BLC Lesson 4

Hello and welcome to basic learning course lesson number four. This is called round of applause laughter. It's going round and round.

Please wake up. Open your turn on your cameras please. I want to see your lovely faces laughing.

Unmute and show me how do you look when you laugh heartily. [Laughter] Come on. Come on.

[Laughter] Come on. [Laughter] Okay, it's time to breathe. Take a long deep breath.

Stretch your arms up and breathe out slowly. Cross your fingers and stretch your spine. Breathe in.

Hold it. Hold it. Hold it.

And laugh it [Laughter] [Laughter] out. So laughter yoga exercises are just role playing. We are all you know playing like children.

So it's all about exercising as a laughter and real laughter. There's no difference. Actually we can get more benefits by doing laughter as an exercise.

That's why we can laugh much longer. And as you are aware that the body brain cannot differentiate and you get the same as benefits. So today's topic is that people always ask me a question why should I force myself to laugh?

Why can't I laugh by watching funny movies, jokes, humor, comedies, all that funny stuff? So I going to I've already told you three reasons why yoga is better. But now let's go a little bit deeper to have a better understanding of this subject.

And let me share my powerpoints. Here you go. So reason number one, laughter yoga promotes laughter as a form of exercise along with deep breathing techniques from yoga.

And when we do laughter yoga, our focus is more on getting the health benefits and wellness. It's a workout. But when you go out and watch funny movies, crack jokes, the objective is mere entertainment, amusement and little bit of relaxation.

We don't think about health when we watch comedies and funny movies. So the major major is a focus. Focus and commitment is more to get health benefits.

That is the reason laughter yoga has become popular all over the world because people are receiving so many health benefits from it. Reason number two, laughter in laughter yoga is much longer and sustained and we laugh continuously in one session 15 to 20 minutes, 30 minutes and sometime longer. So laughter sessions when laughter is sustained and longer it produces more physiological and psychological changes.

Now there was a I showed you one research from New Zealand and they found that quantity the quantum of laughter was much better in laughter exercises than natural laughter. So if if you count a few seconds here and there the natural laughter it doesn't make even five minutes. So you there is no way you can get all those health benefits from laughter from the natural.

It has to be done as a form of exercise as a mainstay. And you know after you start doing laughter yoga you will also notice that your ability to laugh naturally also expands. It increases your capacity to laugh.

So it's a added advantage. It's not only about doing laughter exercises in the morning and then rest of the day also you will observe that you start laughing much more. Reason number three, everyone gets to participate in laughter yoga.

So if you are a part of the laughter group, everybody's supposed to be laughing actively. And people who laugh participate actively, they get more benefits, health benefits than comedy, jokes and humor. when you are mere passive audience waiting for something to happen and laugh off and on.

So there is more of a commitment when you do laughter yoga exercises. But in uh comedy, jokes, humors, you are just leaving laughter to a chance. It happens, it happens.

Whenever it comes, it comes. Now let's see the reason number four. The source of laughter when we do laughter yoga is within our body.

We generate laughter with our conscious effort and commitment. We laugh on command and demand whenever we want to laugh. So the source is not outside to somebody tell us that something is funny and your brain has to judge and evaluate what's funny and what's not funny.

No, there's no we are generating the source is within us. Like children, children don't wait for something outside to something funny to happen. They create laughter out of play.

They run around. They they they start laughing at small small things. While when you do comedy, jokes and humor, the source of love outside your body dependent on many many external factors.

like life satisfaction. Are you happy in your life? Doesn't matter.

In laughter yoga, you can laugh even when you're not happy. You can do these exercises. But in comedy jokes, how much you laugh is not certain.

It's not guaranteed. Here you laugh on command. Demand certainty guaranteed way of getting health benefits from laughter.

And last but not the least, when you are using humor to laugh, humor is very individual. It's very cultural and varies from person to person. Everybody doesn't have a same health sense of humor.

Now I'll explain to you when we do laughter leadership training in detail what is the connection between sense of humor and laughter. Do we really need sense of humor to laugh? And how laughter can help you to develop your sense of humor that I will take up in the second part of the leader training.

But for for for now just understand that laughter coming out of jokes, humor and comedies is not always positive. At times it can turn negative, put down and offensive. So remember we when we started laughter yoga club in the beginning we had a great people telling jokes and funny things but after about 10 days we ran out of all good jokes and then negative start stuff started coming and people start tell started telling all that sexy and vulgar jokes.

