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