The Role of Laughter Therapy

At the end of a month of panchakarma in India, I am reflecting on the process and value of the experience. It is for certain an extraordinary gift to the body, mind and spirit to detoxify so intensively. This was my first panchakarma.

In reflecting on my time here I realized that the best digestive to understanding anything deeply is the application of humour and I am so grateful to have had an instinct to go there.

It is powerful to step away from the full yet hectic life I led and step into a remarkably nurturing place dedicated to helping people detox the body and renew the organs to a better function. This can be a ticket to a new life and the endeavour must be taken very seriously.

The days are full. Your diet is comprised of specific foods that are easy for the liver to digest but may send the mind around the bend. The daily treatments may be hot oil massages that leave you feeling heavenly or administered ghee to every orophus which for me tested my irritability in a big way. Then when your body is ready there is Purification Day that leaves you purging toxins, however that may unfold. For me that went on for 10 days. Every day brought up and out something new.

Now, imagine taking on this kind of a commitment with your new partner. Before I came, all I could think of was spending a month together doing intensive yoga, meditation and panchakarma. How wonderful. Clearly I had no idea how courageous this was since I had little idea of what I was in for. I can now say it was the ultimate test. We saw each other at our weakest, most frustrated, looking as bad as humanly possible, most vulnerable, even sick as a dog. At the end of it all I realized that we reminded one another constantly of the excellent mindful practice it was and above all, we laughed as if there was no tomorrow.

My takeaway is laughter is like a prayer being answered. It can transform situations and lift the weightedness of any burden. Approach everything you do with full heart, humility, and don’t take yourself so seriously that you get stuck in the muck of judgement.

Heartful laughter is one of the greatest gifts to being human. I think it’s one of the most powerful and healing forces there is. It has the capacity of dissolving areas where we get stuck, like judgement, fear, intimidation and stress. Laughter is super grounding and lightens the mind. It heals the emotional, mental and physical body with little effort.
There is a big difference between sarcastic laughter and light hearted laughter. Sarcastic laughter, like slapstick, usually finds relief at the expense of others and reinforces our own limitations. The other liberates us from our own smallness.

When the heart can find lightness and humour it is often followed by kindness to life in general, our own life and the one that unfolds around us. This is a gift.

Wishing you a belly laugh this day that grants you wings to take you where you want to go.

Gisele

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to honour Valentines everywhere…