Laughter Yoga: How to laugh when you don't feel like laughing (with Liliana De Leo)

Since 2010, Liliana De Leo, founder and president of The Living Laughter Academy, has been dedicated to helping people use laughter as a form of exercise to decrease stress, improve health, and optimize resilience. 

Liliana is a Laughter Yoga Master Instructor, trained directly by Dr. Madan Kataria, the founder of Laughter Yoga.

A 2-time TEDx presenter, Liliana is an inspirational speaker who offers Laughter Yoga trainings and workshops nation-wide.

Join us in this episode to learn simple practical tools to help process and manage heavier emotions, manage stress, let things go, and expand our energy.

You’ll quickly see why there’s more to Laughter Yoga than just laughing!
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Learn more about Liliana and her work here: www.livinglaughter.ca

Follow Liliana on Instagram: @laughmontreal

About your Host:
Lauren Tatner, founder of Law of Happy, is an inspirational teacher, attorney, author, wellness arts practitioner, and inspirational clown. She is certified as a Reiki Teacher, Consulting Hypnotist, and Meditation Teacher, Laughter Yoga Leader, and Fitness Instructor Specialist. She also trained in Theatre, Dance, Zumba, Voice, Mediation, Public Speaking, Improv, Clown, Comedy, Past Life Regression (with American Psychiatrist, Dr. Brian Weiss), Shamanism, and Qigong.

Lauren has always been fascinated with the mind, body, and spirit connection. She is passionate about teaching the power of laughter, meditation, and movement in a fun and relatable way. When Lauren gives talks and leads workshops in the corporate and private sectors, she uses a unique approach that integrates elements of her diverse skills and experience.

Lauren is the mother of twins and a rescue pup.

- Follow Lauren on IG @TheLawofHappy
- Watch & Laugh with us on YouTube
- Interested in laughing with Lauren on the show or in a customized workshop: Get in touch

Transcript

0:07

Welcome back to the Law of Happy podcast. I'm your host, Lauren Tatner. I'm an attorney and I teach laughter as an exercise. When we laugh, we feel good and we raise our energy. This allows more good, fun things to flow into our experience. This is the law of happy. So let's laugh, have fun, and practice the law of happy together. I'm excited for you to meet today's special guest, Liliana De Leo since 2010. Liliana. Founder and president of the living laughter academy has been dedicated to helping people use laughter as a form of exercise to decrease stress, improve health and optimize resilience. She's a laughter yoga master instructor trained directly by Dr. the founder of laughter yoga. A two time presenter for TEDx Montreal women. Liliana is an inspirational speaker who offers laughter. Yoga trainings. And workshops across the country. It was a huge honor to have Liliana on the podcast because her work in the laughter yoga community and beyond. Has inspired me for years and continues to inspire me Join us in this episode to learn simple practical tools To help process and manage those heavier emotions Manage stress let things go And expand our energy You'll quickly see why there's so much more to laughter yoga than just laughing Please join me in giving a warm welcome to liliana

Lauren Host: 1:28

WelcomE, Liliana. I'm so happy that you're here on the Law of Happy podcast. Thank you so much for for being a guest. I'm so excited. Thank you for having me. SO Liliana, I don't even know where to begin, tell us about laughter yoga? How you would define it or explain it to someone who's never heard of it before?

