If your instinctual reaction to that title isn’t one of amused curiosity then you need to check yourself and rediscover your inner childish joy and inquisitiveness, maybe by daring to discover first hand exactly what laughter yoga is.
I have to say even though I’m writing about this, it really is an experience that until you do it you are not going to understand the joy of the practise or the benefits from taking part.
My most recent destination in northern Thailand is Chiang Dao, a little paradise in the shadow of the mountain, here you can find caves, hot springs, temples and, in February, ‘Shambhala In Your Heart Festival’.
At this festival you can find the most kindest loving people who are all completely at peace and completely free. Picture, guitar playing and dancing by the river, yoga on rice mats as the sun goes down and ending with hot chai by the fire, not to mention a constant supply of delicious food!
There were many workshops throughout the day, including one that to me sounded too inviting and intriguing to pass up the opportunity of finding out what it was: Laughter Yoga! Two of my favourite things, laughing and yoga, but they don’t always go together, at least not intentionally, all of you who yoga will have at some point collapsed into giggles at an epically failed attempt at the new pose!
I discovered very quickly that this would be an exercise that would take me far beyond my comfort zone. I could either leap in with both feet, crazy laugh and all, and maybe, just maybe I would learn something and have fun, or I could hang back, use the excuse of being shy and an introvert to hide my face, avoid eye-contact and only join in half-heartedly. Well maybe it was the beautiful day, the stunning landscape or the smiles of the other backpackers clad in similar hippie, elephant clothing, but I knew it was a safe space and I decided to just let go.
We started off by introducing ourselves to the group of individuals who would soon be sharing in an experience where we all looked like crazy fools. This was followed by some yoga style breathing exercises and then we moved on to the laughing exercises. This involved us forcing laughter, mostly stimulated by acting like idiots, for example pretending to be an animal, except the noise you make is a laugh inspired by the animals call… (I don’t think the massage workshop next door were too grateful to us for that one!) Eventually we built up to laughing continually for 5 solid minutes.
Did you know that it’s scientifically proven that endorphins are released whether you laugh for real or whether you fake it. And that laughing for a sustained amount of time, even just 5 minutes can be as beneficial as sit ups! And although at first the idea of laughing your craziest fake laugh in front of a group of strangers might be daunting, it becomes very easy very quickly and it doesn’t take long for fake laughter to turn into genuine laughter, and if at first 5 minutes sounded like a long time to laugh continuously, it’s actually very difficult to stop once you get started!
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