A short while back, I was participating in Dr. Kataria’s laughter club on Zoom, and a young gentleman named Peter, who is probably one of the most talented laughter yoga leaders I’ve had the privilege of coming across, was leading us all in laughter. This particular session of laughter was revolved around laughing when we don’t feel like it. As Peter showed us all some transparency in saying that he was a bit grumpy and under the weather on that particular day, he invited us all to laugh even if we were feeling something similar to his mood. We all gave a number indicating our mood on a scale from 1-10, 1 being a sour mood and 10 being a fantastic mood. We then measured it again after several minutes of laughing. As expected, all of our numbers went up. This was beautiful to see as my laughter family used laughter to help brighten their days and spirits.
It was in this laughter session that Peter said an extremely simple, but deeply profound, statement that stuck out to me. As he was doing his best to muster up some laughter despite having a particularly trying day, he spoke the words:
“Let the laughter do the work. You don’t have to.”
This struck me, as I realized I was trying my hardest to “make” myself feel better, as that day I was feeling to be a bit of a sourpuss myself. It was in that moment that I stopped “trying” and “working” so hard myself and just surrendered to the laughter, and it was in that moment that I had one of those amazing experiences in laughter yoga when you can literally feel the laughter light you up and morph you from within creating an absolutely lovely and joyful glow within you. So, Peter, if you’re reading this – thank you for that enlightening and deep reminder.
Oftentimes, when something goes wrong in our lives whether its physical, emotional, or anything else that we may need a bit of healing from, we toil away relentlessly to try to bring ourselves through to the other side of it by whatever means we can possibly find. We can get completely caught up in and smothered by this mission for trying to make ourselves feel better, so much so that a lot of the time it can actually cause us to get in our own way and make things much more complicated than they need to be.
The human body is designed to heal…physically, mentally, emotionally…we are truly resilient creatures at our core. Furthermore, our natural and authentic state is one of love and joy, and the body and mind are perfectly capable of putting us in that healing and natural state when we allow it to do so. As humans, our bodies are each an exquisite piece of artwork created in such a way that the body itself often plays the artist and sculptor, and sometimes the best thing we can do, especially in the case of a bad mood, is to just support our minds and bodies in the best way we can, and then surrender to the process of letting our bodies and minds do what they know and were designed to do. Laughter can be such an amazing instrument to help us do this.
Laughing can remind us of our true and natural state, which is love, peace, and joy. Not only does it work on our bodies and brains in the biologically scientific sense by allowing us to produce various feel-good chemicals and hormones that help to lift our mood and spirit, ease pain, and calm the nervous system, but it also serves as an excellent reminder that sometimes we just need to become like the breeze and simply let things happen. It trains and teaches us to become more flexible, more resilient, and more accepting. All of these things can easily turn a frown upside down into a brilliant smile.
So, friends, we don’t have to labor so much…we can take a deep breath and laugh, and then surrender to that laughter and let it do the work for us. I don’t know about you, but I find this to be an enormous relief! Knowing that I can just sit back, relax, and allow laughter to do the work for me in terms of lifting my mood, calming my mind, putting things into perspective, and much more takes a huge load off my shoulders. My hope is that you too are provided with this sense of relief upon the realization of the powerful effects of laughter. Just surrender, laugh, and let it do its thing!
To learn more, follow along with my blog and videos and experience all of the benefits of laughter yoga for yourself! Sending love and laughter to all of you!
Disclaimer: I am not a doctor nor a medical professional. The information presented on this site is for educational purposes only. One should always consult with their doctor or medical professional before taking on any sort of new exercise program.
Loving and Laughing 