Laughter has been proven to be good for our health, but the yogis have known this for centuries
Laughter is one of the healthiest things you can do. Apart from the fact it makes you feel great, it also resets your nervous system, increases endorphin production, lowers blood pressure and brings oxygen to the body. It opens the channels of the body and immediately brings us back to the present. It even tones your facial muscles!
Energetic benefits
Laughter immediately restores harmony and relationship. If you have argued with someone, and you are trying to talk your way out of it with no success, if something makes you burst out laughing, the disconnection, "the problem" is gone.
Some spiritual masters have said that laughter helps us drop the ego.
It is a scientific fact that the body cannot differentiate between fake and real laughter. One receives the same physiological and psychological benefits from both. We can increase our chances of laughing a lot more if we actively participate in laughter. Studies have shown if you act happy even when you aren't, the blood produces the same feel-good hormones and lowers blood pressure. Osho the spiritual master gave his followers a laughter practise to do. You wake up each morning and before you are completely awake just start a fake laugh. It feels fake and silly and pointless at first. Just keep doing it each morning. After a few days or so, some part of your brain finds the sound of the fake laughter funny, and you'll have a giggle at it. A real giggle. Do this each day and eventually you can wake up, and just start laughing out loud with big belly laughs.
Enlightened masters historically have been reported to have been full of laughter and humour. There are videos of many masters and there is a sense of childlike playfulness and happiness about them. Alan Watts and the Dalai Llama, Osho and Adi Da Samraj are all well known for their laughter and sense of humour. Here is one of may YouTube videos showing clips of masters laughing.
The Buddhists have been in on the joke for a while. The Buddha realised that the conditional world is fleeting and taking any of it too seriously creates suffering. A Buddhist proverb says "Laughter is the language of the Gods."
Laughter and humour are not frivolous. They point to the ridiculousness of conditional life and also to our innate connection, ego transcendence, happiness and love.
Medical research has shown people heal faster if exposed to humour.
Over 30 studies support Norman Cousins’ initial observation that laughter reduces pain. Medical science states that laughter is nature’s medicine.
What is laughter? After exposure to something funny, an electrical wave moves through the higher brain functions of the cerebral cortex. The left hemisphere analyses the words and structures of the joke, the right hemisphere “gets” the joke; the visual sensory area of the occipital lobe creates images, the limbic (emotional) system makes you happier; and the motor sections make you smile or laugh.
Laughter Yoga was developed in India and encourages participants to mimic the act of laughing. The results have shown improvements in positive emotions, reduction of stress and anxiety and improved sleep.
There is a saying "there is only one way to judge a person - how easily they laugh" showing that the ability to laugh is fundamentally a sign of health, relaxation, and a connection to our innate happiness.
Benefits of laughter:
- Enhances the intake of oxygen-rich air, stimulates your heart, lungs and muscles
- Increases endorphins
- Decrease heart rate and lowers blood pressure, improving relaxation
- Strengthens facial and abdominal muscles (goodbye to face lifts and ab workouts - hahaha!) 😂
- Reduces pain by causing the body to produce its own natural painkillers
- Stimulates circulation and aids muscle relaxation, both of which can help reduce symptoms of stress.
- Positive thoughts can actually release neuropeptides that help fight stress
- In spiritual circles it is said laughter is an energetic opening of the body, the nervous system and the chakras
- Brings us out of the mind, into the body and feeling connection with others
If we leave laughter to chance, waiting for it to "happen to us" it might not happen enough to allow us to reap its considerable benefits. So if we are serious about laughter we need to improve our chances and take matters into our own hands.
Laughter Tips
Here are 8 tips to start your "laughter support library":
- Make it a habit to make yourself and others laugh
- Start a library of the funniest clips you’ve ever seen Youtube clips, movie clips and audio clips
- Watch a funny comedy once a week
- Watch videos and podcasts of people laughing. As laughter is infectious it's easy to join in
- Go to a laughter website or event and start the "fake it until you make it" laughter therapy. www.laughteryoga.org and https://www.laughteryoga.co.uk...are just two of several
- Spend time with people who make you laugh
- Play the game Pie Face (trust me)
- Remember times in your life where you laughed hysterically. My go-to for a good laugh, as it is for many people, is the naked wrestling scene in Borat. It is so funny I had to lie down on the floor in the aisle of the cinema, I was rolling around holding my stomach screaming with laughter begging for it to stop.
Put laughter on your radar
If you think you have to have a great sense of humour to laugh, you don't. You can develop your sense of humour by exposing yourself to humour, getting "into it". Go to a comedy club, pin images of cartoons or jokes that make you chuckle up in your home or at work. It begins to make you more aware of humour and your sense of fun and lightheartedness and this will increase your ability to let go and your ability to laugh will grow.
"Make laughter your prayer. Laugh more. Nothing releases your blocked energies as does laughter. Nothing makes you innocent as does laughter. Nothing makes you childlike as does laughter. - Osho
Credits, References and further reading:
(Osho Yoga: The Alpha & Omega Volume 6)Credit source:https://oshosammasati.org/illness-pain/laughter-connection/
https://www.laughteryoga.org/m...
Norman Cousins Anatomy of an Illness as Perceived by the Patient: Reflections on Healing and Regeneration
