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!