People who laugh together…

We don’t necessarily need laughter yoga at parties in order to have fun this season – but having someone come to lead a session proves to add quite a spark.

I was invited to a private party this past weekend to lead laughter yoga. The hostess wanted to help eveyone relax and to make a memory.  The group arrived looking a bit hurried and was quiet. However, after a few laughter games, hilarity was not a rarity.

The men, responsible for cooking hor d’oeuvres, came running in from the kitchen, alarmed, after we cheered, ”Very good, very good, yay!”  Twelve women with a glass of wine and stress to get out can cheer loudly enough for houses ’round the neighborhood to hear.

Their laughter continued robustly after the session was over. The atmosphere was quite different from women rushing to get there on time and being tired from work. 

I’m convinced that relationships — whether friendships, romantic or families — that laugh together, stay together. What a way to introduce eating dinner together every night? Hold a laughter session, even if for just a few minutes. Invent some new laughter games.

I’ve been laughing with my sweetie for about a year, and can testify that had we not led laughter yoga sessions together a few times weekly, sometimes daily, our relationship would not have the same ease. We would be more tense around each other. Prickly. Laughter yoga smoothed our edges and opened our communication.

I’m so thankful to have discovered this path and for my many gifted teachers along the way. Laughter yoga truly transforms — parties, relationships, and if you stick with it — everything!

“Humor in relationships is touchy: Laughter can bring you closer, or it can pack a cruel punch. How to avoid the pitfalls and use humor to strengthen your bond.”
Link: http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200606/crack-me

 

Laughing Away Arthritis

Today Jon & I volunteered with JABA, at the Mary Williams Center with about 4 older women, out of 20 or so who could have participated. That ended up being great, because those who participated were enthusiastic.

Jon cherishes the older generation. He regularly remarks about how wise they are, how much they know and could pass on if we’d give them a chance… so he did most of the talking. I did most of leading the games.

This group couldn’t move very much. Their mobility was limited to standing up – then only briefly. However, by then end of class, endorphins had started flowing and a lady reported how much better her arthritis felt throughout her body.

Endorphins are the neurochemicals responsible for the “runner’s high” that we get after aerobic exercise. They’re also released when we laugh. They have more pain-killing power than morphine, which is why arthritis is helped by laughter yoga. We also forget about pain when we’re laughing.

Laugh yourself to health!

The Power of Volunteering

We’ve all heard that when we give, ultimately, it comes back to us. I’ve found this to be real. This is one of the more powerful spiritual principles for manifesting. We reap what we sow. If we sow joy, we reap joy. Maybe not where we expect to, but it will show up – predictably when we need it the most.

I am grateful for chances to volunteer to lead laughter yoga. I limit myself to those I can afford, financially and emotionally. I know my gifts and where I lead with the most grace. When I give laughter, my heart is emptied – full of room to receive. I become more aware of when and how I receive what I need. Then gratitude happens… which helps me want to give again. It’s an automatic spirtual cycle that is already in place. We just need to step in. It’s our move.

How to Advertise Your LY Class for FREE

If you offer a class by-donation only, even if you suggest an amount (say, $5-10), newspapers usually will list it for free because they consider it a free event. This is how I’ve gotten the word out about Laughter Yoga in Charlottesville over the past two years.

That’s one of the many topics we’ll be covering in the upcoming retreat, “Build and Market Your Spiritual Practice” on November 15th. The retreat is designed to help find budget-mindful ways to market your practice. Join us!

http://www.yogalaughs.com/mworkshop/schedule1.html

Building Trust with Program Groups

As I lead laughter yoga at the jail with women inmates, I learn a valuable lesson with each session. The inmates I laugh with are part of a re-entry program. Remaining in the re-entry program requires them to attend almost all classes. Twice a week, they are “required” to laugh with me in “laughter class”. I’ve been volunteering with re-entry groups at the jail for over a year. Each group is very different in their response to laughter yoga.  

The current group of women has been especially “tough”, meaning, about three out of the six in the group will not laugh unless they feel like it. In jail, most people aren’t there because they’ve had such a great life. It’s no surprise that they don’t feel like laughing. Trying to get some of the more angry and “hardened” inmates to laugh can feel like a going on a long run up a mountain.