So that was not very positive. But in laughter yoga, there is a least chance of having any negativity. It's unconditional.

It's pure laughter. It's being done uh as a form of exercise. It's all about childlike pure laughter.

And it's not about your humor, about judgments, making whether something is funny or not. Are you do you agree with me? If you agree with me, let's [Laughter] laugh.

Come on, let's laugh [Laughter] again. Okay, now the second question people always ask me is what is the is laughter in laughter club real? Is it voluntary forced laughter?

So let's go in detail. What is real laughter? How your laughter exercises can become turned into genuine laughter?

What is the theory behind it? What is the science behind it? And how does this theory works?

So fake it until you make it. So friends the first question is laughter in laughter yoga real or voluntary or simulated or sometime people like fake laughter I don't like fake laughter or forced laughter forced laughter is the one when somebody's forcing you to laugh and you don't want to laugh here nobody's forcing us we are doing out of our commitment willingness so when you're willing to laugh where is the force And when it comes to laughter coming out of jokes, humor and comedies, I don't think it is a natural laughter. You can call it spontaneous laughter coming out of something your brain finding amusing and you laugh spontaneously.

But I think when it comes to the natural natural laughter is laughter of the small children. And do you remember how do children laugh? They laugh all the time when they're playing.

So play is the source of laughter. And this is exactly what we are doing in laughter yoga classes. Playing like children.

All these laughter exercises are designed to cultivate your childlike playfulness. We'll talk more about it little later. But uh another question people ask is that why laughter is contagious?

How our laughter exercises turn into genuine laughter when you practice in a group? Now the magic is eye contact. When you see other people laughing, you you you laugh and smile just by looking at other people.

Do you remember when somebody smiles at you, you smile back even if you don't know that person? Uh even sad you know negative emotions are contagious. When you see somebody crying you'll feel like crying.

So what is the science behind it? Why laughter is contagious? One is called mirror neuron theory.

There are specialized neurons in your brain we call mirror neurons and these neurons help us to copy and mimic and learn the behavior from the behavior of other people. So friends uh there is a full presentation during leadership training about mirror neurons how it help us to learn uh when we were children when keep learning by observing other people these mirror neurons are play a very important role in our life whatever we become we we become by observing other people around us. So that's the mirror neurons regarding uh fake it until you make it theory.

Again there is a science behind it that when you pretending to laugh even if you fake for a few seconds 10 15 seconds you will invariably burst into genuine laughter by just you know looking at yourself what are you doing but even if it is not a real laughter not a genuine laughter still the same physiological and psychological changes are taking place in the body. So that's the theory of fake it until you make it is when you're laughing in a group as we do in laughter yoga clubs. We just start laughing looking at each other and within seconds it turn into real laughter and I I already told you that the willing willingness factor is more important.

If you are not willing to laugh, nobody can make you laugh in this world. That's the that's the science behind it. All right.

So, let's see. Now, the scientific research is pouring from all over the world on laughter yoga where scientists they ask people to do laughter as a form of exercise not the real laughter. And uh there is a almost over 300 research papers published on this laughing as a form of exercise.

So we do have some of the compilation of all some research papers which we are giving you as a part of the download resource. So you can since you are becoming leaders later on. So it's will it will be very handy to keep all that scientific data with you so that you can convince people that this is first before you convince other people you got to convince yourself that look what I'm doing is not about real and fake laughter this is just laughter as a form of exercise and why laughter is an exercise because of the scientific research which proves which tells us that uh the benefits are same or in fact you get more benefits and group effort eye contact help us to convert our laughter exercises into genuine laughter.

There are two factors. One is eye contact. Second is childlike playfulness.

So playing like children is the main stay of laughter yoga. So we are teaching people how to become like children. It's a role playing.

And of course there's a big science of acting happiness. Even if you act happy, your body is going to send the bio feedback signals to your brain and your brain is going to pour out all the happy chemicals even if you're acting happy. So from same thing about your subconscious mind your subconscious mind also cannot distinguish between real and fake or imaginary experience.

So even if you imagine something is going that's what anxiety know why people suffer from anxiety anxiety is something undue something bad going to happen in in future. So it's not in the present. Anxiety is about anything which is going to happen.

You are fearful. You are afraid of it. So this means situation is mostly imaginary.

It's not real. So there is a great science about imagination. Your subconscious mind will react even in the same way in imagin imaginary experience.

So laughter is all about imagination. Laughter yoga is all about creating childlike stories we do in laughter yoga exercises. And we actually physically laugh much longer, much deeper combined with deep breathing exercises from yoga.

