Laughter yoga: Not as strange as it sounds

I went to my first laughter yoga session this weekend and I’m hooked.

Call me a hippy if you will!

Laughter yoga is a bit of a craze at the moment, sweeping the world one giggle at a time. There are apparently 5 000 laughter clubs in operation at the moment. What is it? Basically, a series of playful exercises combined with yoga breathing, designed to encourage you to laugh. The goal is to return to that childlike sense of play and fun, that space where we all laughed freely and without judgement.

It’s easy, it’s fun, it doesn’t require any equipment or former training, and people of all ages can do it. There’s been a lot of research done lately, and the benefits of laughter are huge — stress relief, immune-system boost, exercise (my stomach muscles ached afterwards!) and, of course, the delicious release of endorphins.

Now, I can see how laughter yoga would benefit everyone, from stressed corporates to worried mothers and angsty teenagers. But first there’s that layer of cynicism to break through. Apparently everyone eventually “gets it”; it just takes some time. But what really excites me is the thought of taking it to children’s homes, orphanages and underprivileged schools. I’ve always had a passion for injecting fun and laughter into children’s lives (especially those who have lived through horrors at such a young age) and I think this might be an incredibly effective way to do it.

We have nearly one million Aids orphans in our country, but many of them do not have Aids themselves; they’ve just been orphaned by Aids. These are kids who are growing up without a childhood, without that sense of frivolity and fun that is not only an enjoyable part of being a child, but also an important one from a psycho-social point of view.

Laughter yoga might be one way to bring laughter and playfulness to these kids in an accessible, immediate way.

I need to do some thinking about this to work it out properly, but I have that excited feeling in the pit of my stomach that means a great idea is brewing! I think laughter yoga might be one of my new favourite things.

For more information on laughter yoga in South Africa, visit Laughter4africa.org.za.