Is laughter really the best medicine? It seems that the answer may be YES—laughter may indeed be the magic remedy that helps us cope with the stresses of life in the new millennium. But how can we get enough laughter? A new form of Yoga from India approaches laughter as a physical exercise. Prolonged, hearty laughter is generated without the use of jokes or humor. Every day, hundreds of thousands of people in more than 100 countries are laughing through this unique practice.

Scientifically Proven Benefits
Medical research continues to uncover new benefits of laughter. Laughter improves cardiovascular health and reduces high blood pressure. It helps treat depression, boosts the body’s oxygen and energy levels, and increases the number of blood cells that attack cancer, infections, and viruses. Laughter also releases endorphins, a natural painkiller responsible for the ‘runner’s high.’ It stimulates the lymphatic system and strengthens the immune system. Moreover, laughter reduces stress-related toxins in our bodies by 50% or more within minutes, helping us cope better with stress and speeding up the healing process.

Science shows that we will be happier and healthier if we laugh more. To get the full benefits of laughter, regular sessions of 10 or more minutes of deep, hearty laughter are required. But the question remains: how can we make ourselves laugh?

Non-Humor Based Laughter
The obvious solution might be to use humor. Many hospitals employ clowns, funny videos, joke books, and other methods to make patients laugh and aid healing. The issue is that humor is subjective—not everyone finds the same things funny. Additionally, people tend to lose interest in the same joke after hearing it a second or third time. Constantly needing fresh material isn’t practical.

Laughter Yoga offers a new solution. It treats laughter as a body exercise and does not rely on humor or mental judgment. Laughter Yoga involves a series of easy exercises that can be done in a group setting daily. With hundreds of exercises available, there are enough to vary your routine every day.

Some might argue that these exercises involve 'fake' laughter, not genuine laughter. However, people who practice Laughter Yoga report that the laughter exercises quickly lead to real laughter. In fact, for the medical benefits, it doesn’t matter if the laughter is real or fake—your body doesn’t seem to know the difference.

Participants in Laughter Yoga often describe an amazing difference in how they feel after just one session. Almost all report a positive change in mood and higher energy levels, making them feel ready to tackle any task with confidence. These good feelings stem from the endorphins released into the bloodstream, and the increased energy is the result of the vast amounts of oxygen absorbed during the laughter session, which then circulates through the bloodstream and reaches all major organs.

People who practice Laughter Yoga regularly also talk about a shift in their mental attitude towards life, as if they’re seeing the world through rose-tinted glasses. Both minor and major bouts of depression tend to fade, and social communication skills improve, with self-confidence increasing as well.

It seems clear that we need more laughter in our lives. Studies indicate that we used to laugh much more frequently. Over the past century, the frequency of laughter in adults has dropped from 30-50 times a day to just 5-10 times a day. In contrast, children laugh an average of 400 times a day. It appears Mother Nature ensures that young bodies get enough laughter to stay happy and healthy during their formative years, but the pressures of modern life have stopped adults from laughing.

The best way to find out if laughter can improve your life is to give it a try.

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