Laughter is contagious. But unlike the flu, laughter is good
for your health. It boosts your serotonin levels, increases your immune
responses, and leads to a general sense of wellbeing. Given enough time, it can
also be one hell of an abdominal workout. It doesn’t even have to be real
laughter, your brain can’t actually tell the difference. So, theoretically,
that apple a day could be replaced with some forced chuckles.
Enter, Laughter Yoga. Even if the laughter starts out fake,
in a large group it quickly turns into full-fledged hilarity. In a half-hour
class, we electro-shocked laughs into one another, sprayed each other with
machine gun laughter, laughed off imagine tragedies, made a belly laugh chain, and
pretended to be hysterical, laughing clams. We suppressed giggles, snickered at
fake farts, and guffawed in each other’s faces. We tittered, chortled, hooted,
howled, cackled, and snorted.
At the end of it all we were sweaty and our sides were
aching, but there wasn’t a frown to be seen.