- I actually had no idea what it was gonna be.
- 45 minutes of fake laughing.
(laughing)
- Laughter is like a 10 speed bicycle.
Ho, ho, ha, ha, ha.
- Is this really good for your health,
or is this just hype?
(laughing)
Hi, I'm Crystal.
Have you every heard of laughter yoga?
Neither had I.
So laughter yoga is something that I came across
while searching the Internet for tips and tricks
on how to be a healthier me.
(ding)
From what I could tell, there's no actual yoga involved.
(buzzer)
It's just like a bunch of people standing around
in a room laughing.
(laughing)
(ticking)
But supposedly, it can do things
like help prevent heart disease, fight depression,
relieve stress, boost immunity,
and generally just make you
a healthier, happier, more positive person.
In fact, there are over 5,000 laughter clubs
across the world.
But here's the thing.
I wanna know if these claims are actually true.
Does laughter yoga offer legitimate health benefits?
Or is it just another one of those wacky wellness trends
that you see all over Instagram?
So to figure it out, I decided
to invite a laughter yoga expert
to come teach a class right here at Buzzfeed.
- Welcome, welcome, so come on in.
Don't be shy.
My name is Sebastian Gendry.
I am a laughter consultant.
I help professionals and entrepreneurs realign
with their magic mojo and a meaningful life,
having fun, making a difference.
So today I'm going to take you through a laughter yoga class
and show you what this can do for you in your life
and how it can create a whole lot of upward spirals
of positivity and up level your life.
At the American School of Laughter Yoga,
what we teach is the art
of combining multiple aspects of mirth.
This is intentional laughter, it's humor,
it's singing, it's dancing,
it's a whole range of joyful activities infused
with the essence of childlike playfulness.
Hands on your knees.
Inhale come up.
As you exhale, say, "Yes!"
- [In Unison] Yes!
- Excellent, but not like that.
Inhale, come up.
Now look at someone, make eye contact and say, "Yes!"
- [In Unison] Yes!
- Authenticity, curiosity, enthusiasm,
trust in people and faith in life.
Aside from that, it's really a universal tool
that we all have access to to feel better.
We are social animals, so we are going
to engage and connect quite a lot.
And by giving to others the best of ourself,
then we're going to give that
to ourselves in the first place
and you'll see the magic that this leads to.
In essence, it starts with a concept.
You can choose to laugh,
which means you don't need anything.
You don't need any particular equipment,
you don't need any particular abilities,
you just need yourself and willingness
to emote the best of who you are because you can.
And we start with intentional laughter.
What is intentional laughter?
Well it is not spontaneous laughter, meaning it's a choice.
We're going to not laugh as a response to something funny,
but rather as a choice because we can.
I invite you to laugh now for 20 seconds
with the following idea, I don't know why I'm laughing.
Ready? Go.
(laughing)
(applause)
Nobody really knows who studied laughter yoga,
know where and when.
What we do know is that it came from India
at some point in the 20th century
and that it took off on the world level
in the late 90s due to work of an Indian medical doctor
who put himself completely behind it.
Index on your thumbs, close your mouth, stretch your smile.
Now look at someone before you exhale
and then exhale.
And as a word, allow someone to witness you smile
as you witness they are.
This is called intimacy, into me you see.
Vulnerability.
Vulnerability's not a weakness, it's a strength.
So how did I come across laughter yoga?
I was both blessed and cursed
to be very successful very young.
20 years ago I was a corporate Jedi
and a very successful entrepreneur
running my own multimillion dollar business.
And it was very confusing to me, because on one hand,
I had everything I thought I needed to have to be happy
and on the other I felt completely empty inside.
I was sick on a regular basis, sore throat,
upper chest infection, pain everywhere, couldn't sleep well.
I was addicted to stress, which is a different way of saying
that I was in a bad mood most of the time,
borderline depressive, and I wasn't even 30.
And the single most rewarding, healing, and fun thing I did
on my healing journey was attend a laughter yoga workshop.
On day one, I felt refreshed, energized,
connected on a deeper level, much deeper level
than I was used to with the other participants
and I didn't even know them.
Here's a tip you can use right now,
meaning today, in your work.
It's the power of praise.
How many compliments have you received today,
this week, this month, this year?
And before you say anything, let's agree
that the answer will always be not enough.
The impact I saw this thing having on people around me
was like a miracle cure.
I fell in love this thing and my passion shaped itself
into a vessel into which I poured my heart and soul.
I wanted to share this with the whole world,
it was so delightful and so impactful.
