Laughter Yoga
by Marian Rein
Laughter yoga was developed in India 15 years ago by a physician, Dr. Madan Kataria and his wife, Madhuri. Dr. Kataria became interested in research that was being conducted on the physical benefits of hearty and sustained laughter (laughing for 10 minutes or more). The positive results of the research led him to begin a laughter club to encourage people to laugh more for their health. They began telling jokes to each other every day, but after a few weeks the jokes began to deteriorate.
Dr. Kataria could see that the laughter was good for people, but jokes were not going to work on a long-term basis. So he experimented with the idea of laughing without jokes or humor. He and his wife developed a set of playful laughter exercises and added deep breathing exercises from yoga (pranayama), and the result was laughter yoga. He experimented with a group of people, and they loved it. It gradually spread to 65 countries. And there are now more than 3,000 laughter clubs in India.
Marlene Chertok is a registered nurse who, in 2003, watched a documentary about the laughter clubs of India. She was recovering from breast cancer treatments and was exploring ways of impacting her own healing. She changed her diet, began meditating, doing qigong and yoga.
Chertok was already aware of the research showing the benefits of positive emotions on healing, and that sustained hearty laughter could reduce stress cortisol levels, release endorphins and benefit the immune system. She was also asthmatic and was interested in ways to improve her breathing. Laughter yoga is as much about breathing as it is about the laughter.
Chertok has been free of cancer for seven and a half years and her asthma is under control — she has been off of medication and not needed an inhaler in two years (she does like to emphasize that she keeps an emergency inhaler on hand). She is breathing better than she has in years.
According to Chertok, “Laughter clubs are about more than the laughter. They provide a place for people to interact and build social connections. I think people are really hungry for this. For me, besides the laughter, the laughter club was about building a community of positive-minded people. We have become a community, and that has been as healing as the laughter!
“People go to the doctor and think that just taking a pill or getting a treatment will make them better. All of that has a place and I certainly use medicine myself, but healing requires that people get involved in the process themselves. Laughing every day, whether at a laughter club or not, can be one of the best things you can do for your health. It is cheap, easy to do and no doctor will object to a patient laughing more,” she said.
“People sometimes ask how can I laugh with so much negative stuff happening in the world? As Dr. Kataria has said, ‘how is not laughing going to help?’
“When I first started doing laughter yoga, I could not laugh freely. I had lost my own ability to laugh heartily. The laughter club was an experiment for me to find my own laughter again. It was like slowly pulling the cork out of a bottle. Now, people tell me how my laughter gets everyone else going. They don’t realize how hard I worked to find that place again,” Chertok laughed.
“My health has improved, my breathing is better, and my attitude about life is much more positive. I laugh freely now — it is very liberating. It has been one of the best things I have ever done for myself. I continue to do it for my own health as well as that of others. Laughter is the best medicine,” she chuckled.
In 2004, Chertok trained with Dr. Madan Kataria and became a certified laughter yoga leader. And in April 2010, she was certified as a laughter yoga teacher. In 2008 Dr Kataria honored Chertok with the Laughter Yoga ambassador award, recognizing her work with laughter yoga. Her story has been featured on Dr. Kataria’s website — laughteryoga.org — and she has a blog on Dr Kataria’s website. Chertok recently started her own website: www.laughteryogastlouis.net.
The St. Louis Laughter Club started with a small group of other breast cancer survivors who have gathered together every week for the last five and a half years. The group is open to anyone wanting to laugh to reduce stress, recover from illness or for health prevention — or just to get more laughter in their life.
“Attendance ranges from 15 to 25 people. We laugh with whoever shows up on Sunday. It has spread largely by word of mouth. Finding my own laughter again has been one of the best things I have done in my life,” Chertok concluded.
The St Louis Laughter Club meets every Sunday afternoon at 4:00 p.m. at Eliot Unitarian Chapel in Kirkwood. For information, contact Chertok at (314) 965-0656 or stlouislaughterlady@gmail.com.
Marlene Chertok loves sharing the laughter with groups and organizations in the community. She adapts it to different settings, ages and ability levels and is becoming a popular presenter. Contact her directly at stlouislaughterlady@gmail.com.