Risatel Mundo Risas

Friday, April 18, 2008

(How To) Laugh On The Phone!




In the past decade, Laughter Yoga has spread throughout the world via laughter clubs, with groups meeting and laughing together in parks and many other venues. Laughter Yoga is now set to spread through a different medium: telephone wire... Few Laughter Clubs in the West meet everyday. Most meet only once a week, sometimes only once a month. I found that laughing on the phone is easy and can be done every day! Here is how.

Following my learning and experiences at the Byron Bay and Kerala Laughter Yoga Spiritual retreats, I have found it increasingly easy to laugh every day on my own. I use a combination of breathing with laughter, followed by free laughter, which, once I start, just comes easily as I relax my body.

My work as a lawyer regularly requires me to be in a serious frame of mind for hours. I therefore enjoy any excuse to laugh as a break from my serious work.

While laughing one morning, it occurred to me that an easy way of enjoying laughter with others would be to call some of my laughter club friends over the phone and we could have a good laugh together.

I tried it out and after a quick chat we just both started laughing. It was just as infectious as being together in a group laughing, and left both of us feeling happy. It was as good as being at laughter club, without having to leave home. I also had several laughter sessions with Dr. Kataria, and other members of the Laughter Yoga Team, while we were talking on Skype about matters relating laughter yoga international.

This new path to Laughter, will provide Laughter lovers with another channel to allow them to Laugh Without a Reason. We encourage people to enjoy Laughter Sessions with other Laughter lovers, the world over, while being seated at home or in the office, through the phone or the internet. Several people around the world are reporting very successful experiences to us about laughing on the phone and we would like to promote this idea. Many do not have a local laughter club that they can visit to laugh to their heart´s content every day. We are convinced that telephone laughter will be a great way to consolidate our worldwide laughter movement. In the future we can have a helpline for those who want to laugh just to feel good.

How it works

Here is how it works: call a friend and make sure that both of you have the willingness to laugh. Then, after a quick hello or a brief conversation connecting you with each other, just agree to start laughing at the same time as you would in laughter club. Then, just laugh. It is that simple. As in a regular laughter session, you can come up with any type of "phone" laughter exercises to create an excuse to laugh (e.g. gradient laughter, gibberish talking followed by laughter, talking a deep breath and holding the breath followed by laughter as you breathe out, express surprise laughing at receiving an imaginary very high bill, etc.). Your own creativity is the limit.

(...)

Many have found that http://www.skype.com/ was very useful (this is free internet telephony - although it only works if you have a high speed internet connection). They create a special "laughter" ID on skype, so that everybody knows that when they are online, they are looking for other people to laugh with.

by Jackie Curran, Australia

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