Why laughter is truly the best medicine  

The news last summer was that the government was looking into ways to make us happier. As the BBC programme "The Happiness Formula" in May 2006 showed, happiness levels in Britain are falling. The proportion of people saying they are very happy has fallen from 52% in 1957 to just 36% today, despite huge increases in income. As professionals in the Stress arena, you are probably well aware of all the statistics showing increasingly serious levels of stress being experienced by people. So news about happiness levels will come as no surprise.

Research has tended to show that there are certain key factors that contribute to happiness. As the major publicist of Positive Psychology, Dr. Martin Seligman of the University of Pennsylvania has shown, three components stand out: pleasure (the "smiley-face piece"), engagement (the depth of involvement with one's family, work, romance and hobbies) and meaning (using personal strengths to serve some larger end). Seligman says that engagement and meaning are particularly important. Other researchers have pointed to bondedness with friends, family and loved ones as a major contributor.

So, if we look at one manifestation of happiness, laughter, it turns out that laughter is not something we tend to do alone but instead with others. As Robert Provine of the University of Maryland has demonstrated, it is a tool of communication. Also laughter is infectious, one person often setting off others. And it's what we do most of when in the company of friends and family; it's part of our bonding. When we laugh with others, we feel connected to others.

But what has been happening to laughter and why is it so important? What does laughter have to tell us about our happiness - and our wellbeing?

Laughter is generally considered to be an essential behaviour of a happy, joyful person. Its absence contributes to anxiety, depression, and illness. In today's society, as with happiness in general, we seem to have forgotten how to laugh. According to a study by Dr. Michael Titze, a German psychologist,

* In the 1950's people used to laugh 18 minutes a day, but today we laugh not more than 6 minutes a day, despite the huge rise in the standard of living

* Children can laugh up to 300-400 times a day, but when we grow up to be adults this frequency comes down to less than 15 times a day, if at all

So why has laughter declined? The answers will not surprise. Here's a few reminders. First there's stress and you will be well aware of all this. Just to take a few items, we live in a fast and stressful world, dominated by fear. Telecommunications have made bad news instantly accessible to millions, accentuating anxiety and fear. People are working long hours, under pressure to move fast. Transport is congested. Cities are crowded. Divorce and family break-ups are high. Stress levels are constantly on the increase.

Then people find it hard to take responsibility. We live in the past, feeling guilty or resentful, or we worry about the future. We don't take responsibility and live in the moment, where laughter occurs enabling us to release our feelings. Instead we attribute the cause of our perceived difficulties to something or somebody else, and thus we fail to take control of our lives.

We live in a society which believes that things must be dealt with seriously rather than lightly; so we believe we must suppress the natural urge to laugh. If we laugh, we are perceived as being irresponsible, not being supportive or not understanding.

Happiness is perceived as conditional on external factors: the desire to gain certain things in order to be happy, which if successful results in a cycle of immediate fulfilment followed by dissatisfaction and a renewed wanting, with a lingering feeling that what I have is not enough. This is the repetitive feeling that "I have not got what I want". Addiction to desire is seen as one of the most fundamental barriers to human contentment and it is all-pervasive in today's society.

Laughter is seen as dependent on a "sense of humour": we believe we must have a reason to laugh, that laughter is about laughing "at" something or somebody else, that it only happens on certain occasions, that it depends on "one's sense of humour" ie. It is dependent on external stimuli or a belief you have about your personality.

However, there is major hope now available. As a result of research in both East and West, people are increasingly realising that laughter is something that can be spontaneously created and need not be dependent on anything. In fact you can laugh for no reason at all. Authentic laughter is an energy that wells up from within. It is something that occurs spontaneously, without a reason, resulting in the experience often called joyfulness.

People might have lost it but it is perfectly possible to help them get it back. People can be taught to laugh for no reason, to discover their own innate capacity to experience their own well-spring of laughter and joy. You do not have to be happy or have a "sense of humour" or even have a reason to laugh. You do not have to be constrained by your social conditioning.

We are talking here about a simple technique that has proved so powerful that it has become a world-wide phenomenon, after being introduced in India by a medical doctor, Dr. Madan Kataria, to help people manage the stress of life in Mumbai. Dr Kataria was so concerned about this issue that one day he went out into a park and asked as many people as he could to join him in an instant laughter club. Eventually he managed to persuade 4 people to join him. As others watched in initial bemusement, they took it in turns to tell jokes. As we have seen, laughter is infectious. Others started to join and soon he had 50 people in his club. Unfortunately they ran out of jokes after two weeks and then two women complained because the humour had become sexist and rude. To rescue his new idea, and this was the crucial breakthrough, Dr Kataria turned to the idea of laughter exercises to help people to fake laughter, to "fake it till you make it". That worked a tickle! He also turned to his wife, a yoga teacher, and borrowed from yoga some of its deep breathing, which he adapted to simple breathing exercises to support people's ability to sustain the laughter beneficially. The result he called Laughter Yoga. His club recovered and soon the park was attracting large numbers to morning pre-work laughter sessions. It proved so popular that it spread, first all round India and now across the globe. There are now over 5000 such clubs.

Why has this been so successful? First and foremost because it is so easy: anybody can do it. Such a laughter training technique belongs to all and has no hidden agenda. It is not at anybody's expense. It is socially and emotionally safe. And, very importantly, it is the doing of it that is benefiting. No thinking is required. It is the thinking part of the brain that holds the beliefs we described above that are limiting our natural laughter. Laughter by-passes this thinking left part of our brain, tapping into our right-brain functions. Here lies our child-like qualities; it's where we are spontaneous and fun and where we are creative and intuitive. The practical exercises, which are simple physical techniques, are aimed at contacting this natural fun side, largely through "acting silliness". Also, as was said, laughter is infectious: as the techniques are done in groups, it spreads and what was acted laughter then becomes real laughter as the natural laughter mechanism kicks in. Finally as it also makes use of a simple breathing technique, it is a simple but highly effective form of aerobic exercise that makes one feel good. One can easily see it in the bright smiles, flushed faces and shining eyes of participants after a session.