But I’ve found that not trying to do anything is one way to disarm their rigidity. I’m transparent. Present in the moment. I abandon my laughter yoga agenda before each class and determine to meet them where they are. I know this isn’t conventional, but it seems to help them trust me and each other. Once they understand that my time with them is also their time — to vent, laugh, cry, and relax — they also let go of their agenda of refusing to laugh.  

They say my laughter is contagious. I share some of my story about laughter yoga each week, give them handouts with articles about laughter yoga, and make the most of each of their giggles. I include “feedback time” in every session after the silent meditation. It provides them with a sense of control and co-leadership of the class.

With each class, I try to build build build… trust. During one class with this group, building trust involved an inmate sharing a painful circumstance around her son for almost 45 minutes. He is 4 and was having major surgery that he may or may not have survived. She couldn’t be with him. She just had to wait for the news about the surgery from the Warden. She wasn’t in a place to laugh for no reason until she had been heard, hugged and allowed to cry. She didn’t ask to be in my class. She was there because she didn’t want to get kicked out of the re-entry program. I had to respect that. She ended up using laughter to release stress and blew the top off of the jail with her loud, silly laughter. She also wept during the silent meditation. Her remarks afterward were abundant – one really touched me. “Now, this is peace.”

The lesson for me for groups like these? Be fully empty with the laughter yoga goal in sight, but not as your required outcome for every class. They know why you’re there. They’ll follow your lead in time. Let them have control in a situation where they very little.

The Challenge of Change

If we need to change something in our lives, if something “isn’t right” and needs “correcting”, the process usually bears shame for us. “Shame on you! Be different!”

What if we embraced the “not right” parts of ourselves - those icky behaviors – instead of hiding or tucking them away? What if we loved those parts for absolutley no reason?

I think we can love ourselves for no reason as a discipline just like we can laugh for no reason. It may seem really really fake at first. We’re so used to loving ourselves for reasons. The only problem with that concept is reasons can change from moment to moment. So our self-esteem will be shaky or overly rigid if we choose that route.

When we surround darkness with laughter, it becomes lighter. It loses it’s power to shame,blame and threaten us. Whatever we laugh with, for a reason or not, no longer has the power to rule us. Laughter has a way of leveling the playing field.

When you attend a laughter yoga session, especially during the laughter meditation, locate a dark place. As you laugh throughout the session, be mindful that you are embracing and laughing with that part of you. When you laugh during the meditation, pull you knees into your chest, wrap your arms around them, and rock back and forth. That part of you needs forgiveness for no reason. Allow any amount of forgiveness in during that time. You may not be able to use this discipline yet. If you keep laughing, a time to forgive yourself will open.

The more we laugh, the more we love.

laughlovepeace,
Leigh

The Heart-Healing Retreat

What an honor it was to co-lead the Heart-Healing Laughter Retreat at gorgeous Bridge Between the Worlds! I came away with a few thoughts on laughter that were reinforced by the comments made by the participants. It works. It heals. It brings hope as it is adopted as a discipline, a yogic path. It opens the spirit to visions of new possibilities that hadn’t been seen, or fathomed, before.

Leading with Jon was a special treat. He has a background that compliments mine, and a leadership style that is different, too. We seemed to flow well together.

Most of all, my belief that laughter is many things and serves us well in so many ways was underscored. It’s taken about 2 years for me to become an irreversible, bonafide, “addict” (I’m using that word cautiously as substance abuse is so very painful) to laughter yoga. I want to start a laugh-a-demic and help foster an energy shift with whatever group who are willing and open to do so. Improv. Fun never-been-done-before stuff. If that interests you, please let me know. info@yogalaughs.com.

laughlovepeace,
Leigh

LeRoi Moore’s Mom

Recently, one of the lead musicians in The Dave Matthews Band, LeRoi Moore, passed. This brought much sorrow to Charlottesville, family, friends, and fans.

For the past few weeks, I’ve had the privilege to laugh with his Mom.

One of the main points of laughing for no reason is to start by matching your laughter to your mood, even if it’s heavy grief… to locate the pain in your body, and try to begin to mumble laughter from that place. If your mood doesn’t lift, or becomes more pronounced — the goal is to start, not to expect a certain result.

I wish laughter yoga brought instant, magic happiness. Much like your first traditional yoga class, the discipline feels and looks awkward when you begin.  With practice, the transformation brought by laughing for no reason, and the mood-boosting, mind-clearing results, become much more accessible.

I applaud Mrs. Moore for her courage to laugh from a place of grief. She is a great sport, and reports feeling “so much better”.

laughlovepeace,
Leigh

“Thank You.”

