Health Care and a Key to Unconditional Joy 

By Carina-Patricia Schierz

Sun demands no reason to shine; Water demands no reason to flow; A child demands no reason to be happy; Why do we need a reason to laugh? The concept of Laughter Yoga was developed in 1995 by Dr. Madan Kataria, an Indian medical doctor.

Laughter Yoga is practised now all over the world, with over 6.000 laughter clubs in more than 60 different countries. But what exactly is Laughter Yoga, what are its health benefits and what has laughter got to do with Yoga? Many people ask why we need to go to laughter clubs and “exercise” laughter – why not just laugh in real life?

Laughter became rare in our society as most people are not happy with their lives. In a world full of competition, success and failure, the longing for happiness became a struggle. When we read the newspaper, we’re confronted with violence and crisis. There might not be many reasons for us to be happy and laugh, when we look at it from this point.

Lots of people are living in a constant state of fear. So for many of us the question occurs: “How do you laugh when you’re in no mood to laugh or you don’t have any reason to laugh?” Laughter Yoga counters with another question: “Why do you need a reason to laugh? Why not laugh for the sake of laughing?” This means, that you don’t need to be happy to laugh – you need to laugh to be happy.

In Laughter Clubs, people come together to laugh regularly, despite life’s ups and downs. In real life, we leave laughter to chance, rather than, to a commitment. We depend on circumstances and on humour to create laughter. But this kind of humour is intellectual, it comes from the mind.

Humour always depends on the individual and its culture, and it is varying from person to person. While humour can separate people by only letting people laugh together who have the same sense of humour while others are excluded, the spirit of laughter is to connect all people, beyond humour.

Laughter is not so much about happiness, rather than joyfulness. Happiness is usually a conditional response, subject to the fulfilment of certain desires of the mind. Joyfulness is a state of being, expressing unconditional commitment to be happy despite the challenges of life. What happens when people meet for laughter? How do you trigger unconditional laughter? In Laughter Yoga, laughter is combined with Yogic breathing (pranayama).

Laughter is simulated as a body exercise in a group but with eye contact and childlike playfulness, it soon turns into real and contagious laughter. Laughter Yoga is based on the idea that anyone can laugh – without jokes, humour or comedy. You just need the willingness to participate in laughter.

It’s important that you physically engage in laughter yoga exercises. You have to be active and start moving so that you can trigger laughter in your body. When it comes to “faking” laughter, most people sceptically raise their eyebrow: “But laughter has to come from the heart, what is the point in faking laughter?” Well, usually the fake laughter turns quickly into real laughter, but when we talk about the health benefits of laughter, it is not even necessary that it’s “real”.

Believe it or not, but it is scientifically proven that our body can’t distinguish between real and faked laughter. So all the processes happening in your body – the psychological and physiological health benefits – are exactly the same. Your mind might say “well, but I know that I’m not really laughing”. So what! Your body doesn’t know. And if you give it a try, you will experience real laughter – a deeper laughter than you ever imagined.

Unconditional laughter is so much more intense than the laughter that arises from the mind. “The very essence of laughter is absurdity. Where there is logic, there is no laughter.” Take a look at children, they are the best examples for unconditional laughter. As a child we didn’t laugh because we had an extraordinary sense of humour; we laughed because it was our nature to be joyful.

Why can children laugh more than 300-400 times a day whereas adults only laugh up to 15 times? Adults use their brain to first comprehend humour and then laugh. Children haven’t decided upon any conditions for their laughter. Their laughter comes straight from the body, not using any intellectual capacity of the brain.

The source of laughter is within our body. It is our mind that thinks we need a reason for laughter. But when we can let go of thought and enter a state of playfulness, our hearts can open up to the joy of laughter.

The child in us wants to be awakened, it wants our permission to laugh freely, without a reason. Our laughter depends on so many pre-conditions, but this way we only limit ourselves as our happiness becomes conditional. If we can learn again to laugh unconditionally, also our happiness will be unconditional.

With laughter you’ll develop a new attitude towards life: Issues appear less overwhelming. Still we are touched by the issue, but it doesn’t have that power anymore. If we pay too much attention to our issues, they can become our focus. If we are able to laugh about things they diminish. This way laughter can be seen as a mental and emotional hygiene.

You can laugh away the troubles. It is said that laughter is the best medicine. And it seems that it really is – it is actually incredible what laughter can do for our body! Laughter is one of the best muscle-relaxants. It expands blood vessels, and that way it sends more blood to the extremities and other muscles all over the body.

