Laughter Wisdom with Dr. Annette Goodheart

Om Yeah! Laugh Your Way to Meditative Bliss with Laughter Yoga

The YogaLaughs Laughter and Silence retreats throughout the years have been profound for folks. People who are not regular silent meditators report experiences like, "a sense of flow", "emotional rest", "being completely energized and quiet at the same time", "going somewhere else in my mind", etc.

Now, we have the science to back up why this happens. Turns out, when we laugh mirthfully, almost instantly, our brains begin producing gamma waves, which create the highest level of cognitive functioning.

What are gamma waves? This video clip explains it well. 

The Tibetan Monks he mentions in the University of Wisconsin study (in the video clip above) were asked to specifically to generate feelings of objective compassion for self, then objective compassion for the world. This is when their brains kicked into "high gear" and started producing gamma waves.

A Huffington Post video clip from 2013 explores how we can "train our mind to do the impossible" (generate gamma waves.) Click here to watch!

We know more now than in 2013. 

“Joyful laughter immediately produces the same brain wave frequencies experienced by people in a true meditative state,” says Lee Berk, lead researcher of the study and associate professor of pathology and human anatomy at Loma Linda University.  -- Time Magazine, May 2, 2014

Until Berk's study, we only acknowledged years of practice meditating as the gateway to gamma wave production. 

“Gamma is the only frequency that affects every part of the brain,” says Berk. “So when you’re laughing, you’re essentially engaging your entire brain at once. This state of your entire brain being ‘in synch’ is associated with contentment, being able to think more clearly, and improved focus. You know, that feeling of being ‘in the zone’.” -- Time Magazine, May 2, 2014

Berk went on to say, "This is of great value to individuals who need or want to revisit, reorganize or rearrange various aspects of their lives or experiences, to make them feel whole or more focused."

My question: Can we easily train our brain waves to produce gamma waves by participating in laughter yoga regularly? 

"I used to have major panic attacks throughout my work week. After laughing each week, I only have about 1 or 2 a month. I'm also amazed how nice I am to everyone after a laughter yoga session." -- Feedback from a YogaLaughs laughter club participant.

In 2007, I found out about Dr. Jeffrey Thompson, who had been experimenting with sound waves - and how they influence and train brain waves. He recorded sound frequency patterns, which were built into musical soundtracks - ultimately discovering yes, we can entrain our brainwaves. 

I immediately bought his "Gamma Meditation" CD, to see if I could get my brain waves to mimic those of the compassionate monks.

The "state" I achieved after a few months of regular listening to my CD didn't seem so, "off the charts". I had also been leading laughter yoga at every opportunity I could get. I found myself in a deeper place of "transcendental bliss" after laughing, then sitting in silence. I didn't have a clue as to why, just knew this experience showed up, more or less, every time I led laughter yoga. I also heard regular reports from participants which were as diverse as they were amazing about long-held emotional release, greater insight around challenges, pain relief, mood lifts, inner stillness, restored energy, and the list goes on.

"I don't really know where I went during the silent meditation. I went somewhere. I'm as at ease as I remember being in a long time." -- Feedback from a Laughter & Silence Retreat

As a laughter yoga teacher, I've always observed hearty laughter paves the way for greater stillness during the silent meditation periods. For we novice meditators, this was key. We didn't need to think our way into not thinking. This became curious - how our thinking was no longer The Tyrant so quickly?

After so such laughter, we assumed we had just laughed out all of our stress and left inhibitions behind. What I know now... we had also deliberately super-charged gamma brainwave production and unwittingly eased ourselves right into transcendental bliss. Om Yeah. 

Laughter and Silence Mini-Retreat

Saturday, June 21, 2014

Gordon Avenue Library

1 - 4 p.m.

Free and open to the public!

BYO Water and a snack. Bring your favorite meditation props like a cushion, yoga mat, blanket, etc. Silent time can also be spent walking outside.

More information: http://yogalaughs.com/classes_trainings.html

Conquering Social Anxiety with Laughter Yoga

Tired of feeling frozen with shyness? Ready to kick social anxiety? Try coming to laughter yoga sessions. Or, laugh for 5 minutes straight just before a party or date. Or, put a pen between your upper & lower teeth, push it to the back of your jaw, and hold it there for at least 2 minutes. This "fake smile" works wonders to release happy neurochemicals. All of these are poison to social anxiety.

Prolonged laughter is much more potent than alcohol for beating social anxiety. Alcohol, while it does lower inhibitions, also skews judgment and prevents true affection and connection. A sense of connection and belonging is what most people with social anxiety crave. Plus, alcohol releases a flood of stress hormones "the day after" or even within a few hours, leading to more anxiety and disconnection.

