By Bob Banner
“Laughter Yoga combines laughter with yogic breathing exercises. It is a perfect way to laugh and get exercise at the same time. It approaches laughter as a body exercise so it's easy to laugh even if you’re depressed or in a bad mood. Last year I highlighted Laughter Yoga on my TV program. I’ve tried it, and it works.” - Oprah Winfrey
"Time spent laughing is time spent with the gods," says a Japanese proverb
Laughter yoga is basically specific exercises that use clapping, breathing and self-simulating laughter. It is fun and good for you.
It was started in Mumbai, India by Dr. Kataria and his wife in 1995. While writing an article for his medical magazine about laughter he was astounded to find in the medical literature all sorts of benefits by using laughter. And eventually he discovered, by accident, that you could laugh with no reason… No jokes, no movies, no clowns, no comedy… just laughing. You could do it right now. Laugh! Or if it feel like you are faking it, that’s okay. As one of Kataria’s mantras state: “Fake It Till You Make It!”
Since 1995 there are more than 8,000 laughter yoga clubs throughout the world. A laughter yoga club is a place (a home, rec center, yoga center, church, outdoor park, studio…) where a leader leads a group in various forms of exercises that include clapping, breathing and laughing. The entire session can last from 30 minutes to 60 minutes depending. And is most often donation based.
The link between yoga and laughing is the breath, which is key for enhancing health for both the heart and lungs.
It is simple and fun and good for you. As Sebastien Gendry, Director of the American School of Laughter Yoga says, it helps spread the “happy chemicals” throughout our mind and body.
It is non-political, non-religions, not for profit and non-competitive and available and open to everyone. Some even say it is a direct experience into non-duality since one is in the here and now while laughing. One cannot be in the past or in the future while one is laughing for no reason. Laughing this way also draws from the brilliance and creativity of the right brain. Feelings of a blissful high from feelings of non-separation are often experienced. Gendry also writes: “Laughter is infectious. Self-induced, simulated laughter can easily be converted into real laughter when you do it in a group.”
When I first heard of it I was awestruck. It appeared to me to be a missing link combining play, exercise and self-induced laughter. I love laughter, always have. I love going to comedy clubs and laughing my ass off and not really caring that much if the jokes were silly or stupid or racist or sexist. I simply wanted to laugh. So then it became a shock to learn that I could laugh by myself and with others without any outward stimulation. Because it’s contagious and infectious it seemed to be a key to suspend the judgmental and analytical left brain. I became wildly curious.
I watched the video about Laughing Clubs in India (that was included as a short of a Spiritual Cinema Circle DVD a few years back). Then I discovered the Bodhisattva in Metro (see link below) film depicting a man who with his contagious laughter slowly burst an entire train of serious subway riders into ecstatic laughers. Then came John Cleese’s report for the BBC (see below for the film clip) on the laughing clubs in Mumbai. The seed of this movement kept growing in me. I even took the risk of facilitating a simple exercise to groups of people where I was to give a talk and was shocked how receptive people are to self-induced laughter. We want to laugh. One of the Dr. Kataria’s mantras is fake it till you make it. How unreasonable is that?! And John Cleese calles it "wonderfully ridiculous."
I became determined to know more so I googled "Laughter yoga clubs in the US" and discovered to my utter delight that a leadership workshop was happening in Los Angeles.
Two months ago I returned from attending one of Sebastien Gendrys weekend workshops that included the laughing sessions themselves as well as learning how to lead one. I have never laughed so often! I am so stoked and have lead more than 30 laughter yoga sessions. Am now doing them in Paso, Templeton, two in SLO, Shell Beach, Los Osos, and Morro Bay. To learn more about where a session might be happening in your neck of the woods, please contact me at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or simply visit our events calendar at: http://www.hopedance.org/events/month.calendar/
One more thing. From Sebastien Gendry’s book Laughter Yoga 101: From Zero to Laughter in .5 Seconds, he cites some health benefits to laughing yoga:
“• Health improvement
• Learn to better manage stress and/or anger issues
• Boost Happiness
• Foster Inner Peace
• Overcome sadness and depression
• Break social isolation and create new friendships
• Develop self-confidence
• Improve and/or alleviate the discomfort of specific physical challenges
• Play and have fun in a safe and non-competitive environment…”
And I will add some of my own:
• Help collaborate with people who have different diverse opinions.
• Using laughter as a way to diffuse negativity
• Help suspend judgments when the commonality of laughing becomes so obvious
• Because there are so many necessary changes both socially as well as personally, what better way to do it than to have fun while growing and changing and becoming more resilient and flexible and compassionate.
• Exercise the psychic muscle that allows more and more experiences of non-duality and non-separation so that our solutions will draw from the brilliance of the right brain rather than the left brain (that started this whole mess in the first place). It’s time to take seriously (ha! ha!) the exercises that can stimulate the right brain, be it drawing with the less dominant hand, playing an instrument, dancing, giggling, painting, poetry, and on and on…..
To join the local (SLO) laughter yoga listserv, visit:
http://lists.hopedance.net/mailman/listinfo/laughteryogaslo
To subscribe send a blank email to:
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
To see Bodhisattva in Metro, visit:
http://hopedance.org/community-media/videos/283
To see John Cleese’s BBC report on laughing yoga, please visit:
http://hopedance.org/community-media/videos/284
For more information about the American School of Laughter Yoga, please visit: http://www.laughangeles.com/
For an article about Faking it, please see my exploration at: http://hopedance.org/blogs/faking-laughter-an-exploration.html
For some testimonials, please visit: http://hopedance.org/component/content/article/53-soul/1643
For schedule of sessions in SLO county, please visit here at: http://www.hopedance.org/events/month.calendar/
Bob Banner has been a roofer, landscape laborer, window washer, writer, novelist, poet, dance workshop facilitator… and is currently playing the role of publisher, editor, web dude of three sites, screener of documentary films and a certified laughter yoga leader. He can be reached at (805) 434-3950 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
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written by Bob Banner, December 29, 2009
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written by Ruel, December 29, 2009
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written by Bob Banner, December 30, 2009
the next ones are Jan 11th at Dancing Deer, 6pm
and two coming up in AGrande
http://hopedance.org/events/ic.../01/15/102
and
http://hopedance.org/events/ic.../01/29/103
bob
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written by Keith Carlson, January 13, 2010
We are also looking for places to park our RV overnight as we make our way west through Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California, so if you would like to allow us the honor of parking in your driveway, we will offer a free Laughter Yoga session for you and your friends as a way to say thanks!
Keep on laughing!
Keith Carlson and Mary Rives
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Susan