It’s 9.30 on a cold April morning. A dozen men and women gather in a small park in Williamstown, greeting one another beneath a canopy of trees. I’m one of them, eager to find out if Laughter Yoga really does relieve stress and bring inner peace.

The first time I heard of Laughter Yoga was in an episode of The Secret Life of Us. A group of people gathered in a park doing breathing exercises, before bursting into fits of laughter. I didn’t think much of it at the time, but one afternoon when I was feeling down, I remembered what I’d seen and decided to do some investigating.

If you’ve ever been to a yoga class before you’d be familiar with stretching, and contorting your body into weird shapes. Well forget that, there’s no Downward Dogs in this class. Instead there’s lots of giggling, guffawing and whooping it up!

Our class began with some simple breathing exercises and clapping taught by Laughter Yoga teacher Josie Penna. “Clapping is done in a way to stimulate acupressure points while breathing out Ho Ho Ha Ha Ha in unison. This warm-up exercise is designed to improve blood circulation in the whole body.”

The idea is to breathe in, and on the out breath you produce sounds of laughter, which stimulate the diaphragm and is good for digestion. It enhances the whole oxygen area, expands your lungs and opens up your chest, producing extra oxygen for your entire body. I was surprised at how refreshed and energetic it made me feel.

Before long I discovered that anyone can laugh in a group for 15 to 20 minutes without needing to rely on a great sense of humour. No clown suits or bad jokes necessary! “It is based on the concept ‘Laugh for no reason’ in that people do not need a reason to laugh. They don’t need to find something amusing or even have a sense of humour,” Penna adds.

In these classes, laughter is used as a tool, not an emotion. Simulated laughter soon becomes real laughter when practiced in a group. It’s infectious. Your body doesn’t know the difference between a real laugh and a fake laugh – so you produce endorphins (the body’s natural pain killers) and serotonin regardless. The Laughter Yoga motto is: “Fake it ‘til you make it”.

the art of medicine consists of keeping the patient amused
while nature heals the disease

Research by Lee S.Berk of Loma Linda University in the US, shows that laughing improves health and shortens recovery time following illness. He found that it strengthens the immune system, controls high blood pressure, helps with sleep and relieves depression. Endorphins released as a result of laughter help in reducing the intensity of pain in those suffering from arthritis, spondylitis and muscular spasms in the body.

Even people with terminal cancer have shown improvement after incorporating laughter into their treatment plan. And the C.E.O of Laughter Yoga International, Merv Neal, says because laughter improves our immune system it helps in preventing illness in the first place. “People who laugh regularly almost never get a cough, cold or flu.”

This brand of yoga can also help keep you in shape. Dr. Williams Fry from Stanford University in the US, claims one minute of laughter is the equivalent of ten minutes on a rowing machine. “It’s a mild and extremely pleasant aerobic exercise.”

All exercises are adapted to suit the needs and abilities of the group participating. The soft chuckle of an 87 year old is as efficient to that person as belly rippling laughter is to an 18 year old. So if laughter is so good for you, why leave it to chance?

‘ it reminded me of being back in kindergarten! you get swept away with the exhilaration of sheer joyfulness just like when you were a kid’

The concept of Laughter Yoga is the brain child of Dr. Madan Kataria, a physician from Mumbai, India. He’s behind the creation of the laughter club movement which now has more than 5000 laughter clubs operating world-wide.

He also proclaimed World Laughter Day which is being held on the 7^th of May this year, and will see thousands of people gathering to laugh out loud. The biggest turnout was in 2000 in Denmark, where 10,000 people attended a laugh-in.

By and large, we tend to take life and ourselves far too seriously these days and this reflects itself in far too little laughter. Laughter Yoga helps you stay in high spirits when life throws up challenges. Unlike normal yoga classes, laughter yoga is free. To find your nearest laughter club, go to: www.laughteryoga.org

Laughter is portable, immediate therapy. I like to think of it as a way of ‘charging up’ the battery of your soul. We are born with the gift of laughter – it’s being serious that we learn. So, learn to laugh and live all over again.