Liliana: 1:46

Absolutely. I discovered Laughter Yoga in 2006. Now having a fitness background, the whole point at the time was to bring in new and innovative programs to the members of the YMCA, which is where I worked as fitness program director. And when I came across Laughter Yoga, I thought that's bizarre. What's Laughter Yoga? So I'm doing a bit of research and I understand that laughter yoga originates in India by this man called Dr. Medan Kateria, and I am searching to see if laughter yoga exists here. I'm from Montreal. Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Does it exist here? And there happened to be somebody that was giving laughter classes someone by the name of Linda LeClaire. And I contacted her and wanted to know more she happened to say in a few weeks from now, I'm actually going to be coming to Montreal to give the two day laughter yoga leader training. I think you'd be interested to take this training and you be the instructor to give the classes to your members at the Y. And of course, I said to her, but there's a problem. I don't have a yoga background and she says, you don't need one. Okay, that works for me. You don't need a yoga background. We're going to be laughing. This is great. So I take the two day training and I have to say right off the bat when we started these laughter exercises. Now, again, I didn't know what it was. I didn't do much research. I just saw people laughing and I don't know why, but in the back of my head, I'm thinking people are laughing because somebody are is doing something funny or they're telling jokes. But when I started the training, I realized oh, no, wait a minute, we're being asked to fake this laughter and I was I don't know if this is my thing, but soon into the training as we kept laughing and engaging with the other students. I realized this instant connection that I started feeling with the students with the instructor and I'm thinking, wait a minute, this, there's more to this than just laughing. Yes, there are many benefits physical benefits to laughter, but the other side. Is the emotional benefits the, social benefits of laughing with others. And that's where I thought, wait a minute I, need to know more about this. I, want to share this with as many people as possible. And I went back to the why I was giving classes and that was going well. But at the same time, just like I had that initial reaction of oh my god, what is this? Guess what? A lot of people gave me that very same reaction of no way this is too weird for me. And that's okay because what that allowed me to do was to perfect the way of introducing laughter yoga, and to really allow people to feel safe in the classes to engage in something that is a little unusual people are not used to. Faking the laughter, but if they feel comfortable in a class, and they do allow themselves to just let's start slow. And as the laughter builds before they know it, they're laughing for real, which is often the case. And they're, feeling better at the end of the class and obviously what I hoped was that at the end of my classes relationships would build with the other students so people could leave the class and get to know each other a little bit more. And I was getting asked to go to centers, senior homes, schools, businesses. And that's where I thought, Oh, this, is being requested people want to know more about this. And of course, the next step for me was to become a laughter yoga teacher. So from 2006, it was in 2011 that I. Got the news that Dr. Medan Kateria was going to be giving the five day laughter yoga teacher training in Orlando, Florida and that was way closer for me to get to rather than take a plane all the way to India So I jumped on the chance took the five day training with Dr. Medan Kateria and many students from all over the world and that's where That business living laughter also grew in that time frame where I established the business. I remember going to trademark the name and in 2008 and then officially I quit the job. I set up my business, and I was on my own to make an income as of 2010 because up until then I had jobs. I had stable. a stable salary. So 2010, things got really scary, but, it's, been amazing ever since. Oh, that's

Lauren Host: 6:47

amazing.

Liliana: 6:48

And to me, laughter yoga helped save my life in a way, because it has helped to allow me to live happier, more joyful. And bad things happen. I get angry and I get stressed and I get really frustrated with things that go on in, in my personal sphere, as well as on the big stage with what goes on in the world. And what laughter yoga has helped me is how to manage those emotions and not let them bury me basically to process those emotions, those heavy emotions of whatever it may be the anger, the fear, the frustration, and just go back and become mindful and take a deep breath. Meditate and also take a deep breath and exhale with a few loud, so we could really melt these heavy emotions that could overtake us.

Lauren Host: 7:47

Yes, thank you for everything that you shared. There's so much that I want to unpack and discuss with you. And I like this reminder that, you know what, we're all human, no matter what our background is, what we teach, what we know wE're all still human, which is beautiful and and important to remember so that we're gentle with ourselves and, that we do experience all of the different emotions and there are ups and downs and we do get frustrated and again, no matter who we are, but it's just about, yeah, recognizing that, not beating ourselves up and then when we can, using the tools that we have to just feel a bit of relief, feel a bit better, and, to center and ground ourselves again, so thank you for that reminder that we're all human, which is a beautiful thing. And I wanted to ask you, because now I'm in my mind. I'm I want to ask you how you incorporate or how you remember to laugh or to what you do on a regular basis so that you can deal with those other emotions and process them. But I also want to, would love to experience a laughter exercise with you and with our listeners, because there's nothing like. Experiencing it to just get a taste of what it's all about and what it feels like.

Liliana: 9:02

At times, we're in situations where we're nervous about something, whether it's a job interview, you may have this something that I like to let students know about when we get out into the real world and do have an interview, we have an audition, we have something that makes us nervous. Maybe being on a TED stage for someone in the future, how do you manage those heavy emotions of being very, nervous? So when you're either in the car or in a space where you're on your own, this is a good time to just help those manage those emotions. So a few laughter exercises that I do when I get those heavy emotions. nervous about something. So I like to brush off the judges and laugh them away. So we're very critical about ourselves. We are our toughest critics and those critics sit on our shoulders every single day. So I like to laugh them away as such. Take a deep breath. Now some people may say, okay, but what if I have people in the other room? And I can't be laughing loud like that. That's okay. We have something called the silent laugh. So you could do the same thing, brushing the judges silently, or take a deep breath. Mouth slightly opened and laugh without sound.

Lauren Host: 10:53

So for all of our audio listeners, we're just laughing without sound.