Twenty percent of folks suffering with social anxiety disorder also abuse or are dependent on alcohol. Many find meetings, like 12-step meetings, intimidating. If you can get yourself to a laughter yoga session, within 10 minutes of hearty laughter, your brain takes care of your anxiety for you. All you need to do is laugh, even if just as exercise. This is the basis of laughter yoga and why the founder, Dr. Madan Kataria, became so passionate about it. He suggested whether we laugh for a reason or not, we get the same benefits.

"It's almost impossible to laugh heartily and have racing, obsessive thoughts at the same time."

How? The gut, bouncing about with the contractions of laughter, sends signals to the brain to release all of the happy neurochemicals needed for lowered inhibitions. There are many physiological reasons for this. As the founder encourages, you have full permission to, "fake until you make it." Laughter yoga is also a cumulative practice. The more you regularly participate in laughter yoga, the easier it is to jump into genuine playfulness and let go of inhibitions, regardless of the situation. You can also adopt it as a personal practice and create daily "laughter meditations."

I'm in no way suggesting those suffering with social anxiety and addiction replace 12-step meetings or therapy with laughter yoga sessions. However, practicing laughter yoga will make attending these meetings, or any social gathering, much less threatening.

The social bonding created by laughing together is ancient, pre-dates language, and we're just now getting around to doing some serious research on it. Laughter yoga is now used worldwide to ease major political tension and bring affection and peace where words and strategies have failed. Now, they're laughing first, then talking. It's a big deal to laugh together when it comes to creating unspoken, effortless, almost instant human connection.

You can triumph over shyness. You need the right tools. Laughter yoga, with no effort but to laugh, can soften the hardened ground from years of battling social anxiety.

If you're having trouble mustering the courage to come to a laughter yoga session, remember 1) most people attending sessions aren't there because they're so relaxed and at ease with their lives and 2) you can always try holding a pen between your teeth for 2 minutes in the parking lot.

Five Ways Laughter Yoga Helped Relieve My Major Depression

If you'd ever had a taste of major depression, you know it's far more than having the blues. Depending on the severity, it can feel like anything from walking through molasses to, "...the sinking feeling that your connection to God is broken and you are left to float on your own in a roaring, liquid black space, like an astronaut who has been cut loose from his spaceship and all that linked him to earth..." (from Darkness Visible, by Pulitzer Prize Winner, William Styron)  Severe depression permeates daily life on every level and in every way. The amount of emotional pain one feels is often beyond what another can fathom unless they've been through something similar.

These are the ways and the whys of how the regular, prolonged laughter in Laughter Yoga helped me out of severe major depression. These are not cures - and I'm not a doctor. These are just personal observations.

1. My mood lifted immediately, which lasted for a few hours, and I was able to let go of the bitterness and cynicism that often accompany depression. Why? Laughter Yoga balances neurochemicals and hormones. Endorphins, dopamine, serotonin, melatonin and oxytocin are boosted and every stress hormone is lowered when we laugh heartily for more than 15 minutes. It's also hard to laugh and think at the same time. Ha!

2. Social anxiety loosened. It's an ancient form of communication - laughter. Many researchers say it preceded language in the form of panting as a way to communicate play, affection and safety. So, no long conversations were needed from whomever was participating to feel a strong, open-hearted, unspoken bond with each other after a Laughter Yoga session. One of the common symptoms of major depression is withdrawal from social events, fun and relationships. Laughter Yoga sessions gave me a way to connect with others without much effort - and to be in physical contact with them through laughter games like "The High Five". It's just a fun hand slap, but made a difference in feeling like I was still connecting with others.

3. I was leading a group of committed laughers, and was doing something I was good at doing. Leading and being good at leading Laughter Yoga convinced me that depression had not taken everything from my life. Plus, others who were struggling with their own challenges were relying on me to show up, every week, and laugh with them. Laughter Yoga was really helping them, too. This is where my phrase, The more you laugh, the more you laugh, comes from. I laughed for an hour a week, at least, and found myself laughing much more in every day situations and finding funny things much funnier, despite myself.

4. My physical health improved. Science shows almost all disease either starts with a depletion of oxygen in the body and/or chronic stress. A lack of oxygen causes cells to mutate, then mutated cells multiply and form tumors... Ongoing stress ages our bodies and lowers our immunity. Laughter Yoga is strong medicine for all of these. Because strong diaphragmatic pumping of the lungs is required to laugh heartily, our bodies become flooded with fresh oxygen. One minute of hearty laughter exchanges as much oxygen in our lungs as 10 minutes on a rowing machine. It's also hard to breathe deeply and stay stressed out. Why? Deep breathing triggers the Vagus nerve, which stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system. It's the sympathetic nervous system that's on overload with stress. The parasympathetic nervous system is there to bring peace and calm us down. Immunity is also boosted by over 20% - the whole system - after 15 minutes of laughter. This can last for up to 20 hours.

