Forced laughter and genuine guffaws blended into a whirlwind of noise in the International Commons on Sept. 18. Senior Julia Berberan was leading her first laughter yoga class and more than 50 people, the majority of them female students, showed up to experience the hybrid class.
Gathering of the yogis
After some stretching and basic instructions, the first laughing yoga class commenced.
Berberan’s first exercise was holding two invisible milkshakes, one in each hand, and pouring one into the other and repeating the process.
While pouring, she instructed everyone to make an unnatural long “a” sound with a rising tone. Scattered giggles acknowledged the awkwardness of the sound, but the real kicker came when everyone dumped their laughter milkshakes onto the person next to them, causing hysterical laughing fits.
During the one-hour class, the laughter yogis started up imaginary lawnmowers and mowed around the Commons laughing at each other, pulled on imaginary pants, applied fake laughter cream on each others’ faces, and blew laughter flowers on each other.
Between each exercise, everyone would chant “Ho, ho, ha ha ha!” in unison.
|
Berberan, Steele, and Smith pour their laughter milkshakes.
(Photo by Brian Badzmierowski) |
Junior Christine Steele heard about the class through an e-mail sent to the St. Michael’s community.
“I had no idea what it was really, but I figured laughter… and yoga. You couldn’t really go wrong,” she says. “Half the time I was fake laughing, then half I was real laughing. The fake laughs usually turned into real laughs.”
Fake laughs are just as beneficial to the body, says Jen Matthews ’93, a certified laughing yoga instructor who trained Berberan and attended the class.
“It’s a scientific fact that your body can’t tell the difference between fake and real laughter,” Matthews says.
The goal is for everyone to laugh for 20 minutes every session, she says.
Steele not only got a hoot out of laughter yoga, she got a jolt of energy too.
“I woke up from a nap, I had really low energy, and then I went to this and I was going all night,” she says. “I was really happy and excited about nothing.”
Around the world in 13 years
Laughter yoga was started by an Indian physician named Dr. Madan Kataria in 1995 with five people in a park in India. It has now spread to more than 60 countries with 6,000 clubs, according to the official laugher yoga Web site.
Kataria trained Matthews to become a certified laughter yoga instructor during two weeks in California, Matthews says. She and her class would spend at least 12 hours a day practicing laughter yoga, learning about it, and often eating meals together.
Kataria is the only one who can certify instructors. Instructors can then train leaders, who lead classes. Matthews, who lives in California, came to Vermont and hosted a yoga leader training class in Burlington on Sept. 13-14.
Berberan was exposed to laughter yoga in India during a MOVE trip last summer, and decided to attend Matthews’ two-day, 15-hour class. Less than a week later, she was leading her own class alongside Matthews at the International Commons.
"I had really low energy, and then I went to this and I was going all night. I was really happy and excited about nothing.” |
- junior Christine Steele |
While training to be a laughter yoga instructor in California, Kataria taught Matthews the philosophies behind the art.
“His [Kataria’s] mission is world peace through laughter," she says. "Laughter has no race, laughter has no creed, it’s non-religious and non-political in how it brings people together across social boundaries.”
Laughter also has physiological benefits, she says. One of the fundamental practices in yoga is methodical breathing, and exhaling all of the stale air in one’s lungs. Typically, people only exhale 25 percent of
the air in their lungs, she
says. Laughing creates fuller exhalations, thus oxygenizing cells and improving health and mood.
Berberan has seen the healthy benefits of laughter yoga, she says. On the second day of her certification class, a woman with cancer claimed her pain was erased the night before, as a result of practicing laughter yoga.
“We had watched that in movies but having someone in the same room as you after one day of laughing yoga say that...wow,” Berbaran says.
Funny like I’m a clown, I amuse you?
Laughter yoga is gaining a following on the West Coast, but it’s still fairly unknown in the East, Matthews says. As far as she knows, the 11 people she trained from Vermont are the only laughter yoga leaders in the state.
 |
Having to pee usually isn't a laughing matter, but it's an exercise in laughter yoga.
(Photo by Brian Badzmierowski) |
Berberan hopes to be able to spread its influence beyond the borders of Burlington, she says.
Laughter yoga isn’t restricted to a yoga studio, either. Matthews composed a CD of solo laughter practice, which is available on her Web site.
One of the main themes of laughter yoga is laughing at things that aren’t typically humorous, Berberan says.
Steele sometimes finds herself spontaneously giggling about mundane things, she says.
In a recent Critical Theory class taught by Professor Carey Kaplan, Berberan was called on without having done her homework.
Berberan responded, “I didn’t do it,” and started laughing.
|
