In a world-first on Saturday 7 December, Australian laughter yogis will offer up a marathon 12-hours non-stop laughter yoga sessions online.
The laughter marathon is a public awareness raiser of social laughter clubs, the in-person neighbourhood hubs of joyfulness in which laughter yoga is practised, for free or a very small cost, facilitated by trained laughter leaders.
Since COVID brought about its lockdowns, there are online laughter clubs too, overcoming the tyranny of geographical distance.
How to join the Laughter Marathon
Whether you’re already a fan of laughter yoga or you’re curious about this form of yoga that has people laughing for wellbeing without jokes or humour, you can log on at any time during the 12 hours, for free, using this weblink.
What to expect in the Laughter Marathon
Between 8am and 8pm (AEDT), 24 certified laughter practitioners will run back-to-back 30-minute laughter sessions, presenting their favourite laughter and yoga breath exercises.
You log on, you turn your camera and sound on, and you follow the leader, laughing, clapping, chanting, stretching. You can choose to do laughter yoga, online, standing or seated.
Why the Laughter Marathon is happening
At the height of “COVID times”, laughter clubs went online to help sustain the mental wellbeing and connectedness of Australians. In another Laughter Yoga Australia initiative, our laughter community offered daily online sessions, every day of the week. (I anchored Sundays during those times).
Those online laughter clubs continue. Slowly in-person laughter clubs have come back and are growing. Did you know, for example, that 3 new clubs started in October on Queensland’s Western Downs—in Chinchilla, Tara and Miles?
Post-COVID, high levels of stress and anxiety remain, and social anxiety and social loneliness are rife.
When we do laughter exercises, the physical movement of the body helps to relax muscles. When we laugh, we are in the present moment. We get ‘time out’ from our worries, fears and anxieties. Science shows that the brain doesn’t differentiate between laughing at something funny and laughing because we can: it simply take the cue to help the body relax further and wind back the stresses of life.
What is Laughter Yoga
Laughter Yoga is a body-mind process, devised by a doctor in India nearly 30 years ago. This process enables us to laugh for an extended time as a physical act rather than an intellectual response to something that’s funny. You don’t even have to be in the mood.
There are many physical, mental and social health benefits, and truth in the saying that laughter is good medicine.
Laughter Marathon key info
- Saturday 7 December 2024
- 8am-8pm Australian Eastern Daylight Time
- Log on to bit.ly/3O44V1b
- Big thanks to Merv Neal, Laughter Yoga Australia, for organising.
The Happydemic’s HeatherJoy Campbell is Queensland’s lead trainer and laughter yoga professional. She is also global ambassador for Laughter Yoga International. HeatherJoy runs two social laughter clubs in her area of Moreton Bay, Queensland. Passionate about growing laughter clubs for their social goodness, she’s volunteered to be online at midday (summertime, 11am Queensland time).