And this is where you get all those health benefits. And last thing, people who laugh actively, this will activate all your laughter muscles on your face, on your chest, and your abdomen. If your laughter muscles are more active, you will get more health benefits.

So during the leadership training we'll talk about what are the different groups of laughter muscles we have which gets activated when you actually do spontaneous laughter or when you do laughter as a form of exercises. So this is all about today's theoretical explanation and scientific theory behind uh why laughter yoga is better than laughing from humor jokes and comedy. So if you're happy, take a long deep breath.

Inhale. Hold it. Hold it.

Hold it. And [Laughter] it unmute. I want to see your I want to hear your laughter also.

Okay. Please unmute and take a long deep breath. Inhale.

Hold it. Hold it. I love you.

Papa [Laughter] [Laughter] Hello. Hello. Good.

Very good. Y I'm very happy. Always happy because I laugh.

So we don't need any reason to laugh. You don't any reason don't need any reason to be happy. So you become happy just by laugh.

That's the science behind if it's going to we're going to talk about little bit more details. So yesterday I guess you must have enjoyed doing yoga nidra. So please do it every day for at least 10 days.

Play yoga nidra audio on your mobile phones. You can download the audio which we have pro provided you on your mobile phone and just play that audio and just lie down and see what happens. It's one of my you go to [Laughter] sleep.

Yes. Even I go to sleep within 5 minutes. So yoga nidra can also work like a sleeping pill.

If you're not getting sleep, just put the yoga nidra in and you'll quickly slip into sleep and it doesn't matter. So all these instructions being played as an audio, your subconscious mind is listening. So still your body's you know taking all that commands even when you're sleeping.

But I think uh it has helped me because I travel a lot now. Now I'm traveling a little bit less but in the beginning of laughter yoga we used to travel almost six to seven months in a year coming from one country going to another country. uh and also with different time zones we used to get tired and how I recharged myself was by playing yoga nidra anytime.

So please keep this uh yoga nidra audio handy and of course there are lots of other aspects of yoga nidras but uh by doing yoga nidra you can reprogram your mind giving positive affirmations that's the different part. So before slipping into before starting the relaxation first part of yoga nidra just say some words any new habit you want to make. So say three times and then when you wake up from the yoga nidra repeat that affirmation three times.

It's directly goes into your subconscious to form a new habit. For example, you want to start exercising regularly. So just say before yoga, I'm exercising every day for 30 minutes or anything that I'm eating healthy food or whatever.

So don't say anything negative that I don't want I want to quit smoking. I want to stop drinking or I want to stop being lazy. So negative affirmations don't work with your subconscious mind.

Only say positive. Anything negative you see what is the opposite and that's what we say in yoga. Okay.

Today uh I think Vak is going to teach you another laugh and dance video. He's going to play that video. He say it's called laugh and dance party.

Laugh and dance party is also wonderful valid addition to your laughter yoga practice. You can play this video to learn all these steps and then there is some laughter exercises in between dancing. So it's very much like aerobic exercise and dancing but the advantage here is that you have some laughter interspersed between music and dancing.

It's very aerobic dancing or zumba imagine with laughter. Okay. So please take it seriously and play Bollywood dance is one of my favorite.

So please play this Bollywood dance every day and dance along with it and laugh along with it. And you once you learn all these steps you can teach other people. It's wonderful way of teaching people laughter yoga in a fun way.

All right friends, over to Vinak and he will teach you some more exercises. More dancing, more laughing. Hello.

Hello. Hello laughter yogis, my brothers and sisters. Ho ho ho.

Follow see laughter yoga gives you freedom of being like a child. So we we are not going to judge anyone here. We all are like small children and we believe laughter yoga is the kindergarten of grown-ups.

So all grown up adults become small, six years old, 5 years old. [Music] [Laughter] Well, and uh actually there is a research study that proved being like a child or practicing laughter yoga and childlike playfulness increases the creativity by 40%. I'll try to fetch that uh research study and I'll check with Dr Qataria if he has I will uh pass it on to all of you.

And uh there was a question in the WhatsApp group that how can we uh uh keep developing more and more laughter exercises? And once the stock is over one because the exercises you learn during these 12 lessons most somewhere about 40 uh 30 to 40 exercises. So once you uh do all these exercises what do we do next?

Very simple. My answer is in the leader training program we will tell you about some a very special uh service that we provide laughter yoga international. It's called prozzone service.

