Before Laughter Yoga came into existence in 1995, humor therapy was very popular in hospitals as a tool for healing sick patients. The core philosophy of Laughter Yoga is - laugh for no reason. Many people think that we are against humor. This is not true. In this article, we would like to clarify the difference between laughter and humor.
What is the relationship between sense of humor and laughter?
Many people believe that one must have a good sense of humor in order to laugh. They believe that sense of humor is all about telling jokes, being funny and witty.
The definition of sense of humor is the ability to perceive, relate and experience a given situation in a funny and amusing way. In practice, not many people identify with a sense of humor. This is because it is a mental and intellectual phenomenon and varies from person to person; culture to culture.
At times, humor can be negative and can hurt someone, which is why it is very tricky to use humor in order to laugh. As a matter of fact, it sis not something we are born with. We acquire this skill as our mental abilities develop. But, what we are born with is the tremendous potential to laugh. A child can laugh 300 to 400 times in a day, without using humor. They laugh all the time while playing and their laughter comes from the body, not from the mind. In fact, children can't even tell jokes properly; they start laughing much before the punch line.
As the child starts growing, it is exposed to more and more information and laughter soon gets lost amidst conscious realities like self control, appropriate behavior, responsibility, fear and insecurity. One gets conditioned to social correctness and the childlike ability to laugh and play is misplaced.
Laughter Yoga Removes Barriers
To develop sense of humor one needs to remove the layers of inhibitions and mental blocks created by self, parents and society. In Laughter Yoga clubs we use childlike playfulness and several warming up exercises to move the body which helps to remove inhibition and shyness. Once these barriers are removed, the infinite potential to laugh unfolds automatically and sense of humor starts flowing.
Teaching a person who has lots of inhibition to develop a sense of humor is like flushing a drain blocked with rubble. Once you remove the rubble, water starts to flow. This is exactly what happens in Laughter Yoga clubs. It’s for this reason we are successful in making tens of thousands of people laugh in many countries all over the world.
People, who never cracked jokes, are now enjoying humor better than ever before. They are more playful and creative and see life in a much lighter way. Therefore, it is not always a sense of humor that leads to laughter, the reverse is also true.
Cause and Effect Relationship
Humor and laughter have a cause and effect relationship. For most people humor leads to laughter, but in Laughter Yoga clubs we use laughter as a physical discipline and the effect is development of sense of humor.
Laughter and humor make one unity and we cannot separate them. One can use humor in order to laugh or laugh in order to develop sense of humor. Therefore, if you don't have a sense of humor don't worry you have to laugh yourself silly, laugh for no reason, play like a child and you will see the sense of humor flowing.