And likewise, how many compliments have you given,
as of today, this week, this month, this year?
Not enough.
This is a very easy way to break the cycle of negativity
and come back to present moment awareness
and ask yourself, what do I want like here and now,
and do that with a positive attitude.
I feel good!
Yes! - [In Unison] Yes!
- I'm really glad you guys all came to this.
- [In Unison] Yes!
- We can do this!
- [In Unison] Yes!
- And the whole process of the class is
to get people out of head's space.
So it doesn't matter where they come from.
I've been teaching every year for the past decade,
between three and six continents every year
and I have seen humanity give the best of itself.
This one is a bit more personal.
Just a tad.
It's called, "What would you like to hear?"
Works like this.
The one who starts is gonna start with their first name,
so I'm Sebastian, and then share a really short sentence
in the second person that they would like to hear.
It's not about living or dying,
it's not about how many years you can add to your life,
but how much life you can add to your years.
Living your purpose is supposed to be fun
and it can be.
Let's go back to our scale from one to 10.
Has anything changed?
- My scale was multifaceted
and it went up like a whole point.
(laughing)
(applause)
- What does this mean to you?
- I think it means that I can return
to this place whenever I'm lower on the scale.
- At the beginning I was already very high up on my scale
because I was already coming into this day feeling
really good that all of you guys had showed up
to this class and wanted to take it.
And now I'm actually a little bit above where my scale ended
which makes me feel really good
because it means that the scale can actually be taller
than I thought it could be.
- Wow. (applause)
What really drives me behind this is to move the world
to wellness through the magic of laughter
so that we can all live not just in harmony,
but also in melody.
It's easier than you think.
To paraphrase in conclusion, to paraphrase John Lennon,
"you may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one.
"And I hope someday you'll join us
"and the world will be as one."
(applause)
- So the class was really fun and it seemed totally legit.
But after all of this, I still wanted
to talk to a medical professional
to find out what was really going on here.
My first question is, have you ever heard of laughter yoga?
- I have heard of laughter yoga
and actually as I'm even saying that, it's making me smile.
(laughing)
- I think that's the point, right?
- Right?
I myself have never taken a laughter yoga class,
but I've taken many different types of yoga classes
over the years.
This one's a little less conventional.
- Yes.
Apparently there are all these health benefits
to laughter yoga.
I wanna say it sounds too good to be true,
but there must be something going on in your brain
when you're laughing so much.
- So laughter has a multitude of physical effects
that are beneficial as well as psychological effects
that are beneficial.
And we see things like reduction of cortisol levels,
we might even see lowered blood pressure.
We see immune system functioning enhance with laughter
and psychologically, we see the release
of feel-good chemicals in the brain
that promote wellbeing and happiness.
- That's fascinating. - Yeah.
And we do know that when we just hold a smile
for a certain amount of time,
that ultimately it does active those regions of the brain,
so we have quite a bit of research that supports
just smiling can start to elicit humorous feelings.
- Is that kinda the same thing
with like real laughter verses fake laughter?
Can your brain tell the difference?
- This is the piece that's interesting, right?
If I walk into a room
and I see somebody's genuinely laughing,
that laughter is more likely to be contagious for me
and I'm likely to feel humorous and happy.
If I walk into a room and people are fake laughing,
my brain is very, very sensitive
and it's not likely to elicit the same feel-good benefits.
However, if I would then myself force laughter
and a smile, it is likely to ultimately lead
to various regions of the brain getting activated.
So starting off with fake laughter
and just engaging in some of those movements
is going to activate those regions of the brain.
- Then all of these claims about laughter yoga,
the things about how it can relieve stress
and lower your blood pressure, that's all true?
- It's likely to have some mood-enhancing benefits.
I wouldn't see it as the primary intervention,
I would say that it would be one piece
of a larger equation, but if the person wanted
to find a way to feel a little more humorous
and feel a quick boost in their mood, sure,
I'd be open to recommending that.
The more connected we are to people
and experiencing emotions with them, the happier we are.
We're designed for connection.
We're wired to be close to people
and laughter is a key emotion that does that.
- So after talking to an expert,
taking a laughter yoga class,
and talking to a psychologist about what's really going on
in our brains when we laugh, my verdict is...
Health!
Yeah, it seems like laughter yoga
may offer some legitimate health benefits.
And aside from that, it was just really fun.
I highly recommend you do it. (laughs)
Thank you guys so much for watching
and if there are any other weird and wacky wellness trends
that you want me investigate or possibly debunk,
let me know in the comments below.
(upbeat music)