We all know laughter is good for us, but a strong tie has been made between laughter and breathing. From the Philippine Star comes a story on Laughing and Stress Relief.

According to Dr. Madan Kataria, quoted in the story, “If we can learn to change our breathing pattern from shallow to deep, we can easily alter our body arousal system. With deep breathing, [your] body will not experience stress response, even if we have disturbing thoughts. Therefore, by changing the breathing pattern from chest to abdomen, we can change our reaction to stressful thoughts. Most Laughter Yoga exercises are designed to bring awareness of laughter in the belly, which helps to move the diaphragm. Therefore, belly laughing shifts our breathing pattern from the upper chest to belly breathing.”

The combination of laughter exercises with breathing and stretching exercises derived from yoga comprises Laughter Yoga. Yoga teachings say, according to the article, that “we are alive because of the life-sustaining energy force known in yoga as prana. It enters our body through breathing and flows through the energy channels called nadis, very much like the Chinese chi, which flows through meridians.”

Regardless of whether or not you study yoga, it has been established that motion creates emotion. Think about it. The direct link between the body and the mind has also been clearly proven. Whatever happens to your mind, happens to your body. For example, if you observe depressed and sad people, their bodies are also depressed. They walk slowly, talk slowly; all their bodily movements are slower.

Dr. Kataria said in the article that father often told him, “If you are sad, don’t sit idle, keep doing some physical work, go for a walk or jog, and you will feel better.” He did feel better by keeping his body active. This proves the two-way link between body and mind: If we can change the quality of our thoughts, then we can change our body behavior. For each type of thought pattern, there is an appropriate body behavior. If we can bring a change in bodily behavior by changing physical gestures voluntarily we will experience peace in our minds.

The lesson? Laughter truly is the best medicine!