Helping Everyone Feel Safe during a Laughter Yoga Session

My last post was all about how laughter yoga goes against cultural conditioning and that's tough for participants, so that may be a factor in why they stop coming to meetings.

Great insight, Leigh. Now, what do we do about it? How do we allow folks who feel uncomfortable to feel more comfortable and safe? Turn it into a guided adventure of sorts?

Every every every group is different but in general, this has worked to help ease participant anxiety. Briefly explain laughter yoga in a nutshell as Dr. Kataria outlines, to honor him. Then, ever so briefly add a benefit it's brought to your life.

Ask people to stand up and begin some kind of pulsed breathing to illustrate how oxygen moves through the diaphragm. Get them somatically involved. They've listened to enough talk. I usually ask people to put their hands on the their diaphragm muscle and begin counting ha-s as a group. One HA. Two, HA HA, three, four, five and soon it gets to be just laughter. Repeat a few times.

Then, dive in to why laughter yoga goes against cultural norms. Air those fears out a little. Perhaps start with explaining how we laugh because something is funny, not the other way around. Ask the group for their ideas. Add to them if needed to validate. Then assure the group they are safe from all of that conditioning and what happens during laughter club stays at laughter club.

Explain a tiny bit about how the body rules the brain during laughter yoga and they'll feel less inhibited within about 10 minutes, so not to worry if they feel a bit odd now. Just do it. It'll be worth it.

I'd also have some kind of informational handout for them to take with them. I'm working on one now called, "How Laughter Yoga is Paleo Exercise". There is a popular one circulating the web - "10 Reasons to Laugh for No Reason". Also a fun thing - comic whatever - that they'll put at their desk or at home to remind them of their experience. Make sure your contact information is on it. :)

This is advice for brand new groups who may be more inhibited. As we lead laughter yoga, which is an art, we learn how to observe and adapt to the needs of each group. And we must also have fun, which everyone will look to imitate once the session begins. Every leader has their own style as well and you should go what you've got!

Anyone else have their own advice? Please add!

The "Two Laughter Yoga Sessions" Participant Syndrome

I've been asked frequently by laughter yoga leaders and devotees of the practice - why is it people come to one or two laughter yoga sessions, have a fabulous time, tell everyone how much they benefited from the laughter, then, we never see them again?

I have a theory, after almost 10 years of leading laughter yoga groups, and struggling to maintain a 6 year public laughter club. I tried every trick in the book to maintain attendance. It worked for about 5 years, then attendance declined and it just wasn't enough for me to keep it up. My theory is the underlying cause of fading attendance is laughter yoga is backwards compared to to everything we're used to doing. This is not meant to criticize us, be negative or grumpy -- just to hopefully lend some insight.

Let the list begin.

We laugh during events, not as a lifestyle. We have become increasingly isolated, so social interaction, while it feels great during and after a laughter yoga session, is no longer crucial to our existence. We don't laugh together as often. We laugh in little spurts.

Laughter yoga also delivers incredible benefits, immediately, on every level. Scientifically, whether we plan on that or not. So, a little goes a long way. Some people tell me their lives took a different direction after a weekend of laughter at a laughter yoga training. We're not used to getting that much out of something so child-like as adults.

Prolonged laughter is self-healing. We tend to seek external sources for our healing - doctors, counselors; we may take supplements and try different healing modalities - but to be able to heal ourselves on many levels with something so simple? Hmmm.

We laugh because something is funny, not the other way around. To laugh as exercise, as I've heard in many corporate sessions, is worthy of being carried off in white jackets and needing psychiatric help. Our co-workers may also walk by and see us playing together and having pure fun as adults. That might be seen as flat out bizarre.

Laughter yoga, until the endorphins kick in and inhibitions fall, brings us face to face with our self-consciousness. Self being the key word. We are boldly confronted with the strength of our selves.

So laughter yoga goes against almost everything we're used to doing. It's culturally flipped. No one wants to flip out. Maybe we can feel weird for one class, but being able to tolerate all of the culturally conditioned contradictions, no matter how healing and revolutionary the class, is too much to do too much. The stress from cultural dissonance may seem to overwhelm the benefits. It's completely understandable!

One huge concept I try to get across to leaders I train is to help people feel as safe as they possibly can during a laughter yoga session. I believe we want to let go and laugh together; it's what we did together in groups since we've been around on the planet. Research suggests laughing together far pre-dates language. Laughter was used to communicate safety, peace and affection. Not much has changed in that respect. Laughter yoga is just as much paleo exercise as Crossfit. Granted, it's gentler and more socially focused.

Some of us resonate with laughter yoga, receive significant benefits, and likely end up pursuing trainings and retreats. For you who champion laughter for no reason, please carry the torch for others. The more of us who are in a class, the less "on the spot" everyone feels. It's less weird when more people do it. That's also cultural conditioning that we can use to strengthen the spread of laughter yoga.

If that's you, please find someone who leads a good laughter yoga class or club and go. And go and go. For the sake of, no joke, humanity. When it comes to laughing together, we need to go backwards. Plus, your life may just take a whole new direction.

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.