When I was growing up, sometimes my sister and I would have laughing fits. It might have been triggered by my father “torturing” us with his smelly feet, or tickling us till we begged for relief. Sometimes it was the result of our own comedic efforts: recreating bits from Ed Sullivan or trying to do clown acrobatics. Often however, it seemed random. We’d be at the dinner table and look at each other and a smile would lead to a suppressed giggle would become a snort that propelled food in an inappropriate manner, which caused hysterical hilarity and got us sent from the table where we rolled on the floor, grasping our sides, gasping for air, finally lying there spent as my father grinned down at us and my mother helplessly, hopelessly tried to lecture us about appropriate behavior for young ladies.
Everyone talks about the health benefits of laughter, but how does it work? Researchers posit that our breath pattern in laughter “ha, ha, ha” is connected to the sound of animals panting as they play. You can hear it especially in puppies and kittens. So the “haha” was originally “pant, pant,” and therefore associated with pleasure. A recent study showed that exhausting our abdominal muscles releases endorphins. And while many people believe that laughter increases your breath, another study showed that laughter significantly compresses the chest walls, reducing the flow of oxygen. (Subjects were measured while watching a Roberto Benigni movie. If you’ve never seen his early work, you are missing some good laughs.) When you laugh, especially belly laugh, you get a full body workout that sends chemical messages of wellbeing throughout your whole system.
Interestingly, what makes us laugh is related to how we learn in a Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement lesson. The timing of a good joke or piece of comic business yields a visual or verbal punchline. Awareness Through Movement lessons build to an often surprising “punchline”; suddenly rolling over, or a leap of understanding that often results in laughter or giggles of delight. Comedy is a creative act, the comedian finding novel ways to present ordinary material. Finding oneself in an unusual position invites novel solutions that stimulate the brain and open us to spontaneous choices. Someday, I’d love to do a study to find out if people who practice Awareness Through Movement laugh more :-).
(If you are in Asheville May 4, join me for a morning of Awareness Through Movement and laughter.)