5. These benefits and changes were subtle. After about a year of leading laughter yoga, I encountered similar situations and challenges I had encountered during the prior year. My reaction to the same situation was very different. My once bleak perspective had sneakily leveled out and lightened on me. This took me by surprise. If I had seen major changes too quickly with Laughter Yoga, my self-destructive, sad perceptions would have rebelled. Remember when majorly depressed, one's thinking is distorted. It would have been too good, too fast. I wouldn't have been able to tolerate sudden, "happy" changes.

These are just five ways Laughter Yoga helped me. After seven years of leading, there are a myriad more. I don't struggle with major depression now. I am so grateful. It wasn't easy to recover and took years. Help came from Laughter Yoga, but also from many skilled, caring people and faithful friends. Laughter Yoga seems like the small light that gently pierced the dark void, then everything else seemed easier, worked better and felt better. It was a good place to start, just as a form of exercise, in relieving my depression. You don't have to be in a good mood, feel like laughing, or be in a "good place" to start this practice. Trust me!

I hope to laugh with you soon.

How the Second Brain Gets a Workout with Laughter Yoga

When we laugh for a while, our diaphragms create a powerful "inner jogging" workout for our guts, what scientists now call, The Second Brain. 

"Laughter is inner jogging.” - Norman Cousins

Have you ever laughed so hard, you're not laughing anymore? It's just one giant gut muscle contraction? 

These two women work together and were laughing so hard at the end of the Laughter Yoga Leader Training last August -- they couldn't actually laugh much: 

Not only does this "gut workout" give your organs a flood of fresh oxygen, a deep massage and a detoxing squeeze, it stimulates the release of serotonin. According to recent research, 95 percent of the body's serotonin is found in the bowels. 

Serotonin is often called, the "confidence molecule." 

From Pyschology Today: Serotonin plays so many different roles in our bodies that it is really tough to tag it. For the sake of practical application I call it “The Confidence Molecule.” Ultimately the link between higher serotonin and a lack of rejection sensitivity allows people to put themselves in situations that will bolster self-esteem, increase feelings of worthiness and create a sense of belonging. 

People who attend weekend laughter yoga leader trainings leave glowing with relaxation and confidence. I wish I had before and after pictures! This isn't because we're such great trainers. It's their own prolonged laughter that does this work for them. 

A deep breathing exercise ER nurses ask patients having panic attacks to do: Breathe deeply, expanding gut muscles down into the bowels, as if trying to push out poop (sorry for the gross factor). The patient is asked to fully engage the bowels and pelvic floor muscles. Why? This releases the serotonin in the bowels. The expansion and release of the diaphragm and gut muscles also trigger the vagus nerve, which then activates the parasympathetic nervous system, bringing calm and relaxation. Nurses find this kind of breathing is hugely effective to calm down the sympathetic nervous system (fight or flight) driving the panic.

There are ridiculous numbers of physiological reasons deep, prolonged laughter is so good for us. The release of serotonin and activating the parasympathetic nervous system are just two. The gut is getting much more attention these days, and we're learning how crucial good gut health is to every kind of health. 

Could Laughter Yoga be the new Prosac? When I laugh regularly in laughter yoga sessions, the process undeniably lifts depression and shifts my perspective to the "lighter side" of life. 

"Life is easier when you're laughing." - Dr. Madan Kataria, Founder of Laughter Yoga.

Read more about your "Backup Brain" here. 
Read more about The Neurochemicals of Happiness here. 

"The Challenge" Laughter Yoga Game

"In actuality, misery is a moment of suffering allowed to become everything. So, when feeling miserable, we must look wider than what hurts. When feeling a splinter, we must, while trying to remove it, remember there is a body that is not splinter, and a spirit that is not splinter, and a world that is not splinter.” ― Mark Nepo, The Book of Awakening: Having the Life You Want by Being Present to the Life You Have

There is a laughter game called the challenge. It's supposed to represent how we see and process challenges when they pop up in our lives.

We start the game by covering our face with our hands, so that it's dark and we can't see. Our hands represent, the challenge. We begin laughing underneath our hands, and with each round of laughter, we move our hands farther away from covering our face. The challenge soon becomes visible for what it is, we can see other things around us that aren't the challenge, and it's not so dark.

At the end of the game, when our hands are as far away from our face as they can get, I give people the option to let it go - our hands spread open and we release the challenge. Some people cry during this potent game. Many ask to do it several times in a row.

One takeaway from this game is to illustrate the effect laughing with our challenges has on our emotions and perspective. We're not laughing at our challenges, more with them and through them. This also isn't an abdication of responsibility to face and cope with challenges - to just laugh if off! Nor does this game encourage sadistic, angry laughter around our struggles.