On New Year’s Day, I was invited to participate in a sweat lodge – a Native American practice. If you’ve never done this, it’s hard to imagine what it’s like, even with the most thorough description.

Part of the ceremony involves sharing what we give thanks for from 2008. In my life, 2008 was great. For me to say something was great is miraculous alone, given my battles with depression. 

My giving of thanks at the lodge, although coming up with the list required some emotional digging, was authentic.

Others had different perspectives and experiences in 2008. On New Year’s Eve, I tracked different New Year’s Eve celebrations from around the world. It seemed like an almost globally unanimous response – Thank God 2008 is over. We’re ready for 2009 because it can’t get much worse. 

Do we really know what we’re saying? It can’t get much worse? I can imagine many, many ways that life could dramatically become much worse, individually and collectively.

With laughter yoga, I look back over 2008 and I’m amazed at the progressionof what I thought would only be a very small part of my life. I had my first laughter yoga seminar in November 2007, then had a well-attended New Year’s Eve celebration. A few days before, I had called David Mauer of the Daily Progress at, as he said, just the right moment, to have Laughter Yoga featured in Daily Progress. I headed directly from the New Year’s celebration to be interviewed by David. 

Next, the Valentine’s Celebration brought 36 people and was aired by WVIR-NBC. I attracted the attention of Hampton Roads Publishing and they requested a proposal for a book on Laughter Yoga.

I started a Senior Center Laughter Club, which brought 15 or so participants for the first meeting. They immediately moved it into a regular program.

I volunteered at the regional jail with women inmates who, after getting used to me and laughing again, championed the classes. Their enthusiasm floored me.

Cathy Harding wrote a beautiful article about me and laughter yoga in c-ville weekly.

Then came the end of the year, meaning, from about October on. Celebrations brought maybe 5 people, even with heavy advertising. Laughter Club meetings had 2-5 attendees each week. I began to wonder if I was doing something inconsistent with my practice to start rumors or negative word-of-mouth about me and laughter yoga among the Charlottesville community.

By December, even with an email newsletter list of 170+ people, 4-5 people attended the special events I had planned.

By the end of December, I was ready to stop leading laughter yoga, except volunteering at the jail, where the women really like the class and appreciated laughing as a spiritual exercise. I need to invest energy where it’s returned, I thought. Baaaah Humbug.

 As I looked at the end of the year, I thought, leading laughter yoga in Charlottesville can’t get much worse. Thank God the year is over.

Then I started reading some of the comments I’ve gotten from attendees throughout the year about how much they had been helped by me leading laughter yoga. I’ve kept a journal, just in case I needed some inspiration one day.

I feel like I’ve gotten myself back.

I didn’t realize laughter was missing so much in my life until I started laughing again in classes.

I used laughter here to beat some social anxiety.

That was a blast.

My leg doesn’t hurt when we laugh.

My blood pressure has dropped almost 30 points.

You have no idea of the gift you’ve given us.

She came home from your class absolutely glowing, so I had to come, too.

Those are a few.

The other part, that I hadn’t realized, from October until now, is that I believe I’ve found an incredible man that may become a true partner, through speaking about laughter yoga at a conference.

How can I not be thankful for the many opportunities to lead laughter yoga? It’s a good idea to reframe the year as a whole. There were good things that happened. A new president who is shattering racial barriers, for one.

Very good, very good, yay!

Laughter Leads to Love

We’ve probably heard that laughter creates more intimacy with our partners and relieves tension in relationships. 

Prolonged laughter helps eliminate stress and helps release inhibitions. This happens, whenever we laugh, on a biochemical level. It’s not a hard-to-achieve result. There are no books, homework questions, or weekend retreats to attend, not that any of those options are, ”less than”, laughing. Laughing at nothing is just as vulnerable, but far more fun and easy.

Laugh-a-demics can break out in families, with children creating new laughter games each day to keep everyone laughing. We just need to get started. Laughter is contagious and keeps working as long as we will keep laughing. We can become laughter-dependent, which I think is better than becoming dependent on any outside source of relief.

The more we laugh, the more we laugh. The more we laugh, the more we love. The more we love, the more strength we gather to sustain peace.

The Valentine’s Laughter Celebration is on Valentine’s Day. A unique way to celebrate the day with anyone you love. I’m bringing a few people. No pets, though.

Laughlovepeace,
Leigh