Today I found myself once again wading into uncharted waters. I attended a "laughter yoga" class with a friend of mine and her daughter. The idea behind laughter yoga is that laughter is good for your health and spiritual wellness. The deep belly laughs are supposed to massage your organs and push all the stale air out of your lungs. There have been well-documented studies about the benefits of laughter for people suffering from illness. One study was about a man who suffered from a very painful disorder and 10 minutes of laughter per day would give him two pain free hours. Personally, I was just looking for some stress relief.
All in all, it was pretty humorous, but it was not exactly what I expected. Aside from the breathing exercises, the "yoga" part was lost on me. There were no poses or transitions. I probably should have realized that yoga would take a backseat to the laughter when the instructor questioned why I brought my yoga mat with me. It was basically just a lot of ho-ho-hoing like Santa while trying not to be very self-conscious about the passersby looking through the glass in the door to see why everyone in our studio was engaged in some kind of collective mental breakdown. I can only imagine what they must have thought!
Despite feeling self-conscious and not quite genuine about the laughter exercises, one theory was proven without a doubt today: laughter is indeed contagious. After going through these various exercises, inevitably my classmates and I would break into actual spontaneous laughter and it would spread like wildfire. Most of the time it was laughing from embarrassment, but it was laughter nonetheless and that was the point of it all. I did feel better when I left the class, but I don't think I'll be a regular.
So I hope I've given you a laugh. From trapeze to body painting championships to laughter yoga, it's never a dull moment. We'll just have to wait and see what next week brings.
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