Liliana: 10:57

So that too, again, what is happening as we engage in laughter? So it's an exercise. So we're doing it as an exercise. It's helping to increase blood flow. It's helping us to really exhale. All the stale air that sits in our lungs. So by forcing the laugh, it helps to remove all the air and allow new air to enter. And of course, it also expands our energy. So as we engage in laughter, so laughter is usually associated to a happy, positive emotion. Now, I may be laughing, not because I'm happy. But I'm laughing as an exercise, there's a really good chance that maybe just maybe as I walk out of that room, as I walk out of my car to head to the interview, guess what the energy will be more expansive, and I will be more inviting to my guests to my interviewers to feel comfortable with me. So it's a two way road here. So when the energy is open and expanded. You feel less stressed. And by the way, when the blood was circulating in your system as you were laughing, guess what else happens? It gives you a nice colored rosy complexion. So it gives you color. It just makes you look better. So all that together helps to manage. So in this case, I mentioned the stress of an interview could be other things like, I don't know about you, but the pandemic, right? Remember that pandemic, which is still around? We a were isolated. We were really afraid in those first early months, really knowing nothing about it and hearing all the things on the news about the coronavirus. There was a lot of emotions of fear and anger with everything that was going on, and not to mention sadness too. So during the pandemic, we were all in our homes and I used laughter as a form to help me overcome these, heavy emotions. And that anger, right? So how to dissipate that anger. I was angry at these coronaviruses that were just causing such havoc. So I developed a laughter exercise. I like, I called it the Corona Crush Laugh. So I would invite my students. I did this to myself. So the very first time I did this, I'm like, damn viruses. Imagine that some of them were sitting right here in the palm of my hands. So I took my fist. I winded back three times with the sound of a, eh. And we crushed the viruses while laughing. So, it would help to melt, that, that heavy aggression of anger in regards to the coronavirus, right?

Lauren Host: 13:59

I was just gonna mention because for the people who are tuning in with audio only I want to just quickly go back to the the other exercise that you did with us just to explain it in a way that people can. Yes. Try it again and follow along. If they're tuning in audio only. So for the brushing off the judges, I believe is what you, the name. That's

Liliana: 14:20

right. So the first lap, right? We brushed off the judges. So with the back of your hand, you push away these imaginary judges off your right shoulder, off your left shoulder. And as you're brushing the judges off the shoulders, you're taking a deep breath and exhaling with the sound of ha. And the second laughter exercise for viewers on audio only, of course, you didn't hear much because I was engaging in a silent laugh. So silent laugh is, I like to invite people to pretend those moments, you're either maybe sitting in a church or sitting in a classroom, you're sitting somewhere where you shouldn't be laughing and something triggers you to laugh. And you're holding it in, you're holding it in, really trying hard not to make any sound while you are. Laughing inside. That's a wonderful laughter exercise called the silent laugh.

Lauren Host: 15:16

Oh, I love that because yes, I find that I guess it happens all of us as soon as we tell ourselves not to laugh. It's not appropriate to laugh. You just want to laugh even more. And so this is a great way to deal with it. We just turn the sound off and we, make all the other laughter motions like this.

Liliana: 15:35

Exactly. And, when someone is not used to engaging in fake laughter. Oh, it takes. This is what I say, okay, when you go to a gym when you go exercise. It's hard to get yourself there. And once you get there you're, okay, pushing the body through certain exercises where you're working against resistance. And why are you working against resistance? It's because you're trying to make those, muscle groups stronger. So you have to work against resistance. Guess what laughter exercises are all about. So now we're going to be laughing and faking it. And that's going to force us to work against that resistance. In our case, it's going to be, we don't feel like laughing. It feels strange to laugh, but it's okay. I am minding myself to push through that resistance. So I am going to make a conscious choice to inhale and take a good deep breath with the sound of ha. And the more you do that, just like exercise and exercising and strengthening your muscles, those actions become easier with time. So does this. Laughing for no reason becomes extremely easy. It's like a switch. You can turn it on and turn it off, snap of the fingers.

Lauren Host: 16:57

Yes, I like how you describe this. And the more we well, first of all, it's cool is that the body doesn't can't tell the difference whether we're laughing on choosing to laugh on purpose or something spontaneously makes us laugh. We get the same benefits as long as we're laughing for an extended period of time and doing a belly laugh. And then what you said is it is. It's so important to remember that the more we practice it, the more it'll flow and become easier and, and feel good and become more, feel more natural, just like going to the to the gym, like you said.

