Laughter yoga is no joke
By Matthew Hoekstra - Richmond Review - January 11, 2008
Amanda Arnold and Blair Coleman are seeing the positive effects
of laughter.
Chung Chow
Blair Coleman is laughing. She can’t help it. Someone’s pushing their way in front of her at a bus stop.
Now that’s funny. This, coming from someone who had little to smile about through most of her life.
Coleman came from a happy home where people would visit and laughter was plentiful. It’s hard to pinpoint when things changed, but it likely started when Coleman was nine and her father died.
Without counselling, she carried on, following her brothers down a bad road. At age 12, she had her first taste of what would become a lifelong addiction. With drugs and alcohol, she thought all her problems went away.
Life took another turn at age 15 when she moved to a new city and new school. She began drinking heavily. When she moved again, her addictions did too—to another level.
Life went on. At age 39, without any plans to stop, she woke up thinking, ‘This isn’t Blair. This isn’t where Blair’s meant to be.’
That was seven years ago, and she hasn’t used since. Her struggle to find things positive in her life became easier two years ago upon hearing that silly laughing exercises was good therapy.
Right.
Coleman found it was. On a suggestion from her brother, she signed up for a class in laughter yoga—a program of laughter exercises, breathing, stretching and meditation invented in India by Dr. Madan Kataria a dozen years ago.
She found her first few classes tough. She hadn’t had a reason to laugh for a long time.
In time, she recognized laughter yoga’s claims were true: it relieves stress, lowers blood pressure and changes the negative into a positive.
“I’m not as angry, I’m not as sad. I still have moments like that, but it’s just easier,” she says.
Now she’s a laughter yoga teacher, teaching classes called Laugh Out Loud.
“The main thing is you smile and you have eye contact when you do the laughter yoga. We need more of that.”
Her first passion is to bring laughter yoga to recovering drug addicts and alcoholics. But besides teaching classes in recovery homes, she also teaches at community centres, a seniors centre and beginning Wednesday—in Richmond at Amanda Arnold’s Healthy Alternatives store.
“I just found a huge shift in doing laughter yoga, for me. I just think it’s important. I’ve seen the change in people, especially when I’ve done it at retreats and camp-outs with recovering addicts and alcoholics, and they just love it.”
For people who aren’t used to spontaneously laughing, particularly in a group setting, classes might seem difficult and uncomfortable—at first. But Coleman says most people return for more after giving it a chance.
She’s led classes packed with emotion. Coleman remembers doing a laughter yoga class for a group of women who just finished a session on grieving and anger. It was one of the hardest classes she’s ever done.
“I was crying and laughing with the women. It still makes me emotional when I think about it,” she says. “It was very healing. It was healing for me—I know it was healing for them—but it was very healing for me.”
In her classes, people can expect a lot of laughter, breathing, stretching, and tapping into their inner child.
Emotions play a large part in our health, says Healthy Alternatives owner Amanda Arnold. Stress, anger, unforgiveness, lack of self esteem and sadness all have a negative effect on our well-being.
Arnold, who has had Parkinson’s disease for 17 years, tries to regularly organize activities and events that promote deep relaxation and emotional wellness.
According to the website of laughter yoga’s founder, previous generations used to laugh an average of 20 minutes each day. Now, laugh-time for adults is down to five minutes.
That, Dr. Kataria says, is “one of the worst aspects of modern life.” Laughter, he says, releases a cocktail of hormones and chemicals that have positive effects on the body.
Coleman finds it difficult to describe how much she’s changed with laughter yoga. She now believes life is good, and she believes she’s a good person.
“Laughter is so healing. It’s been proven it’s the best medicine, and I believe for me being in recovery for so many years, even though this isn’t a 12-step program, this is the biggest change for me.”
Laughter yoga
•Register for a class at Healthy Alternatives, 450-9100 Blundell Rd., 604-273-5698. Classes are each Wednesday from 11 a.m. to noon. Cost is $15 for one class or $40 for four classes.
•For more information, e-mail Blair Coleman at freespirit8women@yahoo.com