Last night I tried Laughter Yoga. It’s grown from a small group in Mumbai to thousands of groups around the world. Since laughter releases dopamine and has other positive effects, I thought I should give it a try. Three teachers took turns presenting situations: you’re late for your flight and running through the airport pulling your suitcase and LAUGHING! You’re starting up the lawnmower (vroom vroom) and mowing the lawn and LAUGHING! We’re all in a crowded elevator and… you get the idea.
We were to act out these scenarios and make eye contact as we did them, no talking only laughing. The idea was that though we might be faking the laughter at first, by making eye contact we’d eventually be laughing for real. We ended with 5 minutes of laughter meditation – just laughing, eye contact again – and finally silent relaxation.
For me it was all rather embarrassing. I felt like a jackass with my maniacal laughter. Perhaps it’s beneficial, but I won’t be going again. I may do the homework though: 5 minutes of laughing a day. Maybe a good thing to do in the car.
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