Dr. Kataria’s Laughter Yoga Diary

Did you know that I used to be a stage actor for about 9 years during my college days. I think actor and doctor combination has worked wonders for spreading Laughter Clubs ha ha ha. In the month of August 2007 I was invited to do a laughter yoga seminar with an actors academy in Mumbai.

There were about 80 aspiring actors and actresses who attended the session. After the session Laughter Yoga has become part of their curriculum. I have some insights about how laughter yoga can help public speakers, actors, singers and other performing artists to overcome stage fright, and help them communicate and perform to the maximum.

Research has proved a well established link between the body and mind. It has been found that the state of mind, whether positive or negative, is mirrored in a corresponding bodily expression or ‘body behavior’. Bodily enacting of any emotional behavior triggers a similar change in the state of mind.

Dr. Dale Anderson (Minnesota USA) tells of an American actor who did tragic roles for so long that she went into a depression with classical physical symptoms. She turned to her doctors, but after extensive physical testing she was declared physically healthy. After taking advice from psychologists the doctors advised her to stop playing tragic roles and turn to comedy. She followed their advice and her symptoms and depression disappeared.

These facts can form the basis of helping actors, public speakers and other stage artists who sometimes are victims of their own profession. Their biggest fear is stage and camera fright and lack of self confidence. Laughter yoga has the ability to overcome these negative emotions and give them a sense of well being and help them to excel in their performance. It helps to alleviate nervousness and shyness thereby improving upon their talents.

As laughter yoga effectively combines yogic breathing with laughter exercises and lays emphasis on diaphragmatic breathing, it enhances the supply of oxygen and helps relieve symptoms of stress and anxiety. All performing artists need a good breathing capacity for rendition of dialogues and voice intonations. Laughter yoga helps to develop deep breathing techniques thus helping them to relax and overcome any negative feelings.
There is a lot of similarity between actors and Laughter Yoga members. Both learn to enact emotions and fake them. The exception being that in Laughter Yoga ‘fake’ laughter turns into ‘real’ and contagious laughter after some time and generates a state of total well being.

There are some distinct advantages of being a laughter club member:

LY members learn to laugh in order to be healthy. Health is a priority and they are totally committed to doing the laughter exercises. Actors on the other hand are trained to acquire skills for performance. Health is not their main concern. They are doing it just for a living.

Laughter members are not being judged. They are free from anxiety of performance. Actors suffer from the stress of being judged all the time as their performance is based on the appreciation of others.

Laughter Yoga members are motivated by a feeling of well being whereas performers are motivated by the audience and their judgments.