" Through all my projects I am leading
people back to their natural vitality that is
full of laughter, creativity and life...shedding
joy as I go"
You've Got To Be Kidding
Michele Caskey
Artist + Laughter Coach
If you knew me eight years ago you would know I was an aspiring
comedienne and constantly working on jokes, trying to find the
punch line. Laughter had begun to invade my every day existence
and I was a little obsessed with making people laugh. I was
laughing with friends, co-workers, and even the random person
on the treadmill next to me at the gym. I noticed something
interesting about people when they were laughing…they
immediately became more alive, vital and engaged. Long held
memories were triggered, they blushed, they looked me in the eye
and I started wondering what was happening inside of them
specifically when they laughed. Some quick research led me to
discover the practice of Laughter Yoga and Laughing For No
Reason launched by Dr. Kataria in 1992. I thought “This is
FANTASTIC” since as a fledgling comic I still wasn’t particularly
good at getting anyone to laugh for a reason. I was hilarious over
a glass of wine with girlfriends but on stage I met a lot of
uncomfortable and terrifying NOT laughing. I felt sure that Dr.
Kataria’s method could help me and made plans to attend the
next Laughter Yoga Leader training offered in the USA.
In preparing for the class I read Dr. Kataria’s book Laugh for No
Reason. The book describes some basic laughter exercises
practiced around the world. Try as I might I just couldn’t picture it
and started to worry that maybe I would not be able to do this.
Maybe I wouldn’t be good at making anyone laugh for a reason or
for NO reason either. The more I read the more I thought “you’ve
got to be kidding”… I just couldn’t see how this was all possible let
alone how it could lead to healing or world peace. With a certain
amount of anxiety and doubt I set out to be trained as a Laughter
Yoga Leader.
What was immediately clear was that I had a lot of pent up
laughing inside of me. Once I uncorked my lid laughter flowed out
of me like a fountain. It was ridiculous and fabulous. I learned
about the positive effects laughter has on the body and mind and
why there are scientists who believe it could be a missing link to
curing disease. It all made so much sense. Even though we
started laughing for no reason it quickly turned to what I would
consider real, authentic laughing. I found the laughter exercises
enormously amusing and I felt good, young and enthusiastic
about life in general.
I returned home energized and motivated to use laughter to help
my community thrive, which quickly lead to my first laughter club at
the Seattle Cancer Treatment and Wellness Center. My laughing
people were undergoing the rigors of chemotherapy and other
treatments in an effort to save their lives. This laughter club was
pretty serious business. They would come to the group
exhausted, worried and nauseous and after an hour they were
beaming, smiling, laughing and lifted. I was optimistically hopeful
that the laughing could cure their cancer but what was obvious to
the naked eye was that they each had a stronger lease on life
after an hour spent laughing like this. If the shift in seriously
stressed people was so obvious and relatively easy to achieve
then it was overwhelmingly exciting to consider the ramifications of
spreading this out into the community at large. I agreed with Dr. K
- this practice could seriously change the world. Wow!
I continued teaching laughter yoga, often to pretty serious people.
I moved to New Mexico and found myself laughing less and less in
my everyday life. I had almost entirely forgotten how to be silly
and had become downright sad by the time I enrolled in Dr.
Kataria’s advanced Laughter Yoga Teacher Training in
Albuquerque. From day one he encouraged us all to laugh for 20
minutes each morning FOR NO REASON, since obviously we
can’t teach what we don’t know. Ever since that very day I have
been getting up in the predawn darkness to laugh by myself. It is
perhaps the silliest thing I have ever done. I make quite a scene
there by myself, laughing at a crowing rooster, or a star falling
from the sky. I carry on as if something hysterical is
happening…all before 6am. This was months ago and I'm still at it.
Laughing in the dark, leads to laughing with my breakfast, leads
to laughing as I drive to work, leads to laughing at work, leads to
laughing every trouble and worry away….and so on and so on. I
have never felt so FANTASTIC and laugh at myself for never
doing this before.
Dr. Kataria has lead me back to my best self and I am so excited
to ripple waves of positive, enlightened energy out into the world
through my giggling. This experience has been REVOLUTIONARY
for me and I am actively sharing everything I've come to know
about the healing properties of laughter, now that I have become
reacquainted with my own innate silly ridiculousness.
Navigating the Territory Between
Wise and Wacky since 1998
Taking Silliness Seriously
Laughter
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