Laughter Yoga - No no, no no no!! I won't be going back to Laughter Yoga any time soon. You know that song by the Eagles - Hotel California? Specifically the line "you can check in any time you like, but you can never leave?"
I was a little spooked, I'm not going to lie. First of all the setting was very weird - the group met in a very old section of a local hospital which seemed to be entirely empty except for us. One member of my group wandered empty halls going in circles for what felt like hours before finally finding the right room. The room was not a typical hospital meeting room - it was like walking into a 1930's Hollywood horror movie set - formal ornate couches and chairs, heavy draperies covering floor to ceiling windows, large empty fireplaces, gilded candelabra and enormous chandeliers.
We worked our way through a number of "laughter exercises" which consisted of acting out "laughing phrases" such as "electric shock laughter" and "animal poop laughter" while walking around the room making eye contact with other group members. I tried to "go with it" and thought I did pretty well but I'm telling you the fake laughter and peoples' faces seemed more maniacal than playful. Maybe I just wasn't in the right frame of mind...perhaps a different group might have been more comfortable for me...I don't know.
Thankfully I had two friends with me and we made it through a really strange and surreal hour and were safely back on the streets of London once again. I felt like I had escaped an asylum!! Perhaps I'll try it again someday, I'm not sure, but definitely not this group. I feel more inclined to go for "real laughs" with my friends, and by reading funny books and watching funny stuff on youtube and Netflix. I found "faking it" kind of tiring after a while.
It seemed a lot like this...
Would you try Laughing Yoga? Should I give it another try now that I know what to expect?
So you and two of your friends didn't laugh after? That would be hours of laughter for me.
ReplyDeleteI don't think I could try it. I would rather do it the old fashioned way as well with a glass of wine and a comedy movie or a friend :)
ReplyDeleteYour description of it all is what made me laugh. This is definitely one of those laugh when it's all over type of deals.
ReplyDeleteMaybe the point is to have laughs about such a weird experience. Your post definitely had me laughing. I'll keep my laughs by watching videos of cats stealing dog beds.
ReplyDeleteI have never heard of this. Sounds like an interesting exercise - working at losing your inhibitions?? Definitely not something I would do though. I'm ok with my inhibitions just as they are.
ReplyDelete"You can check out anytime you like... but you can never leave~" Agh! Now that song is stuck in my head! That does sound like a very bizarre place... I am great at faking smiles and laughter (thank you, PT job!), but as you said, sometimes the change from fake-smile to my-facial-muscles-hurt-and-this-whole-thing-is-ticking-me-off can be quite a shock to people. It goes from :D to >:| in half a second as soon as I walk out the door! But hey, life is about experiences... that's one not most people can say they've had!
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