Concept And Philosphy Of Laughter Yoga

Posted On April 6, 2010 In Category About Laughter Yoga, Start Here

The key concept of Laughter Yoga is both deceptively simple and simply deceptive: you can laugh for no reason, anytime, anywhere, either alone or in a group of complete strangers. This may not seem like much as no special skills or training are required (laughing for no reason is not exactly rocket science). And yet you’ll find that it is not as easy as it appears and it is effectively one of the most powerful practice there is to help you lead a healthier and happier life. Read on.

Mind-Body vs Body-Mind, Motions Create Emotions

There is a wide-spread belief in the adult world that laughter can only originate in the mind: you need to either have a sense of humor or be happy if you want to laugh. First you mind decides, then your body implements that decision. How can you laugh if you don’t get the joke or feel sad and miserable? Besides there are many reasons (personal, economical, political, environmental, etc.) for us to be sad, depressed and frustrated, and really few to smile and laugh. This world is not exactly a happy place.

Or is it?

We live in a world of duality that knows no absolute. Everything comes in pair. What has a front has a back. Where there are shadows there is light, by definition. As such what you want to believe will always become a self -fulfilling prophecy because you will always find proofs to show that you are correct, whatever it is that you want to believe.

Laughter Yoga builds on the working hypothesis that if the mind impacts the body, then the body must equally impact the mind. This is a two-way relationship and you cannot separate one from the other. If humor and specific mood-states can lead to laughter, the practice of laughter as a physical exercise can equally lead back to a strengthened sense of humor and those very same “happy” mood-states snytime, anywhere, alone or in a group. It’s actually more than just a working hypothesis. We have 15 years of history with hundreds of thousands of practitioners on 5 continents to prove that it is scientifically valid (what defines “scientific” is a specific protocol that anybody can practice anytime, anywhere, and get the exact same outcome.) Gravity also existed before Newton.

Laughter Yoga uses the two-way body-mind link to change the state of the mind through voluntary physical gestures including repetitive clapping, chanting, and specific body movements, together with laughter and breathing exercises.

This effect is so powerful that we have seen Laughter Yoga overcome severe depression in thousands of people the world over. In fact, there is a saying in the Laughter Clubs: ‘if you don’t feel like laughing simply leave your mind at home and just bring your body’.

Control of your emotions is the key to health and happiness (read more).

Thinking vs Doing

Observe pre-school children. They are absolutely natural when they laugh. Their laughter is not dependent on any external stimulus like jokes, comedy or humor. They laugh a lot because they play a lot and always stay in the present moment.

Thinking is important, and thinking is also cheap on a personal level because it is not committed. Knowing everything there is to know about the science of happiness for example is a good thing, and it will remain a pure mental idea that’s easy to defeat until you take some physical action to create the chemistry that goes with it. No movement, no chemistry. No chemistry, no feelings.

Note that it is much easier to work with your body than it is to work with your mind.

Laughter Yoga has a profound impact because going through the motions of happiness and empowerment actually does indeed create the very chemistry of happiness and empowerment, and more often than not humans have vested interests in the emotions they carry around: you can’t laugh with (not “at”) someone for 20 minutes and still remain angry or upset with them; you cannot be stressed about something you laugh about. Laughing as a form of exercise forces you in a non-verbal way to accept and love yourself as you are and your environment as it is. It’s fun, not funny (funny is a mental concept that requires something else to be serious, fun simply is). It’s childlike, not childish. It has a beginning and an end. Laughing on your own terms in a safe setting is very empowering because it does not take anything away. It adds and provides as platform which helps to break psychological barriers and shed inhibitions. If you cannot behave the way you want to behave on your own terms in a safe settings then you are not free. The walls of your prison are in your head, not outside.

It can be scary because it focuses on the exhalation and through this the practice of opening up and letting go, being forced to trust that a power that your next breath always comes back, that you won’t die.

Expressed vs Repressed

Regular conditioning as we grow up has led to the undermining of emotional expression. Observe pre-school children. They are absolutely natural when they laugh. Their laughter is not dependent on any external stimulus like jokes, comedy or humor. They laugh a lot because they play a lot and always stay in the present moment.

Adults, on the other hand, learn the art of suppressing emotions for fear of being ridiculed or facing a conflict, which proves to be detrimental in the pursuit of physical and mental well being. They also don’t really play at all.

