Laughter Yoga Offers Compassionate Cracking Up to Community

Dave Russell has an easy solution for anyone who is looking for a little more laughter in life through a yoga practice focused on cracking up.

This non-mood dependent, non-humor dependent practice of yoga also is non-targeted, directly tying in with the concept of compassionate laughter -- laughter at no one’s expense.

“It doesn’t focus as much on humor as it does laughter,” Russell of Swissvale said.

For the last six years, he has been spreading the relatively new yoga concept during classes he teaches at the First Unitarian Church in Shadyside on Morewood Avenue. A friend in Bethel Park started a “laughter club.” After he experienced a discussion on the topic, he dove in.

“I love to laugh and I want more laughter in my life, so I asked her where she had gotten her training and the first one I went to was with the World Laughter Tour,” Russell said. “About three years ago I went through a second training with the American School of Laughter Yoga.”

Based on the work of Madan Kataria, who popularized the ancient Indian form of “Hasya” yoga in the United States, which means laughter in Sanskrit, Russell also has drawn from his own everyday work in teaching compassionate communication to batterers.

He has worked in the field of domestic violence for more than 35 years. He said he always looks forward to his classes at First Unitarian. 

“It’s one of the areas in my life where I look forward to socializing with others,” he said. “The most influential practices compared diet to sleep to nutrition, and socialization by far is the most influential thing that we do to influence quality of life and longevity. I quote that and I say, we believe in laughter yoga that laughter takes its legitimate place beside all of these other good practices.”

Some of the participants at the Thursday evening classes have been extremely loyal, some coming for three to four years.

“They look at it as part of their overall wellness,” he said.

During any given laughter yoga session, the group first is told that there is no requirement for laughter, which thus gives them more permission to let go and allow themselves to do just that.

“And on the other hand, you don’t need to apologize if you do become playful and join in,” Russell said. “That’s what we are promoting - we are not teaching people how to laugh. We are promoting playfulness as a relaxation technique and it’s excellent.”

Those in the class then participate in a series of exercises. One might be an imaginary trip to Kennywood. The group lines up, makes the noises of a rollercoaster clinking up a hill, and once they are falling to the other side - the cracking up begins.

In another exercise, the participants put both hands on the sides of their faces, look at a partner and scream “hot dog!” as loud as they can. It’s hard not to laugh at that, Russell said.

“They are little, everyday activities we connect with laughter,” he said. “We use simulated laughter as opposed to stimulated laughter. Jokes stimulate laughter, because there is the set up and the punchline but jokes are too conditional to give us the kind of laughter we are after in laughter yoga. And most importantly, we don’t use jokes because we don’t want anyone to be offended -- we want people to be relaxed.”

During the “mental floss” exercise, participants imagine string going in between each ear, gesturing up and down with their hands. Each session lasts about 45 minutes.

Russell said since beginning to practice laughter yoga, he has noticed changes within his own emotional life.

“I believe since I started practicing this that I have more access to all of my emotions in general,” he said. “Other people wouldn’t think this is positive but I do - I cry more easily. I have more access to my feelings and accept all of my feelings more readily.”

Laughter yoga is held each first and third Thursday of the month at 7 p.m. at the First Unitarian Church, 605 Morewood Ave. Russell also gives presentations and lectures on the topic of laughter yoga and compassionate communication to groups of all kinds. For more information call 412-271-7660.