As Mark Nepo writes about the splinter in his quote (above), this game reminds us that everything is not the challenge. The more we can laugh with our challenges, the more manageable they become emotionally. The less all-consuming they feel. Our perspective shifts. It's brighter in our worlds.

I created this game because it's exactly how laughter yoga has worked to relieve the inner pressure of trying to cope with challenges in my life. When I started practicing laughter yoga, my whole life felt like an unbearable challenge. Gradually, and with great ease, the more laughter I allowed in, the more manageable my life felt. Eventually, I felt safe enough to let what I was trying so desperately to control, go. Because my own laughter did all of this internal work for me - these shifts were subtle and effortless. My only effort was show up and laugh every week. I ditched my laborious self-help books.

Laughter was our first language, before words. Perhaps it's the language of the soul. It's ancient. I wonder if we would have survived the many challenges of being human without it?

How My Laugh Came Back to Me in the Middle of Stress

This past week was a test of "walking what I talk" around laughter yoga. I experienced significant challenges on many fronts - in two of my closest relationships, transportation, finances and work. STRESS ensued.

Because I laugh alot, my attention is more in the moment and I honestly don't stress out much. But when all of these intense challenges happened within 24 hours, did this laughter yoga teacher go ha-ha-ing off to breathe, laugh and smile? Nope. I knew it would surely help. I just wasn't up to it. 

Ironically, at the same time, I was finishing up the advertising for the next laughter yoga event, all about stress relief and how chronic stress is optional when we make a practice of laughing. I wondered how that "theme" was going to be real for me this week?  

You know the phrase, "The more you laugh, the more you laugh"? Here's another observation: The more you laugh, the easier it is to access your laughter when things get stressful. 

Jeffrey Briar, one of my laughter heroes, reported in Yoga Journal that he could laugh himself out of stress in 20 seconds. He's also been leading laughter yoga since 2005 and started a laughter club that meets on the beach daily. That's alot of regular laughter!

My laughter caught me by surprise in the midst of my stress. Jon (my sweetie who is also a laughter yoga teacher), is fascinated by the many uses for milk crates. He gets them for free at work, so has many. So far, he's created a lake fountain, a tiered composting bin, step stools, boat trailer props - the list goes on. This week when Jon and I were reviewing our stressful situations, he also enthusiastically reported a new use for milk crates to help our latest exercise endeavor. I spontaneously busted a gut laughing about it.

That wasn't the end of my stress but it was the beginning of me laughing with it. I found out how the "laugh for stress relief" theme was real for me this week. Even though I was cringing with stress, I could also easily access my hearty laughter from years of practicing laughter yoga. THEN I was able to employ a few laughter techniques I know to help relieve stress. 

One of my favorite mood-boosting tricks comes from research about smiling. You can easily "force" a smile if needed. Here's how: put a pen between your upper & lower teeth, push it back into your jaw, and hold it there for two minutes. Like laughter, your brain doesn't know the difference between a real and "intentional" smile, so you get all of the mood changes as if you'd really been smiling non-stop for 2 minutes. Try it!

Most of my challenges are still there. However, they are no longer causing my body to release stress hormones, my mood to be "fight or flight", my relationships to center around the past, and my perception of the world to be bleak. 

Shameless plug: Come loosen the grip of stress! March 15th - a FREE laughter yoga session about stress relief. You'll learn a few stress-busting tricks, laugh alot and maybe have some soothing hot tea. Click here for information! 

Laughter Yoga "Makes Room" for Us and Others - Then Helps Us Fill the Room!

I was wondering how to talk about the concept of laughter leading to love for the Heart Lifting Laughter Session on February 15th on my drive to Gordon Avenue Library.  I usually wait until just prior to an event to listen for what to relate laughter yoga to as far as a "theme" - it's just received by the group better that way - when sharing an alive concept - or at least I think so. Ha!

So, in the beginning of the class, I was giving my take on how laughter leads to love. The phrase, "You must first love yourself before you can love others" came to mind during my drive. I'm a fan of Rumi, a 13th century Persian poet who wrote poignant and often heart-piercing poems about love. He used 245 different words for love in his poems. In English, we mainly have one word. So it gets used everywhere and sometimes feels diluted or vague, often like that phrase about loving yourself first. How does one do that? What does it look like in real life?

A translation of Rumi's word for one kind of love is, to make room for, like a mother makes room for the growing baby in her womb. This is also the root concept for the ancient Hebrew word, mercy. This is my experience with a regular practice of laughter yoga. Laughter opens my heart, and allows "free space" for others to be just as they are, for me to be just as I am, AND, still feel affection for us all!

One regular participant from our laughter club said that she was amazed about how "naturally" nice she was to everyone after our meetings. Everything people were doing was OK, she said, even good. She was able to make room for them. My guess is, her laughter made room for her during laughter yoga, then she easily made room for everyone else afterwards. This is one way I see the coined phrase happening in real life.

