They say laughter is the best medicine, and laughter yoga enthusiasts around the world seem to agree.
Combining breathing exercises, light stretches, and deliberately silly movements, the practice forces participants to laugh - and according to experts, there are real health benefits.
Dr. Santosh Sahi, a seasoned medical professional and certified Laughter Yoga trainer, leads sessions in India's iconic Lodhi Gardens in Delhi. Participants giggle in a childlike manner, stretch and roar like lions, and even greet each other with the traditional Indian 'Namaste’ accompanied by laughter.
"Laughter gives a physical, mental, social and spiritual binding,” said Sahi.
Laughter yoga first emerged in India in the 1990s. In 1995, Dr Madan Kataria, a physician in Mumbai, started the first daily laughter club in a park as a way to combat stress. Within a month, the club grew from a handful of participants to more than 150.
"Our brain cannot differentiate between real laughter, even if it is simulated laughter, even if you laugh for the sake of laughing, you are still getting the same health benefits. And the yoga part of laughter yoga is combining breathing exercises with laughter exercises that bring more oxygen to our body and brain and make us feel more healthy," said Kataria.
The exercises focus on activating the diaphragm, incorporating yogic breathing, light stretches, and intentionally playful sounds and movements. “So there is no need for jokes, no comedy, no humour, we don’t use this. We laugh without any reason. And you know, if we start looking for a reason, we will hardly find any reason to laugh," said Sahi.
Beyond stress relief, laughter may also benefit the heart. Dr Michael Miller, Professor of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, explained: "We know that there is an interaction between laughter and chemicals that are released from your brain to your blood vessels to cause them to expand."
"And what that also does is it could have effects on reducing inflammation, improving cholesterol, reducing blood clots from forming,” he added.
Miller began studying laughter in the 1990s. Showing funny movies to study participants, he found that laughter produces endorphins in the brain that promote beneficial chemicals in the blood vessels.
Nitric oxide, for example, causes blood vessels to dilate, which lowers blood pressure, inflammation and cholesterol. The combination reduces the risk for a heart attack, he said, and the endorphins are natural pain killers.
“We know that when one has a heart attack, it's a combination of cholesterol plaque as well as blood clot formation. So for these reasons, we have good reason to believe, certainly indirectly, that having a good laugh and having a positive outlook would reduce cardiovascular disease,” said Miller.
For participants like Manwar Singh Rawat, a retired government officer attending weekend sessions in Lodhi Gardens, laughter yoga is as social as it is therapeutic.
"When I do laughter yoga, I get connected to people socially. When I connect with people socially, the mental stress goes down. Other people also inspire us to keep doing this practice. Everyone leaves energised," he said.
Laughter Yoga International, Kataria’s organisation, also runs virtual sessions, allowing people from all across the globe to laugh together in real time.
"Life is serious. Death is serious. There is so much seriousness in this world. Now the time has come, we should take laughter seriously, ha ha ha ha ha," Kataria laughed.