Laughter Yoga in Boulder

Have you ever laughed because you are out of toilet paper while sitting on the throne? Laughed because your visa bill is exponentially high? Laughed because you have a name and a birthplace? Laughed simply because you can?

Ellen Brown of Boulder encourages laughing at all of these situations, and more. On Monday, Brown, a certified professional Laughter Yoga leader, led a Laughter Yoga session at Grace Lutheran Church at 6:30 p.m.

Hold the phone—Laughter Yoga? What exactly is it?

“Laughter Yoga is a communal experience of letting down your guard and letting uncontrolled laughter come to you,” said Patrick Wilhelmy, freshman English major and one-time Laughter Yoga practitioner. “I felt this rumble, an authentic laugh, and I have no idea where it came from.”

In 1995, Dr. Kataria, a medical doctor from Mumbai, India, gathered a small band of people together and encouraged them to laugh for no reason. His wife, a yoga instructor, applied her yoga knowledge. Together they created what is known today, in 60 countries across the world, as Laughter Yoga.

Like its yoga counterpart, Laughter Yoga employs different exercises to bring relaxation and overall well-being to the individual. Rather than using complicated body poses, this unusual alternative uses giggling instead.

“The exercises are infectious,” said Char Campbell, Boulder resident and Laughter Yoga practitioner. She was referring to the explosive laughter that results from the exercises Brown leads.

In a beginning exercise, practitioners introduced themselves by first name and birthplace, and laughed as hard and long as they could about the silliness of an introduction. The entire session went on as such, and participants continued to laugh at everyday situations laid out by Brown.

As in yoga, the session ended with meditation, which eventually turned into six women lying on their backs, busting a gut. There was no other alternative; with Browns snorting, hooting and laughing, you’d have to be a Scrooge not to giggle along.

“The whole release of laughter boosts the immune system and makes you happy,” Brown said at the end of the session. “Laughing is responsible for weight loss and it exercises the internal organs.”

Brown wasn't the only one who acknowledged that laughing has beneficial properties.

“Stressing all the time gets the body run down,” Campbell said. “I think fun, play and laughter are crucial for a good quality of life.”

Even students who have never practiced Laughter Yoga say that it sounds intriguing.

“Laughing is fun and yoga is good to relax the body,” said Amanda Engen, a junior secondary education and English major. “I’d be interested in giving it a try. [Laughing] is a great way to release stress.”

If people who have practiced it love it, and students who have never even heard of it are ready to give it a try, why were there a mere total of six individuals, who made face at Monday’s session?

“People say that they are going to come, but school and work get in the way and they don’t show up,” Brown said after the session. “I used to do this every week, but people don’t commit.”

Brown is ready to recruit Boulderites to jump on the Laughter Yoga train. As a perk, she doesn’t charge for her half-hour sessions, but gladly accepts donations. Brown said she does not want to charge for happiness.

“I wasn’t in a good mood when I came [the first time], but I definitely was when I left, so it works,” Campbell said. “People of Boulder, come and play!”

To contact Ellen Brown, call her at 303-875-8699.

Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Jacqueline Krieger at Jacqueline.krieger@colorado.edu