It just so happened that a quite pregnant woman attended the event. We gave her and her beloved in the womb special laughter blessings towards the end of class, a practice Dr. Kataria teaches leaders to do. How neat-o for a living visual example.

Another woman at the event also shared about "filling the room" - taking space for yourself. Giving yourself room, then filling it up! She had been through some recent challenges in her relationships and encouraged her beloveds to go ahead and "take up space!" She was able to provide the emotional room for them - then encourage them to feel free to fill it up with what they were experiencing. 

The laughter exercises and spontaneous comments after that were all about filling the room and making room. Meaning, the literal room we were laughing in. Things became very silly after such abstract and thought-filled talk about love and laughter.

Laughter naturally connects us and makes space for us at the same time. It has lovely boundaries and seems to have it's own wisdom for each of us. Come on and laugh with us and experience this for yourself! Love yourself (first)!

The Waking UP and Settling DOWN Movement of Energy During a Laughter Yoga Session

When I imagine waking up after a long sleep, the image that comes to mind is my arms stretching upward in a "V" over my head, chest lifted and a enjoying a good, deep yawn. This is the energy of waking UP and stretching OUT.

The cheer in laughter yoga after each game that's always a big takeaway for participants is, "Very good, very good, YAY!" Hands are overhead in a "V", chest lifted, and we're enjoying a good cheer - just like my image of waking up. Indeed, that part of the session does wake up our playfulness and gives a loud voice to a sense of celebration that may have been long asleep.

The opposite movement of energy happens during the silent meditation at the end of a session. After five long minutes of non-stop laughing, we immediately stop and (try to) enter into silence. The switch is often dramatic and even cathartic for people. Silence after laughter allows the joyful energy to settle back DOWN and IN - bringing renewed energy, a quiet mind and an open heart. It's as if our non-stop laughter shakes up a snow globe, and our silence allows the snowflakes to gently float and settle back down to the floor of the globe, our being.

Quite a bit goes on in a laughter yoga session energetically. Your voice, your body, your being move in all kinds of ways, sometimes in ways you haven't moved them in years. The process seems more normal and easier the more you do it. Laughter yoga can then be habit-forming once your life is uplifted by such movement. I hope you'll join us to experience it for yourself!

My Monkey Mind Meditation Cheat Sheet

I usually find it easy to slip into stillness when sitting for meditation. However, there are those days, usually the days I need a clear mind the most, when my monkey mind is all over the place. 

I was leading laughter yoga with three groups of high school students at a competitive local private school last week during their annual health fest. The many presenters who showed up had one goal -- to help them find alternative ways to deal with stress. 

My success with "mindfulness meditation" - which feels like thinking my way into another way of thinking - has had very little impact on me other than to make me more frustrated. So my suggestion to them was to get their thinking out of the way altogether. How? Laugh non-stop for 5 minutes before you start a silent, sitting meditation. I called this my meditation "cheat sheet". 

Our minds seriously clear on a physiological level when we heartily laugh (for a reason or not) for 5 - 15 minutes (note: the longer the laughter time, the fewer the mind monkeys). Our brains automatically release natural antidepressants, mood stabilizers, endorphins, and melatonin; our bodies level out stress hormones; our organs are replenished with fresh oxygen -- what could be better prep for a quiet sitting meditation? 

The different groups were different, so had different results. Some of course found it easier than others. This gets so much easier with practice, I said. 

I wonder if I should just start a laughter meditation group on campus or in public without so many exercises -- more of a focus on laughter meditation followed by silence. Thoughts?

Check out the videos on the YogaLaughs site -- there is a clip from a laughter meditation, then another from the following silent meditation. Such a switch! Powerful. http://yogalaughs.com/training/videos.html

Laughter Yoga: The Backwards Step

I led a "play"shop today and began to teach something I've always known but not had words for about Laughter Yoga:  instead of seeking another exercise routine or modality to bring "life change" - the energy of yet again going forward into something new - the experience of Laughter Yoga is about taking a step back into what has been there all along. 

Laughter as communication pre-dates even humanity. We laugh in the same rhythm worldwide, studies show. No matter what the language, dialect, culture... our laughter "ha ha ha" sounds beat in a very similar percussion, so mirthful laughter is rarely misinterpreted, no matter where we are in the world. This points to universal, ancient behavior and communication. Laughter is intrinsically human. And because laughter is so innate, it's easy to overlook. 

Studies show young children laugh about 400 times a day; adults laugh, if we're lucky, 15 times. Then, we laugh only in little spurts. Modern day living stresses the laughter right out of our daily lives. We're preoccupied with going forward, forward, forward, when our laughter is calling us back, back, back - into the wealth of what's been there all along.