Laughter reduces stress hormones and releases endorphins which work as a natural opiate, creating a positive state of mind and they also act as natural pain killers. Don’t underestimate the influence stress can have on our body and well-being: it is crucial, stress is harming our body and many diseases are related to stress.

High blood pressure, heart disease, heart attacks, arthritis, asthma, diabetes, cancer, chronic fatigue, anxiety attacks, mood swings, psychological distress, depression, sleep problems, eating disorders, peptic ulcers, poor immune function, chronic pain, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, colds, flu, viruses, headaches, migraines, alcoholism, drug abuse… seems like the list is endless!

Laughter quickly reduces the levels of stress chemicals – it occurs in minutes and can last for days. But not only your hormones are affected, laughter also boosts your immune system with fast increases in levels of anti-viral and anti-infection cells. Laughter will protect you against viral infections, such as coughs and colds. Laughter is also an aerobic exercise.

Your heart rate increases and one minute of hearty laughter is equal to 10 minutes of jogging. But that’s still not all laughter will do for you: by massaging your internal organs through deep breathing, exercising the diaphragm and abdominal muscles, it’s like “inner jogging”, stimulating the digestive and lymphatic systems.

Laughter is also a great exercise for asthma and bronchitis. It improves the lung capacity and oxygen levels in the blood. And due to the increased oxygen supply, laughter will make you feel relaxed and refreshed. People who suffer from mind-related diseases like anxiety, depression, nervous breakdowns and sleeplessness also benefit on laughter. Laughter elevates mood, laughter brings hope.

Laughter stimulates the calming branch of our nervous system. On the psychological level, laughter helps us to remove mental blocks and layers of inhibition. It helps us to express all our emotions freely. To produce the significant physiological and biochemical changes, the laughter has to be frequent, for at least 10-15 minutes in a day.

That is why Laughter Yoga Exercises are so important to bring measurable physiological changes like oxygen levels in the blood, muscle relaxation, blood circulation and release of certain hormones in the body. For our body it really doesn’t matter whether laughter comes from the humour in the mind, or playfulness in the body – the health benefits we experience will be the same.

The process of laughter is deeply connected with our breath. That’s why pranayama plays an important role in Laughter Yoga. Dr. Kataria saw the similarities between the fast-breathing-exercises like Kapalbhati and Bhastrika and laughter – in both you find rhythmic movement of the diaphragm and abdominal muscles.

In Yoga, there’s usually a focus on proper exhalation, and that’s exactly what laughter does: laughter prolongs your exhalation, squeezing all the residual air out of your lungs until inhale happens naturally. Breathing became one of the most important parts of Laughter Yoga – it is used in between the exercises to give some pauses, increasing the vital capacity of the lungs and therefore the capacity to laugh.

Breathing is fundamental to our life. A lack of oxygen in the body cells is one of the basic reasons for getting sick. Most people don’t breathe correctly, their breath is shallow and irregular. Laughter Yoga exercises are designed to bring awareness of laughter in the belly, engaging the diaphragm. Deep laughter shifts our breathing pattern from upper chest to belly breathing.

Breathing is the only function of the autonomic nervous system that can be consciously regulated or changed. And the change in your breathing will not only make a difference on the physical level but also on the mental: there is a direct relation between breathing patterns and the state of mind.

By changing the way you breathe, you can change your state of mind. Usually we let our mind influence our breathing. For example, if your mind is upset, you can notice that breathing becomes fast, irregular, and shallow. During stress, you breathe from the upper part of the chest.

All our negative thoughts and all the tension that we hold is influencing the way we breathe. When the mind is at peace, the breathing becomes slower, more regular, and deeper. Through laughter and breathing exercises, you can bring change to your mind. Deep breathing will calm your mind and bring you peace.

The same applies for your mood: even if you are not happy in your mind, if you act like a happy person, your mind will experience the state of happiness. That is why Laughter Yoga always produces real laughter in the end: If you can’t laugh, bring laughter to your body first and your mind will follow.

Yoga is about uniting and connecting. Laughter Yoga brings people together through the gift of laughter. With eye contact, touch and love, people are connected through joy. No matter where you come from, religion or politics, age or social background don’t matter as everyone can laugh together.

Carina-Patricia Schierz is a certified Yoga teacher. She teaches Yoga classes in the Wien, Austria area.