Liliana: 17:31

Yeah, absolutely. And, with time and with age we lose certain abilities. So lung capacity gets less with time and exercising our lungs is one really important thing we want to do. Our voices. As we age are not as loud or are not as don't don't resonate as much so somebody at the end of a room won't be able to hear me guess what laughter does it helps to reinforce. So not only the lungs but even the voice so if I do have to speak loud, somebody at the end of the room will be able to hear you better and this is all part of how laughter. Strengthens us in other ways and, voice projection is one of them.

Lauren Host: 18:22

These are amazing points. And it's just, yeah, with laughter, we just, we feel better, but it's, so great to know that we're getting all of these other amazing benefits for our whole body. And it's a full body workout and, recharge for our mind, body and spirit. It's it's a full positive thing for, our full self. So it's, I just get so excited that I, all these words and descriptions want to come out. I hear you. It's amazing. And I wanted to ask you, do you have a, like a morning ritual or a daily, something you do daily to, practice feeling good or getting your Energy to be higher.

Liliana: 19:11

Absolutely. So every morning I plant my feet to the floor and I just sit there. I take a deep breath and I just put a smile on my face. So I'll just. Again, just spread, smile, exercise the facial muscles, and not more than about 10 seconds. And in my mind, there's also I am statements to start off my day. I, love to talk about intention. So what's the intention of the day? Who in, in this day? I am. So depending on what the day presents, if you have a contract or a presentation or something, and you're feeling a little bit nervous. For that morning, it could be, I am confident, right? Or, you get up and you're maybe not feeling so well, right? You're feeling a little bit sick. Get up that morning. I am strong. Got to head, to the gym and you really don't want to, I am healthy. So start the day off with an I am statement. So feet to the floor, smile, and one I am statement. End it with a very quick thank you. Thank you for what? Just, thank you. Thank you for waking up. Just thank you for being alive. But being grateful is another important practice that I incorporate with laughter yoga, which we can mention a little bit later. Okay. So that's as soon as I wake up, that's all I can do as soon as I wake up.'cause I need my coffee after, my coffee. That's where I'm just gonna take about 30 seconds on my, watch, my phone. I'll just take a deep breath and laugh for 30 seconds. And then my day basically begins

Lauren Host: 20:54

thank you for sharing all that. I love how you start your day. So many important practices that'll just allow the rest of your day to flow so well. And I wanted to ask you when, because like we said before, we're all human. It doesn't matter what we know, what we teach, what we practice. We can still feel those other emotions and feelings, which are normal, like frustrated, overwhelmed, upset. What do you do when you? When you catch yourself feeling like having a knee jerk reaction where you feel frustrated, is there a practice that you implemented in those moments?

Liliana: 21:32

I'm, happy to say I've gotten a lot better at those knee jerk reactions. But they still happen. And when they do, the reaction happens, it's a knee jerk something could have come out of my mouth that lovely F word is usually like the that happens. And, then that, anger that simmers a little bit after whatever it is that caused that anger to, to erupt. But I don't, sit in it after I just basically acknowledge what caused that anger. I'd like to give specific examples. Someone looks at you the wrong way or someone brushes you off, right? You get to work and this is somebody that's usually nice and happy. And they, you just felt brushed off, no time for you. Couldn't even look up and say hello. What the what did I do to, okay. So in this case, that's fine. You're completely, it makes sense that you felt anger and, hurt by that. But then I look back and I say, Okay, I don't know what's really going on in this person's life. I don't know why this person is being this way. There's things going on with them that have nothing to do with me. So you know what, it's okay. I let it go. And I hope that whatever's going on in their lives is, gets better for them. And that's it. And that right there, trying to put myself in their shoes to say, if they're acting like that, there's something going on with them and that's them. It's not about me, because I'm going to trust that if there is something about me, then they're invited to have a sit down with me and talk. But otherwise, in most cases, that's not what's going on. And, I go on with my day and I won't allow that emotion to follow me throughout my entire day. So that's what I talk to myself about. It's like something with them. It's not about me. So it's okay. And on we go.

