Several years ago I experienced deep depression from some major changes in my life. I had the best support I could have but still needed to work my way through the depressions that could leave me devastated for days at a time. Shanti, my partner, introduced me to Laughter Yoga and I assisted her in the setting up and running of a ‘Laughter Club’. The Club met every week and we enjoyed attendance by locals and tourists alike. I noticed that the regular practise of laughing freely was freeing me from the grip of the depressions. They became less severe and soon passed altogether. I also noticed that I felt more grounded and confident within myself. Where, in the past, I might have been affected by others opinions, I found that I was developing a stronger inner core of being okay about who I was. Things that normally could upset me became things that I could simply laugh about.
The laughter allowed blocked emotions to move, to be felt and freed up. I experienced more grief more often but in ways that I could easily manage. Rather than a larger, more daunting mass of emotion that I naturally tried to suppress and avoid, the emotion was able to release in a healthy and hearty way. We would laugh at our human predicament and feel the various energies float away - allowing them to be. Suppression and repression became play and cheer.
The laughter also allowed me to feel a release from mental worries. Thoughts that might bother me during the week were made powerless by the act of laughing. The mind was able to balance out and I was left feeling elated and energised, clear minded and positive about simply ‘being alive’.
Conversations became more alive and there was generally, a deeper and more open sharing. By laughing in a group we became more open to each other – more open to ourselves. The normal boundaries between people, including complete strangers, seemed to be laughed away. People felt comfortable and safe and uplifted. There was a greater sense of being able to trust others when you had just been laughing with them.
We sometimes laughed for no reason and other times we made the point to laugh at what would normally bother us. We laughed about things that were stresses in our lives and we laughed about fears and concerns. At times we chose to behave like children and to be like we had in school – stimulating an unconscious recall of the freedom and joy there is in play.
If we had nothing to laugh about, we would laugh anyway. On some occasions people would find themselves with a tear in their eyes. The tears were welcome and the emotions could flow. For most it was simply a matter of having fun – for others, discovering some emotional or mental “baggage” that they didn’t know was there. The playfulness and the loving support in the group giving its participants a great boost. In an environment of care and respect, the human spirit is given the opportunity to soar again.
