result of laughter may help in reducing the
intensity of pain in those suffering from arthritis, spondylitis and muscular
spasms. Many women have reported a reduced frequency of migraine headaches after
joining a Laughter Yoga Club.
Dr. Peter Axt, a retired professor of health science at Fulda
University in Germany, and his daughter Dr. Michaela Axt-Gadermann have found
that laughter, by creating serotonin, is actually better for a person than
running. Calling themselves reformed long-distance runners, the father/daughter
team note in their book The Joy of
Laziness
that laughter increases heart
rate and raises blood pressure without producing dangerous free radicals. “The
heartbeat races and blood pressure is raised for a short while, without
activating your metabolism and producing the free radicals which spend your life
energy. Basically, laughing is a good training session without the negative
side-effects.” Standford University’s Dr. William Fry claims that one minute of
laughter is equal to 10 minutes on the rowing machine.
And that is the main idea behind laughter yoga, which was
developed by Dr. Madan Kataria, a physician from Mumbai, India dubbed “the Guru
of Giggling” by the London Times. His organization Laughter Clubs International
aims to spread the concept around the world. At present there are more than 800
Laughter Clubs in India, USA, Canada, Australia, Germany, Switzerland, Sweden,
Norway, Denmark, Italy, Australia, Singapore, Malaysia and Dubai.
Along with his partner Madhur Kataria, the doctor hopes to set up
a team of doctors from various specialties and systems of medicine to conduct
scientific studies and research work into the benefits of laughter. Perhaps less
useful but more fun, the Katarias have dubbed the first Sunday of May as “World
Laughter Day”. At the 2001 event, ten thousand people filled a public square in
Copenhagen, Denmark to laugh together.
Kataria says that the very essence of laughing without a reason
lies in developing your child-like spirit and playful attitude. If you can do
that, laughter – and the accompanying benefits – will come to you with great
ease.
Learn More
Laugh For No Reason by Madan Kataria (Madhuri International, 1999)
Anatomy of an Illness as
Perceived by the Patient by Norman Cousins, (Bantam Books, 1991)
Laughter: A Scientific
Investigation by Robert R. Provine (Penguin Books, 2001)
Laughter Therapy: How to
Laugh About Everything in Your Life That Isn’t Really
Funny by Annette Goodheart (Andrew Lesser, 1994)
Laughter Club International (listing of Clubs worldwide)
Wendy Priesnitz is
the Editor of Natural Life Magazine and a journalist with over 30 years of
experience. She has
also authored nine
books.
Visit her
website.
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