Mother and Daughter

A lovely woman named Mary told me she used to laugh every day during her daily phone calls to her mother. Now she laughs in the same way with her daughter – every day as they visit on the phone. How beautiful! To laugh with the person you love on a daily basis. Yet most of us don’t have this built-in laughter. Even if we did, more is better.

In comes Laughter Yoga with its built-in laughter, built into the schedule of however often your local laughter club meets.

A young woman in one of my laughter classes had a challenging time wrapping her brain around the concept of Laughter Yoga – laughing for no reason. “It’s not natural” she told me. “It’s not normal” I heard between the lines. Normal laughter for her is laughing with her friends, with people she’s close to, people she knows well, not total strangers. Who wouldn’t agree that’s the best kind of laughter? Like my friend and her daughter.

Yet because she signed up for this class, she gave it a try and lo and behold she’s been having fun laughing in class. I know she’s been laughing more because I’ve seen it. And my guess is she’s laughing more with those she knows and loves and maybe even a few others too.

Laughter Yoga warms up your laughter muscles, expands your experiences of laughter. It simply gives you more laughter.

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Children and Chimps

Children don’t walk around telling each other jokes in order to laugh. Children play – and laugh.

When chimpanzees roll and tumble together, they make a sound that is considered chimpanzee laughter. They play!

If you need more laughter in your life, be sure you play enough. It’s as important as work. It keeps you in balance and it keeps you laughing.

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Laughing and Crying

When I’m having a really hard time and try to do Laughter Yoga in my home, I immediately crumble into a mass of tears. So if I’m not ready to feel the pain, I just smile and it helps. It’s safe. I save laughing for later.

If you see a person who never laughs, I guarantee it’s also a person who never cries. Laughter is a huge emotion, the emotion of joy magnified. To feel such a thing we need to be open, open to allow our emotions to flow. This is why sometimes when we laugh, we then start to cry. The river of feelings has begun to flow and it can’t be stopped. You’ve got to be open to laugh. You’ve got to be willing to feel all the feelings inside.

It’s one reason why grown-ups stop laughing so much. Children let it all out – sadness, joy, jealousy, anger, pain, whatever. They don’t hold back. As we grow we start to put on a façade, to play a role. Sometimes only with our loved ones do we allow our full feelings to show. Sometimes not even then. How can laughter arise, when we’ve blocked the flow?

There’s a close connection between laughing and crying. If you can’t laugh, you are probably depressed and not feeling anything. Start slow to open up – to all of it. If you can’t feel the sadness, you’ll never be able to feel the joy again either.

Let it flow.

Photo: Stock.xchnge

“Peace begins with a smile.”

Mother Teresa

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