My last blog entry was on the topic of awe. One of my readers wrote in to say that trying to provoke an emotional response seemed strange to him - like trying to make yourself cry or trying to make yourself laugh.
I remembered reading something in the paper a few years ago about groups of Indians (in India) who stood around and laughed in groups as a health exercise. The story was pretty funny, and it did make me laugh. They had a picture of a whole bunch of women in saris gathered in a public park throwing their heads back and showing their teeth, seemingly having an uproariously good time. I laughed and thought no more about it until this morning, when I read my reader's comment.
Amazingly enough, there is actually a practice called "laughter yoga" - apparently, you can train (for only $795 for a five-day course) to be a laughter yoga teacher. Are you laughing? Then, you can have your own laughter yoga classes.
Here is the site:
http://www.laughteryoga.org/index.php
Or, you can just google "laughter yoga"
I agree that laughter is good for you. Norman Cousins credited his own health recoveries to the benefits of laughter:
(From a Wikipedia entry): Told that he had little chance of surviving, Cousins developed a recovery program incorporating megadoses of Vitamin C, along with a positive attitude, love, faith, hope, and laughter induced by Marx Brothers films. "I made the joyous discovery that ten minutes of genuine belly laughter had an anesthetic effect and would give me at least two hours of pain-free sleep," he reported. "When the pain-killing effect of the laughter wore off, we would switch on the motion picture projector again and not infrequently, it would lead to another pain-free interval."
What an amazing discovery!
I don't know if I'm going to sign up for that laughter yoga instructor class, though - $795 seems like a laugh, right there. If I got certified, though, I could hold regular laughter yoga clases at my local YMCA. That's a laugh. And I could start off all my legal consultations with a few minutes of hearty laughter. That's a laugh. Maybe I could go in to court for hearings and suggest to the judge that we "warm up" the jury with a few minutes of belly laughter. I'd like to see the reaction to that one. There's a laugh.
So you see, Harry- there is a good reason to try to make yourself laugh. The doctor ordered it.
Have a fun-filled day, everyone,
Best, Byrd in LA
Posted by wahzoh at January 11, 2008 09:41 AMReader's Digest always had a column, Laughter Is the Best Medicine. I heard about the group you mentioned several years ago, if it is the same group, people would meet and force themselves to start laughing. Back in those days I think they mostly met on the street and didn't charge anything. If I remember correctly it was started by an Indian gentleman.
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