Intentional laughter as a wellbeing practice
Laughter yoga, laughter therapy, unconditional laughter, active & intentional laughter. These are all different names for the same practice: harvesting the nourishing effects of hearty, joyful and sustained laughter.
The practice of laughter yoga was established in 1995 by an Indian doctor: Dr. Madan Kataria. Also, Osho taught unconditional laughter as one of the fundamentals of dynamic meditation. Gurudev teaches unconditional laughter as an essential part of his 'art of living' teachings. Sadghuru said: 'If you can't laugh, you can't meditate'.
During a laughter session, participants initiate laughter as exercise in a group setting, and through making eye contact and enacting a sense of playfulness, laughter soon becomes genuine and contagious!
All that is needed is a willingness to laugh! Laughter exercises are combined with deep yogic breathing. The breathing deepens the laughter and increases the net intake of oxygen, which boosts peak performance level and mental clarity.
1) Scott SK, Cai CQ, Billing A. Robert Provine: the critical human importance of laughter, connections and contagion. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2022 Nov