Prozone is a premium membership program where you will get six months free membership and in that we have listed all the exercises we have created so far. Videos are there. You can download those videos, watch it and note down exercises and do it.

And also we will guide you how you can create your own exercises. Laughing alone, laughing with daily rituals, laughing with daily problems that we face during the day, laughing with the how can you create exercises with different themes. We have an advanced training program, coaching and mentoring program that is called laughter yoga 2.

0. We will explain in detail in the leader training program what is this 2. 0.

0 what do you get in there and it's very interesting and very scientific based program uh my dear friends so I strongly recommend you all must get that program it has seven seasons we have completed seven seasons in each season there are about four lessons every lesson is for about 90 minutes in each lesson Dr Kataria has explained a scientific research study, a medical condition and how laughter yoga helps. And I have demonstrated different exercise theme. uh for example there are laughter exercises on uh problems.

There are laughter exercises on theme of gratitude and there are laughter exercises on theme of teachers. Who are our teachers and how can we remember their contribution like that there are more than 25 different themes I have created and demonstrated laughter exercises. In each theme there are 10 exercise at least.

So it's a very big program and uh I will send uh the email the details once we start the leadership training program. So that's how you can keep yourself updated in the field and keep developing new exercises, new ideas and of course you get every month newsletters we send with new updates, what is happening around the world in terms of laughter yoga, what new is happening, everything you will receive by newsletters. All right.

So let's do the exercises of today's lesson. Haha. Uh yoga nidra.

Actually I had shared the yogidra audio in the WhatsApp group. However, you will receive it by email. So uh somebody sent a message in the chat box.

Could you please uh send me your email address in the chat? So I don't see the name. It just said iPad.

Ho ho ho ho ho ho. Okay. So friends, today I'm going to teach you some very funny exercises.

Okay. Why you we call it funny? Because they are funny.

That's is it itself is funny. So the first exercise we're going to do is zipper laughter. Imagine you have a zip on your mouth like the bags have, right?

So when we open the zip, we laugh and when we close, we keep quiet. Ready? Hold the zip.

One, 2, 3, go. [Laughter] [Laughter] Sometimes it's very important to keep quiet. When you are having an argument or when somebody's saying something, it's very important to keep quiet.

It solves hundreds of problems. If you start replying, it goes on and on. So just keep your mouth closed and say oh this will solve many problems especially when when husband and wife they have an argument one of them should say I see you have a [Laughter] point when there is no response responds the other person will stop.

So this is zipper laughter. The next one is it's called uh there is a cream in the market. So you go to any medical shop or anywhere or every any shop you go ask for this cream and they will give you.

This is very beautiful cream. It's a wonder cream. And if you apply this, you look more much younger.

You look very beautiful, handsome and you look like you know you like like an like like an angel or or a fantastic person. What is this cream? It's called laughter cream.

Where do we get it? Just right under your nose. Put your hand like this.

Take a little cream. is you have a tube and with a little noise the tube the cream comes out like this. Mix it.

Mix the cream and as you apply start laughing. [Laughter] Ready? I have some extra cream.

What do I do? Don't worry. Just apply on all over the [Laughter] body.

This is not just a facial cream. It's a wonder cream. I told you you can apply it as a face cream or your body.

uh cream or body lotion whatever you call sunscreen lotion you you call it anything and it acts so this is called laughter cream that second exercise next one we do high five laugh okay ready we go high [Laughter] five virtual high five we discovered this during the COVID pandemic. [Laughter] Ready? Oh, and similar to hi-fi, the next word is very very popular, very essential to our lives.

It's called Wi-Fi laughter. Without Wi-Fi, life is difficult these days. Okay.

So, but we laughter yogis. We have our own Wi-Fi device. So, this is called your Wi-Fi router.

[Laughter] And when somebody comes home, what do you offer? If you are you are the worst host if you don't offer the Wi-Fi password. It's okay if you don't offer food, drink, or anything.

You must offer the Wi-Fi password as soon as they enter. Hey, can I get the Wi-Fi password please? Okay friends, now the next exercise we have very historical exercise.

you know when laughter club was established in Mumbai the place as I told you it's a very uh elite locality and all the uh uh residents were more concerned about their health and wellness most of them used to come for morning walk yoga and jogging many other activities and in the middle in the center of the are this laughter club was happening and many uh you know walkers and joggers they were curious why these the group of people are laughing what's so funny and everybody wanted to know but nobody had the courage to ask nobody was willing to ask but one day one guy could not resist he said he just went to the group and asked Hey, why you guys are laughing? What's so funny? I also want to laugh.

