Laughter really is the best medicine

Jeffrey Briar may prove the old maxim that laughter is the best

medicine.

Briar has started the Laguna Laughter Club, a group that gathers

several mornings a week at the Heisler Park gazebo to practice

intentional laughter, a yoga exercise to relieve stress.

Fourteen people ranging from ages 17 to 80-plus gathered at the

gazebo at 7 a.m. last week to work out their laughter muscles.

Briar, a Laguna local, has studied and taught yoga since he was

18. He recently became interested in the art of laughter yoga, and

wanted to introduce it to Laguna Beach. He decided to start the club

after training in Switzerland with Dr. and Mrs. Madan Kataria, a

couple from India who invented Laughter Yoga.

“I concur with the Hindu philosophy that it is our nature to be

joyful and happy, and laughter is a really fast way to get there,”

Briar said.

The laughter yoga practices consists of breathing, stretching, and

laughing to release stress, become happier, as well as benefit other

parts of the body.

The club session starts with a series of stretches to loosen the

body. Breathing exercises follow, with some laughter connected to

different breathing forms. Next is the longest and most important

part of the session -- the laughter. Cool down breathing and

stretching exercises to finish the

session.

The laughing part starts with clapping and chanting

ho-ho-ha-ha-ha. The clap is a fingertip-to-fingertip, and

palm-to-palm clap, which stimulates trigger points in the hands.

Chanting “ho” and “ha” enthusiastically helps increase energy, Brair

says. “Ho-ho-ha-ha-ha” is chanted in between different kinds of

laughs.

There are three different categories of laughter, according to

Briar: Yogic, playful, and value-based. Yogic laughter is based on

different yoga poses; playful laughter encourages playfulness, which

helps get rid of shyness; and value-based laughter has special

meaning added to gestures while laughing.

Just learning about all the different kinds of laughing involved

in Laughter Yoga is enough to make one giggle.

Some of the different laughs used in the session are: the lion

laugh, greeting laugh, forgiveness laugh, un-payable bill laugh, Dr.

Jekyll and Mr. Hyde laugh, shaking hands laugh, and judgment laugh.

These laughs are conducted while performing different physical

motions and movements. For example, the judgment laugh is laughing

while shaking your finger at the person next to you.

Some laughs associated with their actions include high-pitched

laughs, or low-pitched “scary” laughs -- as with the Dr. Jekyll and

Mr. Hyde laugh -- and some are “normal” laughs. The reason for doing

more than one kind of laughter is to release the stress and tension

from different parts of your life and emotions, Briar says.

Laughter has become serious medicine, and doctors around the world

are studying its benefits.

Laughing and stretching have been proven to decrease blood

pressure, release endorphins and neuropeptides, decrease asthma

attacks, increase antibodies and serotonin, improves the immune

system, is an antidote for depression, and alleviates arthritic pain,

according to Briar.

A recent study done at the University of Graz, Austria by Dr.

Llona Papousek, has shown that laughter yoga is beneficial for stroke

patients because it lowers blood pressure. Another study by Thomas

Flindt used an Artificial Intelligence Respiratory

Psychophysiological Analysis System to test the difference in stress

levels before and after laughter yoga sessions. His study showed a

significant decrease in the stress level of the people who did

laughter yoga compared to the people who did not.

“It’s scientifically proven that if you put your body into the

movement of certain emotions, you will create all the physiological

affects of having that emotion,” Briar said. “So if you put your body

into happiness practices, you will have happiness. It may be hard to

believe, but just try it, and see how you feel.”

Briar first heard about laughter yoga from a student of his. For

the past four years, he has been teaching various classes at Irvine

Valley College including yoga, film appreciation, and creative

writing. He also teaches exercise classes for people who need to sit

or are in wheel chairs. He first got interested when he heard that

there were hundreds of people in India participating in laughter

yoga.

“One of my students told me there were these classes in India

where, in a park, 200 people laughed for an hour,” Briar said, “And

the neighbors didn’t really like it because they were being woken up

at six in the morning.

“Another student told me there was a documentary on the laughing

clubs of India. I found this documentary, it was called Laughter

Yoga, and I did a web search, and I found www.laughteryoga.org.

“I saw there were some training sessions, and workshops, so I

decided I wanted to learn this work.”

The Katarias, who invented laughter yoga, hold training sessions

all over the world. Briar wanted to attend one of these, so in April,

he went to Switzerland for a training session with the creators of

Laughter Yoga, Dr. Madan Kataria, and Mrs. Kataria. Briar also

trained with a man in Los Angeles who had trained with Dr. Kataria as

well.

During his training session with Dr. Kataria, Briar was struck by

two things he noticed about the variety of international people

training to become laughter yoga instructors.

“On the third day, all the prejudices between everyone

disappeared,” Briar said. “The Hebrew people from the Middle East

loved the Muslim people from the Middle East.

“On the fifth day, we got in touch with sadness and there was a

woman who asked if we would be sad with her, so we all started

crying, and then, it turned into laughter. It wasn’t like we forced

it, it was just beautiful.

“When you allow yourself to get into the experience of your

emotions, whatever the emotion is, it can evolve into what is our

nature, which is to be joyful and happy, and you release that energy,

and one way we release energy is through laughter.”

The Katarias have created an international network of laughter

yoga clubs. These clubs exist in many different countries around the

world from Iceland, to Egypt to Hong Kong, and many places in

between.

Briar is not just a yoga teacher and laughter yoga teacher. He is

also an accomplished pianist, actor, and composer. He has accompanied

many theatrical performances, and performed in chamber music

ensembles, theater orchestras, and solo concerts throughout Europe

and North America.

The Laguna Laughter Club meets every Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday

at 7 a.m. at the Heisler Park Gazebo. Information: (949) 376-1939