Time flies when you are having fun, especially when the fun is shared with other amazing people. The last 5 days have been a tornado of exciting ideas, inspiration, and information. It ranged from conducting health screenings at Stanford, to brainstorming how to effectively revamp school nutrition, to attending a banquet for Association for India’s Development and ending the weekend as a certified laughter yoga leader. WOW! Who says you can’t change your life overnight?! Life just is and we are responsible for adding meaning to it. So how do all these different events of my week fit together? I have no idea. What I do know is that I can now laugh anywhere at any time and achieve a slew of benefits while doing it. I have found the missing piece of my puzzle.
In all my years of teaching yoga and working with health education there is one thing that I felt needed to be tackled before eating well and exercising and that is … drum roll please…. STRESS! It’s not rocket science but it does take a certain level of awareness to recognize our state of stress. If you live and work in America then you probably have chronic stress and are most likely accustomed to it. Can you run your stress away? Perhaps. But when you finish your run the stress comes back. Can you eat your stress away? Hmm… a whole chocolate cake or tub of ice cream might provide short term satisfaction but eventually leave you overweight and more stressed. Stress is a state of the mind… we are stressed because our minds are constantly analyzing, craving, judging, expecting, deciding, and so on. One way to make it shut up is through the age old technique of meditation. Alright, ready… set…meditate! Did it work? Unless you are a practiced mediator this technique probably doesn’t work too well and it takes a lot of time! Trust me… I spent 10 days in silence and still can’t tell my mind to shut up on demand. Alright now imagine some tickling your most ticklish spot… what happens? Within seconds you are on the floor rolling with laughter… AND you have forgotten whatever was on your mind. Even when you are done laughing and your mind kicks in again it is much calmer and clearer. This is the miracle technology I spent 2 days learning and practicing this weekend and it’s amazing!
How did I stumble upon laughter? Well, it’s funny how life works, but it is not coincidental. After reading the book God Winks I began to pay more attention of even the smallest events that happened in my daily activities and slowly they started making sense. One example is - making a wrong turn and getting lost on the freeway to arrive late to a meeting at which I run into an old childhood friend who happened to be leaving the same building at that very same time. Another is walking past a laughter club 6 years ago in Mumbai and storing it in the back of my brain to revisit one day. Over the years I have been drawn to laughter in some capacity and have even included it in my yoga classes. 6 years ago I also was given a book on Stress while working at a Homeopathic Pharmacy in Santa Monica, which too I stored in my brain to revisit one day. This year my inner child wanted out and my passion to impact the Diabetes and Obesity wanted to be manifested, and laughter was the key. In my initial search I came across Arya Pathria, a local teacher who had studied with Dr. Kataria in India. We met, we laughed and I was sent home with homework. I put my new skills to test asking people to laugh with me (video to come). Pathria ji introduced me to an email group of other laughers which eventually led to an email for training with Jeffrey Briar (laughter teacher in Laguna Beach). And 2 weeks later I was amongst 10 other inspiring people, laughing my heart out at absolutely nothing and feeling great! Hours after finishing the training I introduced the technique in my yoga class and we were speaking gibberish and laughing together! FUN FUN FUN! So what does this mean? Again, I have no idea. I do know that over the last couple of years a shift had taken place in me and around me where it no longer was appropriate to laugh and be playful and be a kid, because I am an adult.
Quite honestly I love being a kid and playing so why stop? Laughter yoga gives us permission to be a kid again and just laugh uncontrollably at absolutely nothing for the sake of having fun! Absurd huh? Ha ha… I can’t wait to take this technology out into the world and share it with friends, family, and anyone willing!
Quote of the week “Try hard. Fail fast. Move on”.
Stay tuned for a Laughter Club near you! I am looking for willing laughter support, if you are interested email me.
MettaLOVE and LAUGHTER
Ritu Riyat