Laughter Yoga also reverses typical thinking around mind-body practices. Generally, we begin by quieting the mind, then expect the body to follow. In Laughter Yoga, we begin pumping our diaphragms using laughter simply as breathwork or exercise. Our diaphragmatic pumping stimulates the vagus nerve, consequently the parasympathetic nervous system, and then the mind calms down. Once the brain realizes we're laughing, the happy cocktail of neurotransmitters and hormones begin to be released, and then... we feel good. Laughter yoga is my cheat sheet for almost instantly obtaining a clear, cheerful and calm mind. 

Laughter Yoga flips the cultural norms about how and when mirthful laughter should happen upside down. We usually wait for something to be funny to laugh. The reverse happens during laughter yoga. We start laughing with no comedy or jokes, just as exercise, and because of the humanity of how laughter works, things begin to be funny. 


Why bother? I think we're yearning to step back into the wisdom of our ancient roots these days, especially in diet and health care. We're also wanting duct-tape-like mending for our relationships. Healing that goes deeper than the mind and emotions. Laughter has it's own wisdom and impacts every layer of consciousness, creating health and intimacy. It's a unique part of each of us and common to all of humanity. Take a step back and see.

Smile and Ditch the Pain Pills

LAUGHTER IS CHEAP MEDICINE

I know a couple who works in the pharmaceutical industry. He is a sales representative and she is a pharmacist. When asked what they do for a living, he is quick to reply, "She makes drugs and I sell `em."

I believe it was Lord Byron who said, "Always laugh when you can. It is cheap medicine." And researchers are finding that to be true – quite literally.

A woman diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis wrote to me and talked about how painful the disease had become. Debra said that no drugs would touch the devastating pain. "At times I prayed to die because I did not think I could go on this way," she said. But in two and a half years she weaned herself from most of her medication, which had reached a high of 21 pills a day. This is how she did it.

"I began seeing a doctor who gave me the most important prescription that I ever could have received," she said. "He excused himself from the room. I watched him walking back and forth in the hall; he seemed to be in deep thought."

The doctor came back in with this prescription: he told Debra to get some funny movies and to begin laughing (the doc was a Norman Cousins fan, no doubt). If she didn't feel like laughing, then she should smile. If she didn't feel like smiling, she should smile anyway. He said that it would increase endorphins in her brain and help with her pain. In other words, fake it until you make it, like they say.

She did just as he suggested. She laughed when she could. She smiled when she couldn't laugh. She smiled whether she felt like it or not. Her children teased her about her fake smile, but she told them that it was going to get rid of her pain.

And here's the amazing thing: it did. Of course, not all of it, but a great deal of her pain eventually dissipated and in time, what was left became manageable – without all of the drugs.

Today, Debra laughs easily and is never seen without her smile. She says that she would not even feel normal without it.

It's true that laughter really is cheap medicine. It's a prescription anyone can afford. And best of all, you can fill it right now.

Submitted by Steve Goodier

Laughter as Meditation: A Pointer to Transcendence

Laughter as Meditation: A Pointer to Transcendence

By Leigh Meredith, Certified Laughter Yoga Teacher. Published: ECHO Monthly, 2011. 

Our modern minds like for things to make sense. We prefer linear, logical precepts we can read up on and become the experts. With so much available to study, gaining knowledge can often become the extent of our experience; simply knowing about something can feel adequate.

Before her trip to Manhattan, a friend studied maps of Manhattan extensively, planning her day trips and walking tours. She “knew all about” Manhattan. Then, she called me from her trip while walking the streets of Manhattan. She enthusiastically talked about “experiencing” everything (what wasn't on the map.) The quicker pace of living, smells in the air, the loud traffic and the way you almost can't see the sky between the tall buildings. Just because she had studied the map didn't mean she knew what it was to actually be in Manhattan. She knew the pointer - the instrument that would help her find her way once she got there. But the instrument isn't the experience. Knowing about something isn't the same as realizing it.

We seem to agree, based on scientific studies and ancient teachings, laughter helps us. However, realizing you truly needed that good, hard laugh just shared with a group of friends is different from knowing that research suggests laughter decreases your blood pressure.

Our society welcomes children playfully laughing together, then we graduate to knowing we need to laugh more as adults. Also, if we laugh, we require a good reason. Laughter is the first language we speak as babies and the first language we stress out of our lives as adults. Our experiences of laughter helping us, long-term, can be sparse.

When we share a mutual, uproarious laugh with a group of people, for that moment, everything falls away. All of our feelings of separateness disappear. We automatically step outside of our hard working minds. When we come back from a guffaw, even though our minds can't quite grasp why – we feel more connected to the group and to ourselves.

Could we observe that again? With no effort but to chuckle a bit, we are endued with the following power: To quickly release separation from others and reconnect with them indescribably; to easily step outside of tired thinking patterns and perceptions; and to instantly access who we truly are.