Tell me what's happening. And the laughter club members, oh, I don't know. I mean, we don't know.

We are just laughing. We are having fun. We don't know why we are laughing.

And they discovered the new exercise called just laugh or laugh for no reason. Ready? Just if imagine you somebody asked you why you're laughing and you say I don't know I'm just laughing.

Laugh for no reason. [Laughter] [Music] [Laughter] Very good. Very good.

Yay. Very good. Very good.

Yay. Fantastic. Now the next exercise it's quite Indian laughter exercise.

So what is this? This is called green chili laughter. So in India first of all the food is quite spicy.

Many people prefer to eat spicy food and with lot of spices and you know with masalas and they they want to eat and on top of it it some people want to eat green chilies with their meal. Especially if you go to villages uh people they they want to eat the spicy green chili because in the house there are people old elderly people or small children they they may not be able to eat that spice level. So the the the cook or whoever prepares the meal make it medium spicy and whoever wants some extra spice will eat the green chili.

That's the custom or tradition here. Now we thought of giving an experience of green chili laughter to all our laughter yogis around the world. Okay.

So what is this green chili laughter? So this is how we do it. First hold the green chili.

This is the green chili we are going to eat. And I tell you it's very extremely spicy green chili you have ever tasted. Okay.

Ready? [Laughter] [Music] Yeah. And one more red chili.

One more spicier. And now both the chilies. Okay, now give me in the chat box if you like spicy food or if you like to eat green chili, say yes.

Or if you are a fan of spicy food. I mean, you know, just say yes. Honestly, I'm not.

So we eat very medium or less spicy. Yes. Not at all.

Yeah. No spicy. Somebody says yes.

Below green chili. Yeah. All right friends.

Now we have completed today's laughter exercise and it's time to show you the exercises and then we will go to the uh dance part. So we have done these exercises today. First one is zipper laughter and then laughter cream then hi-fi and Wi-Fi and then just laughing and finally your favorite green chili laughter.

I mean honestly I used to eat when uh about 10 15 years ago but then one fine day I realized that this is not going to help me in long term. I may end up getting peptic ulcers or in intestinal ulcers. So I I I stopped.

So no more green chili. All right. So friends uh you can take a screenshot or uh uh a photo of this screen and practice and really I appreciate videos of you you know sending in the WhatsApp group.

Fantastic. If you're unable to send due to any reason it's absolutely fine and we understand and it's okay you keep laughing and practicing. Sending video is just a part but most important is laughing regularly.

Okay. So friends, now today we are going to practice a unique second uh dance step. We call it laugh and dance party.

And very simple just follow the video and like in the first lesson I I'm going to give you the uh video link and you can practice it whenever you can. Now may I request all of you to stand if possible. So we are going to practice laugh and dance party.

Yeah. Yeah. There we go.

All right. So, I hope all of you are ready. Let me also stand.

Yes. Hello and welcome to my exclusive laugh and dance party. My name is Dr Madanqatara.

People call me laugh doctor. [Laughter] [Music] Heat. Heat.

[Music] Oh, ha. Oh Hat. [Music] Since laughter yoga originated from India, we always do namaste [Laughter] laughter.

Keep on laughing. And now it's time to dance. Are you ready for the next beat?

[Music] Ooh la la. [Music] [Music] uh [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] Our next exercise is Appreciation. Laughter.

[Laughter] Ready. Keep on laughing. And now it's time to dance.

Are you ready for the next beat? [Music] By sha shy ble sha shy ble sha sha ble b sha sha by b sha sha by Halle sha shava. [Music] [Music] H a h a h a h a h a h a Ho ho ho ho [Music] ha.

Our next laughter is my favorite laughter. It's called gradient laughter. Gradient means laughing slowly and gradually.

Are you ready? Start. [Laughter] Ah so that was laugh and dance party.

So I'm going to send the link u of course right now in the chat box WhatsApp group you will receive it by email also so no link will be missed everything will be sent so no need to worry ha [Music] hea so thank you so much friends I really enjoyed enjoyed laughing and uh dancing with you all. Thank you so much. See you tomorrow.

Keep laughing. Have a fantastic day and very good night all of you. Please unmute and let's say bye-bye.

Bye. See you tomorrow. Appreciate you.

[Laughter] [Laughter] Uhhuh. [Laughter] Byebye. Oh.