Lauren Host: 23:41

Yes, I love how you describe that and gave the example and I can relate. That's what I try to tell myself to not take it personally. And you know what, I find that to do that, we have to feel confident and have, a certain sense of self worth and self value and to, realize, no, it's not us. Like we're confident enough on our own skin to know it's not about us. It's their issue, wish them well, but it's not about us. And I find that laughter yoga, practicing laughter. One of the other benefits or one of the other amazing benefits is that I find it increases our self esteem and self confidence. So I find that I am getting better and better at not taking things personally because of my laughter practice. I'm so glad you

Liliana: 24:26

brought that up that's exactly it because when we have low self esteem and we, are craving and wanting people's approval and people's recognition of, us, of our existence. And when we don't get it, we, we, are really affected by that. When we have very low self confidence, self esteem with the practice of laughter yoga, by just walking taller. Expanded energy, head high. We're not engaged in the depressed pose. And what do I mean by engaging in the depressed pose? Shoulders hunched, head down. And what happens in a lot of cases when a lot of people are like that? They're on their phones. So there's that hunched over being on my phone. Again, it has nothing obviously everybody's on their phone but now I make a conscious decision that when I do have my phone in my hand. I'm actually bringing my phone a little bit higher up so it forces me to lift my head up. So something else I'm telling students about like you're on your phone fine. Bring it up. So that way it forces you to sit up and to expand the shoulders and put the head up high and not engaging in that depressed pose. Like you said, being more confident and self assured. If you don't get the recognition from another person, it doesn't affect you as much.

Lauren Host: 25:51

Yes. Yeah. So thank you for that example. It was very helpful. And I wanna ask you is because I, the, you have such an interesting, incredible background and, the things you do are just and the way you do it, it's it's amazing and you benefit so many people and, groups. Is there a question that I didn't ask you that you think I should have asked you? And if so, what is the question and what would your answer be?

Liliana: 26:24

It's a question that a lot of students ask me, and I think it's a question that a lot of people have. How can you engage in laughter when you're depressed? When you just don't feel like laughing? Life is hard, it's difficult, things are heavy. And I get that. Now, How to laugh when you don't feel like laughing. Okay. As human beings, we have something that no one can take away from us. No one. And that's choice decision. And the choice is up to us. So if the person, if you are resolved not to laugh because things are hard and heavy, that's your choice. But there's also the other option, which is to, okay, I don't feel like laughing. Things are difficult right now, but I'm going to choose to laugh. And it's a little bit easier if I have someone who can engage me in laughter. If I have that somebody, then I'll be open to engaging in laughter with them. But even if I don't, it doesn't matter. Of course, I have to know that there's, this practice called laughter yoga. So the knowledge will help. And with that knowledge, it's the decision to laugh regardless of whatever is going on. So when people ask me, how do I laugh even if I don't feel like laughing? Choice. It's all about the choice. And that's the power that you have, that we all have. And if we say yes to it, then there's good chances that, that seconds of engaging in laughter will feel seconds of just joyfulness and just a bit of happiness. Yes. Feeling a little bit better. That's what it's all about. And even if you don't feel again, it's that whole that word is a big word to feel happy to be happy. It's not even if you don't feel happy. But the fact that you engaged in an action that is beneficial for you, that right there is huge.

Lauren Host: 28:31

And I like that you remind us about that it's our choice. We can choose to continue on in our, not so great feelings and that's okay. And then if we want to, we can think of a thought or, do an action like laughter that'll give us a bit of relief if we choose to move up from where we are to just feel a little bit. better or to give ourselves some type of relief. So the, remembering that it's, our choice and and however we're feeling is okay and normal. And then when we want, we have this choice and these tools that we can use to feel a bit better. And, so those, are great great reminders. You do so many incredible things in the within the laughter yoga community and, sharing the the importance and benefits and power of laughter with so many people. So I am so honored that you were a guest on the Law of happy podcasts. Thank you so much for being here. And I hope to. Laugh with you and speak with you again soon

Liliana: 29:37

Yeah, and just thank you Lauren for this work that you're doing and having this podcast where you invite people like me to just. Share how this practice can help people. It's out there and it's important. It's important for everybody to know that they can incorporate laughter as an exercise in their life.

Lauren Host: 29:56

Yes. Thank you so much for that. And I'm having a lot of fun with this and yeah, and I get to meet amazing people like, you. So thank you. And we can just do a goodbye laughter where we wave goodbye and laugh. Okay,

Liliana: 30:09

so just as we wave. Thank

Lauren Host: 30:22

you so much. Thank you. Okay, bye for now..

30:27

Thank you for having tuned into this Law of Happy episode. If you smiled, laughed, or felt inspired, please subscribe, rate, review, and share the Law of Happy podcast with someone you'd love to have fun with. And if you'd like to laugh with me as a guest on the show or in a customized program, you can email me at lauren at law of happy. com. I look forward to laughing with you soon.