So why is laughter truly the best medicine?

It is scientifically proven that, even if you pretend to laugh or act happy, your body produces "happiness" chemicals. Our bodies do not know the difference between thinking about doing something and actually doing it. Whatever the source of laughter, it leads to the same set of physiological changes in the body. Laughter generates the release of positive chemicals, thus

* Enriching the blood with plentiful supplies of oxygen * Boosting the immune system and bringing relaxation * Counteracting harmful stress chemicals * Releasing endorphins, the body's pain-killer hormone, and giving a sense of well-being * Counteracting depression, anxiety and psychosomatic problems * Ensuring good sleep * Bringing a happy glow to your face and making your eyes shine

Back in the 18th Century, a French physiologist, Duchene, found that a genuine smile was when muscles contract around the eyes involuntarily sending a signal of genuine joy and one tends to naturally smile in return. It was Norman Cousins, author of "The Anatomy of an Illness" who found that watching funny films cured him of a potentially fatal illness. This sparked serious scientific interest. Subsequently Dr William Fry of Stanford University, California, showed that laughter stimulated the heart rate, provided good cardio-vascular exercise and decreased the chances of respiratory infections. Dr Lee Berk of Loma Linda University Medical Centre, California, proved that laughter produced fewer arrhythmias, lowered blood pressure, lowered the levels of stress hormones, reduced the need for medication and ultimately resulted in fewer heart attacks.

But the physiological benefits are also mirrored by psychological benefits. Illness also has its psychological causes. Happier people tend to have fewer illnesses. Researchers have found that happiness or related states like hopefulness, optimism and contentment appear to reduce the risk or limit the severity of cardiovascular disease, pulmonary disease, diabetes, hypertension, colds and upper-respiratory infections. People who struggle with life are often more predisposed to these illnesses. According to a Dutch study of elderly patients published in 2004, those upbeat mental states referred to above reduced an individual's risk of death by 50% over a 9 year period. Also, doctors have known for years that clinical depression can worsen heart disease.

Laughter, however, makes it easier to handle life and its challenges, because it puts us intensely "in the moment", where we are for the moment not aware of our problems or they drop away. It's as if we literally drop them. You can probably remember a time when you've laughed and then things have somehow seemed different. We even say we've "laughed it off". Laughter puts us at our ease: people who laugh don't worry as much as those who don't. It helps us handle challenges because it relaxes us and gives us a better perspective: a period of laughter gives us the opportunity to look at things differently and defuses painful emotions. With practice, it develops joyfulness so that this precious experience is more present in one's everyday life. By acting silliness in groups and having a great laugh about it, it builds self-confidence and helps us drop our inhibitions. As seen earlier, it helps communication because laughter is an important social skill that keeps communication fun. It develops our innate sense of humour, helps us find more laughter in our lives and thus changes our perception of who we are for the better. What a simple gift we've got - if only we used it more!

Thus laughter training has widespread application. It has been successfully used, for example in corporate environments for team building, stress management, communication, employee engagement, innovation and creativity. It has been provided for seniors, children, parents, in relationship training, in tourism, with cancer self-help groups, associations dealing with depression, and in hospitals and other medical settings.

If we take corporate environments in more detail, it has been found that the use of laughter has a positive effect in reducing stress, which as you know is the number one cause of days off work. Also it is a major communication enhancer. It reduces the sense of conflict since it is hard to be in conflict with someone you are laughing with. It creates a sense of safety and people feel more open. It stimulates fun and we become fun to be with. We become more likeable. Criticism seems to collapse. Barriers are broken down and a sense of bondedness is created. People feel more self-confident.

Laughter is therefore not surprisingly used as part of team building and to foster creativity and innovation in teams. Laughter connects people. People who laugh together, work better together. Companies that want to improve EQ in their managers have found that the use of laughter has helped create better emotional balance. As laughter is a right-brain activity, it stimulates the creation of new ideas, especially through play. Finally it has a part to play in peak performance. It increases the supply of oxygen to the brain. As Dr Otto Warburgh, the 2 times Nobel Prize winner, found, the lack of oxygen was the root cause of illness. Laughter raises the oxygen supply to the body, enhancing its functions.

Thus laughter has a major role to play in the unfolding of our potential. If we want to boost our happiness levels, we can start by laughing - laughing for no reason, just for the sheer joy of it. Participants in laughter training have found that when they learn to simply laugh, they have tapped into a power within them, one they always had but didn't feel able to access. They then boost their bondedness with others through finding how laughing together brings them together. They feel more engaged and change their perspective, and feel able to create a more meaningful life. As we said, what a gift we have!

If you have been interested in this article, or wish to find out more about how laughter training can benefit your life and work, you can contact Akasha Lonsdale at Akasha@empoweringpartnership.com, by phone on +44(0)1249-813188 or visit their website, www.thelaughterschool.com

For further reading:

Martin Seligman: Authentic Happiness (2002) (see also: http://www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu/default.aspx) Laughter Yoga: www.laughteryoga.org

(c)The Empowering Partnership Ltd

About the Author

John is a very experienced personal, professional and spiritual life coach, with 16 years' organisational consulting experience with almost every business sector in the UK. He specialises in using Gestalt and other process interventions to bring about growth and change. He also delivers retreat centre personal development programmes and leads laughter workshops, with his wife Akasha. www.johnglostersmith.com