Think of a baby, lying in her cot, alert, gurgling and looking up at her mother. They make eye contact. The mother coos soft words and the baby chuckles.
This scene plays out across the globe every day, countless times. There is no cultural or geographical barrier to the most basic of human connections: eye contact alongside laughter.
The same baby, now aged one, sitting with her father while he makes funny faces and raspberry sounds with his lips. She hoots with laughter. She delights in the silliness of her dad. Later, when they are calmer, they snuggle together. She feels safe. She knows she is loved.
Laugh
We are born with the ability to laugh. We are born not only with the ability to laugh, but with the ability to laugh and laugh and LAUGH. When did you last laugh so hard and for so long that your sides ached and you had tears streaming down your face? The problem is that, as we grow up and learn about the ‘right’ way to behave, as we gain responsibilities, and as we take on worries and stresses, we lose that connection with our child-like ability to give in to hearty belly-laughter. We might enjoy a comedy show. We might have a friend who always makes good jokes but, as adults, our laughter bursts usually last about two seconds or, at most, five.
We have the potential for so much more. This is where Laughter Yoga comes in.
Laughter Yoga
Laughter Yoga was pioneered by Dr Madan Kataria in the 1990s. He set up a laughter club in a park in Mumbai. Now there are around 5,000 laughter clubs across the world. In a laughter club, you can expect to be doing laughter exercises in a group setting, alongside the making of eye contact with the other participants while engaging in playful activities. Laughter may or may not come straight away but you can help it along by making laughter sounds. You can try it now. Place your hand on your chest and produce a “Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha” sound. Lower your hand to your ribs and go “Hee Hee Hee Hee Hee.” Now, move your hand to your belly and make the Christmassy “Ho Ho Ho Ho Ho Ho” noise. Can you feel the vibrations?
When I studied Laughter Yoga, we engaged in many laughter exercises and one of them involved us lying on the floor together laughing, laughing, laughing and laughing for 15 minutes straight. Roughly halfway through, I stopped laughing. That is, I kept making the same sounds but instead I found that I was crying. Nobody knew. For all I know, some of the others were crying too. I cried, freely and loudly in the company of others, and it was incredible.
Good vibrations
The thing is that laughing and crying are two sides of the same coin. If you saw someone from the back whose shoulders were heaving up and down, you would not know which they were doing. With both, we instinctively know how to do them from long before we are verbal or even conscious of ourselves as entities separate from our mothers. Crucially, both laughing and crying create those all-important vibrations, the pathways out of your body that release stress.
There are differences too. Engage in gut-wrenching sobs for 20 minutes then check in with yourself. Throbbing headache? Red eyes? Exhausted? Now try 20 a minute session of hearty belly-laughter and see how you feel. Your pain will be gone, you’ll be bright-eyed and energised.
Be willing
You may wonder how you can be expected to laugh when you feel so unhappy. “What is there to laugh about?” I’ve heard people ask. The beauty is that you don’t need anything to laugh about in order to laugh. Go to your local laughter club, start with the laughter exercises, join in with the playful activities and become a part of the group of individuals who are there for the same purpose: to connect – with themselves and with others. You just need to be willing. Remember, laughter is contagious. In this environment, the fake laughter that you start with can readily convert to real laughter but, if it does not, it doesn’t matter! The benefits will still be there, undiminished, thanks again to the bodily vibrations.
…and the benefits are many
Fifteen minutes of hearty belly-laughter provides: pain relief; stress relief; emotional healing; a natural face-lift; increased ability to cope with life; a workout for many muscle groups; increased oxygen intake; lowered blood pressure; a strengthened immune system; a boost in mood; the inspiration of hope; the release of anger; the ability to forgive more easily; improved focus and alertness; grounding; a connection with others; and the most marvellous connection with your core self, with the self that was there when you were born and is still there, but is so often hidden under silted-up layers of pain and resistance.
Choose laughter
Once you have started on your laughter journey, you will find that laughter comes to you more and more easily. You can choose laughter. Something might tickle you one day and make you chuckle and you can consciously turn that chuckle into a more extended laugh. I live with teenagers so the mood at home is quite changeable. I have found that, when one of them is having a dip, if we find the smallest thing to laugh about I can help them along by deliberately finding it much funnier than it really is and, using eye contact, inviting them to share the joke. Everyone is happier.
Think of a world filled with laughter. Take your place.
Rebecca Bartholomew, 31 May 2022
