The pursuit of joy and laughter can redefine state of mind and body chemistry. Anne Dempsey reports
Is laughter the best medicine? GP Medan Kataria is convinced, and is in Ireland to promote his laughter clubs which now have a worldwide membership of 125,000 happy campers.
It all began in his surgery in Bombay in 1995. "My patients were grumpy, complaining. I realised that many of their problems were due to sadness and depression.
"Of course, there is organic disease, but you can overemphasise that element. I would divide people's unhappiness into 50 per cent physical ailments and 50 per cent psychological problems."
He was less than ecstatic himself at the time. "I was stressed out and didn't laugh a lot. My childhood in the country was very happy and bubbly, but when I came to Bombay, I became ambitious, struggled to make money, got stressed and began fooling around with people to help myself.
"So with each patient, I would smile, make eye and physical contact. I established a rapport so that each felt comfortable and safe, and then I would play. I had a computer chip on my desk which smiled when you pressed it.
"Visiting my hospital patients, I would come into the room and look in the wardrobe saying 'where's my patient?', and they would be in bed laughing 'I'm here, doctor'. "
In researching an article on the benefits of laughter, Kataria came across a body of research which confirmed his approach. US writer Norman Cousins who had been diagnosed with ankylosing spondylitis, a degenerative tissue disease, found that watching Marx Brothers comedies reduced his pain and helped him sleep.
He had sought opportunities to laugh more, and, amazingly, began to heal, making an against-all-odds recovery. Cousins subsequently funded studies into laughter by Dr Lee S Berk, associate director at the Centre for Neuroimmunology at Loma Linda University, south California.
The pilot study took blood samples as the subjects watched humorous videos to measure the impact of mirth on their neuro-endocrine system. Berk's work confirmed humour can heal by reducing blood hormone stress levels and strengthening immune function.
Back in Bombay Kataria's article caused a stir. "I decided to start a laughter club, I went into the park in Bombay one morning and asked people to laugh with me. Most walked on. I started with five people standing round telling jokes. By the weekend we had 55.
"When the jokes ran out I suggested we continue laughing as a form of exercise not in response to humour. We began laughing for the sake of it, and within 30 seconds everyone was laughing genuinely. It is so easy to laugh in a group."
The laughter movement grew. Soon there were 1,500 laughter clubs in India, and Kataria was invited to run laughter workshops in America and Europe.
Today his non-profit-making clubs are worldwide, and he earns his living by training laughter leaders. His workshops use deep breathing, movement, dance, games, jokes. And tears.
"Sadness and laughter go hand in hand. You can't be happy if you can't get in touch with your sadness. There can be crying at our workshops, people say what they want. We don't probe, we just listen."
Co-ordinating his work in Ireland is Mary Mitchell, a complementary therapist who runs wellness, stop smoking and laughter workshops and who recently opened a holistic centre in Donegal. She attended her first Kataria workshop in 2001.
"I felt I needed more laughter in my own life, 2001 had been a very sad year. I had had a hysterectomy, my mother died. The workshop was absolutely wonderful. We had fun, playfulness, I never laughed so much in my life and came home feeling brilliant. Laughter gives us a kind of inner massage, and the stretching and deep breathing also contribute to well being," she says.
Kataria distinguishes between happiness and joy. "Happiness is conditional to getting what you want, but when you get it, you can want more, so happiness is continually out there, unreachable.
"Joyfulness is unconditional and less dependent on what is going on in your life. You decide to have fun, to laugh, and you feel better because you have redefined your state of mind, your body chemistry has changed, you usually feel more creative, can see and deal with problems differently. Life is neutral, meaningless, we personalise it, 'life is good, life is bad', we add the feeling.
"Children laugh 400 times a day. When we grow up we laugh less and less, we have responsibilities, we are disciplined, insecure. By adulthood, we are laughing only 10 to 15 times a day, 385 times are gone, because now we think we need reasons to laugh while children laugh out of playfulness."
Physically, he says, laughter leads to belly breathing, similar to yogic breathing, thereby moving the body into parasympathetic mode which cools the nervous system. Today as international scientific research continues into the effects of laughter on disease, Kataria is developing his work into coaching people to deal more joyfully with life's problems. "I am using laughter as a tool to understand life and to contribute to world peace. We need a world revolution using laughter not just as enjoyment for yourself but to help you live with the people you live with."
A laughter workshop begins in Dublin on July 12th, for details contact 1800 946 466.
MIRTH: great medicine
"As a child, I found it easy to laugh and always appreciated the humour in life," says Brenda Behan, a social worker who cares for people with physical and sensory disabilities in Dublin.
Through her stress management studies, she knew of the positive effects of laughter on the immune system, and more recently studied dance and movement for her own self-expression. When she heard about Mary Mitchell's two-day laughter workshop, she was immediately interested.
"I found it very relaxing and felt the benefit physically and emotionally and knew I could apply it in my work. But I would stress that using laughter professionally is not about being trivial, inappropriate or making light of a situation. People may be ill, dealing with loss, so it is important to be careful and respectful.
"On the other hand, I find I am not afraid to be happy and cheerful when that seems right, lifting the spirits, being playful and sharing. I use what I've learnt in group work as an icebreaker, in working with young people who can find new situations quite daunting.
"Many of the people I work with are the butt of jokes so helping them to find their own laughter is useful. Fun and laughter have a lot to offer people in the caring profession which can be quite heavy. I see it as a resource. Today I'm happier too, more positive and when I look at life, the glass is half-full."
For more information on laughter clubs/workshops, contact Mary Mitchell at 1800 946 466 or log on to www.laughteryogaireland.org/www.laughteryoga.org