History of Laughter Archives | Laughter For Living

Having a sense of humour is widely spoken of as being an important element to hold in one’s outlook on life, especially since Covid has entered our lives. How we live our life is dependant on our viewpoint which has developed as we are naturally conditioned by our environment. We become conditioned as small children, watching, learning, listening, expressing and experimenting with what works in our attempts to get along and receive love. in particular from our parents.

Oddly enough, as adults we may not lose this unconscious habit of seeking love and approval. We may look for it outside of ourselves and it may is related to our sense of who we are, whether we feel we belong and are a worthwhile person. Laughter is similar, part of our growing up and conditioning, which is also cultural and consequent to our background and you can understand then why everyone’s sense of humour is unique.

There are many reasons why we laugh, which are mostly unconscious as a release, to alter our mood. We can laugh because we are happy, sad, in pain, feeling uncomfortable, in fact for innumerable reasons. Laughter needs cultivation, as does any good habit. Children laugh freely and as we grow up, we tend to close up as a general rule, become self conscious and limit the amount of laughter in our daily lives.

An Indian physician, Dr Madan Kataria started the free community laughter club movement 26 years ago and now there are thousands worldwide. Lynette became involved 17 years ago when she started the Boronia Laughter Club which transitioned into the Ferntree Gully Laughter Club. The experience of running one has given her first-hand experience of the transformation in members’ lives.

We laugh together for the health benefits and initially for newcomers, they begin with ‘fake it till you make it’, because the body cannot differentiate between real and pretend laughter. How it is done is like improv theatre, pretending to laugh in different scenarios. This makes it easy to laugh without jokes or props and very quickly, the laughter is spontaneous, automatic and genuine.

Laughter sends positive messages to our body, releasing endorphins, resulting in us feeling uplifted, lighter, joyous and energised. There are enormous benefits from what we do, which is basically adults engaging in playful, childlike fun activities. Remember too, a laughter yoga session includes deep breathing, which helps to oxygenate the blood and is very cleansing for the body. Deep breathing is calming, lowering stress levels within us as well.

Attending a laughter session creates an opportunity to come out of your comfort zone. Laughter is an aerobic exercise and there are innumerable health benefits, physically, emotionally, mentally, socially and spiritually. Laughing for one’s health has become widely researched and it is now understood that it benefits all who do it. It does not discriminate and is an inclusive activity or pastime.

Laughter Yoga, as it is known, nowadays is incorporated as a wellness activity in business and other organisations. How wonderful indeed. Perhaps you will experience it in this way or by attending a laughter club. Either way, it is recommended attending a few times for you to discover how it helps you. Otherwise, you will never truly know how incorporating more laughter into your daily life will assist you. Lynette suggests making laughter a daily habit.

The Ferntree Gully Laughter Club meets every Sunday during lockdown at 11am on Zoom. Please message or email Lynette if you wish to become involved. Message Lynette on 0425 799 258 or email: lynette@laughterforliving.com.au.

Click button below to go to the laughter club website page.

Cheerio for now. Until next time, love and laughter blessings. I look forward to hearing how you go with these ponderings.

Lots of Love and Laughter, Lynette Mitchell.

Hello there,

Recently I received an enquiry to facilitate a Laughter Yoga session from a primary school teacher of grades 5-6. She went on to ask me to share a few words about how I both became involved in Laughter Yoga and the history of the laughter club movement. It seemed like a good idea to expand a little in a blog post and hopefully this is of interest to you.

The year was 1995 when it all began, the origin of the Laughter Yoga Community Clubs, who practice ‘laughing for no reason’ all around the world. Indian Physician, Dr Madan Kataria was impressed by Norman Cousins’ book Anatomy of an Illness and the research work by Dr Lee Berk on the benefits of laughter to one’s health and wellbeing. Madan decided to field-test the impact of laughter upon himself and others, gathering with four friends in a Mumbai public park.

This happy little group had many bystanders, who quickly joined in and numbered over 50 after a couple of weeks. BUT, around that time it was discovered that either the jokes and humour ran out or became offensive. Dr Kataria went home to ponder if there could be a resolution. Otherwise he felt that trying to laugh together on a regular basis would simply not work long term.

Upon reviewing the research, there was a light-bulb moment! It was around the fact that the body cannot differentiate between pretend and genuine laughter, because both produce the same happy chemistry. Participants were amazed, the make-believe laughter quickly turned into real laughter that was contagious. Realising there were other ways to experience laughter than through humour, the group switched to role-play and other techniques to stimulate the importance of child-like playfulness.

That was 23 years ago, the first laughter club was born and as the saying goes, the rest is history. There are currently thousands of laughter clubs in over 100 countries around the world.

For myself 13 years ago in 2005, I saw people laughing loudly together on TV as a social activity and then heard that ‘the laughter guru’ was coming to Melbourne to present a Laughter Yoga workshop. I went along, met with Dr Kataria and was so impressed by how fantastic I felt, I straight away committed to doing the laughter club training and immediately thereafter started a laughter club.

My personal reasons were that as a young girl, adults seemed serious, stressed, upset and fearful, as if they had lost hope and life was a burden. From that awareness, I unconsciously chose to be young at heart and not let life beat me down. I kept it up as good as I could, to not get stressed out over work and adult issues. Sometimes people said I was like Peter Pan who was youthful, happy and an inspired person, living with faith and hope for the future, enjoying each day, one day at a time. Mind you, now I understand there is more to it than the simplified version of my earlier life, which was quite ungrounded. That was in part replaced as I learnt to stop judging unpleasant feelings and be authentic. Feelings are to be celebrated and not supressed, which is vastly different from the earlier me. Nevertheless, that is the story in a nutshell, as to why I was drawn to Laughter Yoga.

Cheerio for now, Lots of love and laughter, Lynette Mitchell xo

Disclaimer: Information shared here is intended to be supportive and from my personal understanding and experience. Advice given is general and as I am not a medical doctor, take no responsibility for how it is received

Humour Helps Laughers Outlook on Life

The History of Laughter Yoga and How I Became Involved