Laughter - The Third Portal
Our claim, which is hardly unique, is that everyone benefits from regular laughter. The guru of the Laughter movement is Dr. Madan Kataria, who is a Cardiologist from India. In the early 90’s he read a study that says laughter reduces blood pressure, which was an issue with his patients. So he started experimenting with inducing his patients to laugh regularly, and sure enough, their blood pressure went down.
Then he started laughter clubs, where people would get together in parks early in the morning and laugh. This has grown over the last 30 years until now there are Laughter clubs all over the world. And of course now most of it is done on Zoom.
We highly recommend joining the online Laughter clubs. It's always free, and it's the only online experience we can think of where you meet an even mix of people from every continent: Asia, North America, Africa, Europe, and Australia. Go to https://www.laughteryoga.org/international-laughter-club/
Once you get people to laugh, it’s easy to keep them laughing. I’m sure you’ve had the experience where you arrive at a party or a celebration of some kind, and everyone is laughing, but you don’t know why. You’re not in on the joke. But soon enough your body just spontaneously starts laughing in spite of yourself. You can’t help it.
The trick is getting things started, because none of us want to make a fool of ourselves. There are dozens of ways to do this, but one of the most consistently successful is the Clamshell technique. This works so well because you alternate laughing with 'hiding' (what you do when you close the clamshell.) Rachel Frank explains the protocol at 9:02 of this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNjY1hCS7RI&t=540s
The reason the Clamshell works is that it honors both shyness and boldness. It really works well on Zoom calls. As long as you feel shy, feel free to keep your arms up in front of your face. No one can see you, so you can’t be embarrassed. But then look for that little impulse where you find the courage to open your arms and laugh. Either keep laughing, or when you feel embarrassed again shut your arms.
As with all of the six portals, it's important to know when you want to laugh, and when you don't. Honor your impulses. The supreme fulfillment comes when you dare to fully feel ALL the Core Experiences your psyche welcomes– love, awe, laughter, gratitude, storytelling, music, art, etc. Very, very few people really do this. But your life transforms when you do.