I've read many spiritual books for “seekers” and stuck with a few beliefs and disciplines to help me, well, transcend. I wanted to be here only if I wasn't really here and felt lonely because of not really being here when I was here. That may make sense to a few people.

Laughter is intrinsically transcendent. When we laugh mirthfully, we can't think. It's not that the mind is at rest. It's simply not present. With practice using laughter as meditation, stress loses it's grip on our day-to-day living. The great tyranny is gradually overthrown.

I started laughing as meditation when I adopted the practice of Laughter Yoga. I really needed to laugh to control depression and anxiety. Thankfully, there were no jokes. Please note: Laughter Yoga wasn't “the cure” for me. Wellness needs to encompass all of my habits.

I received training on how to lead Laughter Yoga through Bharata Wingham of Yogaville and from the founder, a medical doctor from India, Dr. Madan Kataria. I've been holding Laughter Yoga club meetings for almost five years in Charlottesville. Laughter Yoga approaches laughter as breathwork and exercise at the beginning of a session. The group's laughter inevitably becomes naturally funny by the end of the session. The many benefits, including transcendence and deep relaxation, are easy to access after laughing for 30-40 minutes.

Julie, a dedicated Laughter Yoga leader, has been coming to laugh with us weekly for over two years to control stress. She says it's preventative medicine. If she doesn't laugh regularly, anxiety and health problems will creep in again. This “preventative medicine” story is common among the group. Nancy, a retired high school teacher, who helped found the club, loves the sensation of being 7 or 8 again and having permission to play. She's also noticed her youthful energy returning.

Spiritual personalities usually want to be transcendent. Instead of a glowing halo experience, in Laughter Yoga, it's hugely practical and comparatively mundane to what I've been told about transcendence. We step aside and let our laughter do the work. Miracles do indeed happen. Which ones? That depends on what you need. Laughter is part of us as well as something we do. It seems to have it's own wisdom.

I need to laugh as discipline to escape my tired thinking and occasional bleak moods. That's not a big deal. Not complicated. Not a new idea. The challenge: Laughter Yoga doesn't make logical sense. It doesn't follow a complex method of thinking my way into not thinking. I can't become an expert laugher. My laughter, the map, the pointer, can't improve and can't get worse.

Practicing Laughter Yoga – going “on location” – frees me to experience the deeper reality of letting go of the mind and receiving emotional healing. I'm spontaneous. It's quiet. I can see the open sky.

The Laughing Frozen Hiker

The Laughing Frozen Hiker, by Leigh Meredith, Certified Laughter Yoga Teacher, Published, ECHO Monthly, 2009

We are born to laugh. We can’t avoid feeling better after a good belly laugh. But what if we have nothing to laugh about? We laugh at nothing, for no reason. By laughing at nothing for no reason, we revive our spirit of play. We create our own fun, aerobic exercise and a new yogic discipline.

We usually wait for an outside influence to help us laugh…a funny movie, pets, silly babies. Our daily logic dictates: “Something is funny, therefore I laugh.” However, Laughter Yoga posits we don't need any outside influence to help us laugh. We can laugh without a sense of humor. If nothing is funny, we laugh in spite of it all. As we practice laughing at nothing during laughter sessions with others, things often become very funny.

Laughter Yoga was developed about twenty years ago in India by a Mumbai physician who knew he needed to laugh to survive the stress of his job. Since then, Laughter Yoga has spread to over 70 countries with several thousands of  laughter clubs worldwide. in the United States. This success speaks to our global need to reduce stress, elevate mood, and increase immunity - and health in general.

Haysa or Laughter Yoga is not typical Hatha-style yoga. We don't employ any strenuous postures and laugh at the same time. Our deliberate discipline of laughing becomes our meditation and door to deep relaxation.
We start with some clapping exercises to activate the meridian points in our palms. Then we play "laughter games", which are short, silly episodes of child-like playfulness to get our laughter warmed up. Pranayama or yogic breathing is also a part of most sessions.

The session crescendos into a laughter meditation, during which everyone laughs continuously for about 5 minutes. Then we easily sink into deep relaxation during the silent meditation, lasting 6-7 minutes. After completing a session, many people find it difficult to remember the worries and pain that arrived with them to class.

With practice, laughter becomes more natural than stress and panic. Contentment and peace replace annoyance and dissatisfaction. I have a story about this phenomena.

On a cold day last February, I went on a hike; just a little Sunday excursion off Skyline Drive. I was with a great group of friends. It was a 9 mile loop hike. Winter rains had swollen the streams, erasing the usual “stepping stones”. So we resorted to other ways to cross.

The first of these was a long shaky log, where I promptly fell and plunged completely under water. With the help of others, I managed to get out of the stream. Landing on my pack in the stream had saved me from injury. But, I was very cold and all of the extra dry clothing I had brought in my day pack was drenched.

