Here is how to facilitate a group laughter meditation (a.k.a. free laughter exercises.)





A. Sit down and relax

If you were previously standing up, it is now time to sit down. You can sit on a chair or directly on the floor, whichever is most comfortable for you. Sit comfortably in an inward facing group so that people can see each other and make eye contact. Closer together is better than spread out.

Close your eyes and go within. Try to be still and not move at all. Just feel, for 30-60 seconds. This is a complete change of gears. We have worked so far on creating happy chemistry with energies moving outwards. There is no work anymore. Now you want to feel it, and energies will be moving inwards. Make it clear that nobody is to talk or try to communicate in any way with others (no eye messages, funny faces or funny sounds) as this will engage and give strength again to the conscious mind that you have worked hard to switch off during the laughter workout. The conscious mind must stay disengaged.

Keep your spine straight, and breathe in a slow, gradual and deep manner. Focus your attention on the center of your chest. Let all thoughts pass. If thoughts arise, treat them as “clouds passing by.” Just let them pass. Focus your attention on your slow, deep breath. You are relaxing your body and getting ready to enjoy a river of laughter…





B. Wish to laugh, giggle

We are now going to try to tap into real, free flowing laughter.

Keeping your eyes closed, try to feel the joy inside and give yourself permission to laugh. We are going to help this process by giggling for a few minutes. This will invariably lead to much laughter.

Keeping your eyes closed during the laughing meditation makes sense and works for me because I am of the opinion that sight is a very rational sense and it keeps you away from feelings and laughter (a pure emotion). This is very helpful in particular to the few who may still be self-conscious. When there is no eye contact there is no peer pressure. If up to now they have laughed only because they felt forced to, this won’t happen anymore and it is much better for them. More often than not their own true laughter will catch them unaware.

This being said make your suggestions, and then let your participants do what they want.

Should the laughter end prematurely, allow for a minute of silence and then ask your participants to start giggling again. A nice way to introduce variety with the same exercise is to first invite all to remember a happy memory, a time when they felt safe and laughed with people they loved and who loved them. Then have them giggle and laugh now, as if they were experiencing that moment again.





C. Lay on the floor, on your back, knees into your chest

If time and space allow the best way to end your laughing meditation is on the floor, on your back, with everybody’s head pointing towards the center of a imaginary circle (it’s not pleasant to have smelly shoes next to your face).

Those who are uncomfortable laying down are welcome to stay seated but they must come into the center of the circle. Do not allow them to stay on the periphery. It will make them feel excluded because they are not going to be able to do the same exercise as those on the floor. Their job will be to shower laughter blessings on everyone else.

Invite those on the floor who can to bend their knees to bring them into their chest and hold them there by lacing their arms around, and then laugh each time they exhale. I call this exercise “laughing on the floor.” It is the one that will give you the maximum laughter dynamic that you can get in a laughter session.

Whatever amount of laughter you will get at this point is all you can expect to get in this particular laughter session. Sometimes people will start to laugh and just won’t stop even after 30 or 45 minutes (this depends on the group, session intensity, time of day, and other factors). Other times, and for whatever reason, the laughter will only last a few minutes and then die out. That’s perfectly OK. You will observe that laughter often comes and goes in natural waves. Let it do what it wants to do. When silence occurs, feel what’s happening inside of you, and try to connect to the feeling of laughter again.




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