Intentional laughter as a wellbeing practice

Laughter yoga, laughter therapy, unconditional laughter, active & intentional laughter. These are all different names for the same practice: harvesting the nourishing effects of hearty, joyful and sustained laughter.

Research has shown that laughter is one of the most contagious emotional expression in the human spectrum (1). When we hear laughter, our natural instinct is to join in.

During a Laughter Yoga session, participants initiate laughter as exercise in a group setting, and through making eye contact and enacting a sense of playfulness, self-initiated laughter soon becomes genuine and contagious.

All that is needed is a willingness to choose to laugh. Laughter exercises are combined with deep yogic breathing. The breathing deepens the laughter and increases the net intake of oxygen, which boosts peak performance level

The practice of laughter yoga was established in 1995 by an Indian medical physician, Dr. Madan Kataria and his yoga teacher wife Madhuri Kataraia. Also, Osho taught unconditional laughter as one of the fundamentals of dynamic meditation. Now, people in over 100 countries use intentional laughter to achieve the health benefits of laughter in a variety of settings.

1) Scott SK, Cai CQ, Billing A. Robert Provine: the critical human importance of laughter, connections and contagion. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2022 Nov

The far spread of this practice shows us one thing: It works! But if that is not enough proof for you, then trust science! Intentional laughter has proven to improve serotonin, oxytocin, and dopamine levels. While also reducing cortisol levels (2). It has also been shown to make people more resilient to stress and it works better as a direct intervention for depressive people than anti-depresant medication!