My first reaction after all of this drama was to laugh. Hard. I couldn't help it. When we get into a habit of laughing, we start to see ourselves and the world with much more levity.

As we continued to hike along, I started to get “weird” cold and exhausted. That’s when I started weeping. I went from weeping to laughing to weeping to laughing. Jere, the leader, kept wiping away my tears. I started laughing with each step I took. Step. “Ha.” Step. “Ha ha.” Eventually, a sense of calm took over and I
was fine for the rest of the 5-mile hike.

During the return hike, the group split up along the way and lost touch with each other. When our group returned to the cars, we realized none of us had driven. All of the drivers (and the keys) were abiding with the “lost” group. We waited in the cold wind.

Within minutes, a young couple from West Virginia pulled up at the overlook and asked me to take a picture of them. The guy had many piercings and the young woman was pregnant. After hearing my story, the young man started taking layers of his shirts off and literally gave me the warmest shirt off of his back. Then they asked what else they could do to help.

I was scheduled to lead Laughter Yoga later that afternoon and was running out of time. I asked my new friends for a ride back to Charlottesville. They were happy to take me. We rode along in their somewhat beaten up car, chatted, and occasionally stopped for me to take pictures of them. It was fun. I filled their tank, got into my warm SUV, and arrived exactly on time to lead Laughter Yoga.

I wanted to share this because it’s a real world example of how intentional prolonged laughter can truly fortify us to survive emergencies and opens our world to take chances without fear. We come to rely on our intuition much more than our logic because laughing for no reason makes logic take a back seat. We live more in our authentic selves. It’s nearly impossible to laugh and think at the same time.

Oh, and about laughter building immunity – I didn't even get a sniffle from this.

A friend recently said she thought the cure for cancer was right under our noses, we just hadn't found it yet. I agreed but didn't say I thought it was “preventative”, prolonged laughter. A growing body of academic research is supporting this. By building immunity, increasing helpful neurochemicals, reducing stress and helping us live spirit-centered lives, Laughter Yoga must surely contribute to sustaining the most wonderful life for each of us.

Article About Leigh from the "Bodies in Motion" Series, c-ville weekly magazine

This is an article written by Cathy Harding, editor of c-ville weekly, about her Laughter Yoga experience with Leigh Meredith, Certified Laughter Yoga Teacher.

Laughing robustly to oneself for no apparent reason: It’s a sign of madness, yes? Not if you’re Leigh Meredith. For her, it’s a sign of a life pointed in the right direction.

Meredith teaches Laughter Yoga, a highly physical practice that is almost zero percent yoga in the traditional sense and 100 percent laughter in the nontraditional sense. Meredith guides people towards their internal wellspring of joy and acceptance by getting them to laugh for no reason whatsoever.

“We’re very used to living in our logical minds and they say, ‘Something is funny and therefore I laugh.’ Laughter Yoga says, ‘I laugh and therefore something is funny.’”

In her classes, Meredith builds through a series of laughing exercises (chucking, laughing without sound, laughing melodically, laughing in character—a party hostess, or a hale businessman) to a five-minute crescendo of uninterrupted—and contagious—laughing. You lie back, gaze at the ceiling and pump that diaphragm to keep the sound coming until your stomach muscles ache and your lungs are refreshed and you can’t quite remember what had you so stressed an hour ago when you walked in.

Still, let’s face it, the rational mind, as Meredith terms it, might scoff at such foolery, harrumph at such hearty letting-go. In that case, Meredith herself is an inspiration. With her corkscrew curls and sparkly eyes and that wide-open, at-the-ready smile, Meredith is…twinkly. Lighted from within. Joyful. Easy to laugh with.
It was not always so.

Meredith struggled for years with depression and anxiety, she says. But a course in Laughter Yoga at Yogaville motivated her to dedicate time every day to laughing—and she’s seen big changes in her life ever since. “The more I practice, the less depressed I am, the less stressed,” she says. “I laugh so much more and have noticed…it’s so much less problematic for me to be kind and more loving and less judgmental of myself and others.

“We teach,” she says of her new calling, “what we need to learn.”

She says there’s real science to back up these observable changes, too. Laughing releases feel-good endorphins, promotes greater absorption of oxygen, increases mood-lifting seratonin, and more. Indeed, it was reintroduced as a therapy in the past couple of decades by an Indian physician. And it’s said there are more than 5,000 Laughter Yoga clubs that meet around the world.

Locally, Meredith teaches workshops at Studio 206 and has plans to take her courses into the regional jail and city parks, where she hopes to connect with homeless people.

And along the way, she’s chuckling and smiling and guffawing and tittering to herself as much as you can. “The more you laugh, the more you laugh. The more you laugh,” she says, “the more you love.”—Cathy Harding