Our working hypothesis there is that what you don’t express, you repress. The very second you have felt something it’s already too late. Your brain has fired never impulses and they have to go somewhere. They can either dissipate in the manifestation of their intended movement, or be forced in storage somewhere. Do this often enough and you will end up filled with tension, just like a pressure cooker.

Laughter Yoga allows you to vocalize tension without having to verbalize it.

Happiness vs Joyfulness

Happiness lives in the head. Joy lives in the body. It is an emotion that can be easily triggered physically through singing, dancing, playing and laughing.

Happiness is a conditional response: if I get this, then I can be happy. It not sustainable because of a human process called adaptation. You want something, get it, feel good for a while, and then you get used to it. The initial “high” is gone and you want something else. This is what led Gandhi to say “there is enough in the world for everybody’s need but no enough for one man’s wants”.

Laughter Yoga is not about happiness, it’s about joy.

Joy is defined as happiness in the present moment. Happiness lives in the head. Joy lives in the body. It is an emotion that can be easily triggered physically through singing, dancing, playing and laughing.

Laughter Yoga helps to cultivate childlike playfulness. Once you learn to play, laughter is a natural outcome. When you learn to induce laughter in the body, the mind just falls in step. The physical model of laughter is easy to practice for most people as they do not feel the necessity to identify with the mental part or the sense of humor.

Laughter Can Be Programmed Into Your Body

Did you know that we can actually be trained to laugh at will? It is like learning to ride a bicycle. Once you learn, you never forget it, just as any skill.

Repetition is the mother of any skill. The repetition of any bodily behavior over a period of time leads to the generation of a corresponding emotion in the mind. The brain develops new neuronal circuits for a particular body-mind activity that is repeated again and again.

According to the principles of Neuro-Linguistic association and to scientific research, there is very little difference between thinking about doing something and actually doing it. Thoughts in the mind, whether real or imaginary, produce similar physiological changes in the body. When a particular set of experiences are repeated over and over, the body develops a fast ‘Knee Jerk’ reaction that is triggered without involving thinking and the rational brain. This is called conditioning.

Russian scientist Pavlov’s experiment with dogs is a classic example of conditioning. Every time he gave food to the dogs, he would ring the bell. After several days of repeating the same process, the dogs developed an association between the ringing of the bell (physical sensory experience) and the food. After some time, he stopped giving food to the dogs and just rang the bell. He found that ringing the bell, even in the absence of food, produced saliva in the mouth and gastric juice in the stomach as if there was food.

The brain can be cheated by such conditioned reflexes. Before the conscious brain can rationalize and think, the body starts reacting. In everyday life, this conditioning happens during both positive and negative experiences. Repetitive experience of any kind can lead to automatic conditioned response.

Laughter Yoga practitioners develop positive conditioning of joy and bodily experience of laughter by doing Laughter Yoga exercises over a period of time. Clapping in a rhythm, chanting Ho Ho Ha Ha in unison, and positive affirmations like ‘Very Good Very Good Yay’ are few examples of bodily expressions of joy that are practiced repeatedly in Laughter Clubs.

By repeating these Laughter Exercises, the brain develops new neuronal connections to produce happy neuropeptides and hormones in the body that can be triggered by the repetition of this physical action.

In NLP language eliciting such a bodily reaction is called an anchor. By performing a joyful anchor action with the body, the mind can experience the emotion of joy, complete with the chemical reactions it triggers.

Inner Spirit Of Laughter

Laughter Yoga goes beyond just laughter. While it can improve physical health, this is only the visible tip of the iceberg of benefits.

It also helps with the release of negative thoughts and emotions and getting in touch with one’s spiritual nature. Unconditional laughter is the purest form of laughter there is because it shares the essence of the Divine and what makes humans beings: childlike playfulness.

It helps develop an attitude of forgiveness, generosity, compassion and helpfulness while actively seeking the happiness of others. Renowned scientist Hans Selye referred to this as the pursuit of altruistic egoism: the more I help and empower you the more I get empowered myself; the more I give the more I receive because in the very act of giving (or letting go) exists the very possibility of receiving. As we consciously seek happiness it is important to be mindful of bringing happiness to those around us because this is essential for us to remain happy.

Dr Kataria (founder of Laughter Yoga) refers to these unexpected yet powerful changes as the “inner spirit of laughter”:

A change from a selfish state of mind (“I want”, “give me”) to a loving, caring, giving state of mind with increased empathy and compassion towards the members of the laughter group and others as well;
A new ability to laugh at things that previously would have caused stress or anger, along with a new sense of forgiveness.