Messina

I’m sitting in a clubhouse at a midtown apartment complex, watching
seven people stretch their faces and fingers as they roar like lions.
Eyes are popping; tongues are hanging; expressions are exaggerated.
Instead of a typical lion roar, each person is simulating laughter,
with loud exclamations of HA! and HEE! and HO!

This isn’t an improvisational group or a creative anger-management
seminar. These animated participants are part of the Tucson Laughter
Club (tucsonlaughterclub.org). They
gather on the 13th of the month and laugh themselves silly.

A laughter club isn’t a bunch of people sitting around telling
jokes. Instead, there are actual exercises to perform, facilitated by a
group leader.

They all practice what is called laughter yoga, a combination of
yoga breathing and laughing that provides physiological and
psychological benefits.

So when the members of the Tucson Laughter Club exclaim HA!
repeatedly while walking like penguins, quacking like ducks or
pretending they have ice down their shirts, this simulation of laughter
provides the same health benefits as a good, natural guffaw.

Laughter yoga was created by Dr. Madan Kataria in Mumbai, India on
March 13, 1995. Five people gathered in a park to form a laugher club.
At first, they told funny stories, but weeks later, Kataria decided to
have the group act out laughter with role plays and other exercises.
Through his research, he realized that the body can’t differentiate
between acted and real laughter.

“A laughter-yoga class focuses … on the health benefits of
laughter, with breathing and stretching exercises,” explains Tucson
Laughter Club co-founder Tony Pearson. “At the end (of a class), many
groups do a relaxation period where they think of peaceful things and
try to breathe deeply in a meditative state.” Laughter-yoga classes are
offered at various venues, including the Lotus Massage and Wellness
Center (2850 E. Grant Road). Curves at 2816 N. Campbell Ave. hosts a
laughter-yoga club the first and third Sunday of each month.

According to Pearson, his club offers a different spin on laughter
yoga. Instead of only focusing only on the health benefits, they focus
also on the social benefits.

“What we found is that we don’t have the most athletic people. …
We have done events in nursing homes and hospitals with people in
wheelchairs and with oxygen tanks,” he says, saying that the club
welcomes people of all ages.

Pearson says he started Tucson Laughter Club with three other people
in 2004. “This was in support of friends we had who had gone to Iraq
and Afghanistan. We were making videos to cheer them up.”

After his friends came home, Pearson continued the club, because he
thinks it has value and is good exercise. Others agree; the group has
180 people on their mailing list. Monthly laughfests, as they are
called, have between five to 20 people in attendance. Approximately 75
people turned out on World Laughter Day in May.

On this slow summer evening in July, five members are present, while
Pearson and club president Vanetta Gibbs preside. Both Pearson and
Gibbs are certified laughter leaders, which means they’ve learned how
to run a group, can teach about 40 laughter-yoga exercises, and even
know how to be on the lookout if someone has a health problem from
laughing too much. But how do they get someone to pretend they are
walking on a hot sidewalk in bare feet exclaiming “HA HA HOT?”

“We try to make people feel comfortable,” says Pearson. “Even if
they don’t participate, they can enjoy everyone else participating, and
that may bring a smile to their face.”

Both Pearson and Gibbs report that participants feel better
afterward. Gibbs says she has benefitted in a variety of ways,
including increased self-esteem and self-confidence.

“It really helps me emotionally and health-wise. (After my first
laughfest), that night, I slept the best. That’s usually the effect it
has on people. … I suffered from allergies. That has been reduced
greatly by my just laughing. … After a laughfest, I am happier, more
relieved and less stressed.”

There’s a universal thread that runs through all of this, too.
According to Laughter Yoga International, there’s an estimated 6,000
social-laughter clubs in 60 countries.

Back at the Tucson Laughter Club, the chuckles subside, and the
members gather to go home. All participants seem a bit lighter and
refreshed after taking the time to laugh.

In this age of brief text messages and 140-character tweets, it’s a
good thing there’s no shortcut to laughter.

This article appears in Jul 30 – Aug 5, 2009.