In this month's Happiness Challenge, we delve into the transformative power of laughter yoga and its profound connection to happiness and wellbeing.

Join me, Klaudia, as I chat with Cat Googe, the Laughter Yoga Leader also known as the Joy Queen, who shares the mental and physical benefits of this unique practice. We explore how intentional laughter can help us reconnect with our bodies, elevate our mood, and reduce stress. Cat provides practical tips for integrating laughter yoga into our daily routines, emphasising the importance of self-love and self-validation. Together, we embark on a journey to uncover how embracing laughter can lead to a more joyful and resilient life.

Hello, happiness seekers. Welcome to the Happiness Challenge Podcast. I'm Klaudia Mitura and I'm on a mission to explore the best happiness habits that science has to offer.

Like so many others, the pandemic cut me off from my family and work. So I decided to use my training as a psychologist to discover what science can tell us about the art of happiness.

What I found set me on a path to joy, and now I'm ready to share my journey with you.

Each month I'm publishing three linked episodes where I'm speaking to a leading expert, putting their tips to the test and sharing my findings and feelings.

From mindfulness to exercise and random acts of kindness, I'll be shining a light on the simple happiness habits that can bring more joy to our lives. So join me as I embark on my challenge and together we can become more successful, resilient and happy. Hello, happiness seekers. My name is Klaudia.

Welcome to this month's Happiness Challenge where I'll be exploring the power of Laughter Yoga and its connection to the happiness and well being. And helping me with this topic is Cat Googe, Laughter Yoga Leader, also known as the Joy Queen.

Cat is going to introduce us to the concept of Laughter Yoga with its mental and physical benefits and share some simple ways for us to integrate it into our daily life. So let's explore together how intentional laughter can lead to happier and healthier us. Welcome, Kat. Thank you so much.

And I'm really grinning because whenever you say, or whenever anyone says the Joy Queen or I say it, I always do these jazz hands which obviously people can't see. But just imagine that because I just link joy to like yay now.

Brilliant. And here he is, Cat has arrived with her jazz hands. Love it. And Kat, we met at the Happy Place Festival where I attended your Laughter Yoga workshop.

And I must say that after many years of practicing yoga on weekly basis, I love yoga. It was just something completely different. I've never really experienced that type of movement exercises energy.

So can you start by explaining to our listeners what is Laughter Yoga and how does it actually differ from traditional yoga practices that I think are maybe much more known and advertised?

Yeah, it's such an important place to start with this because I think lots of people go love to yoga. What is it?

And more often than not I basically say, well, actually it's not yoga and because people think they're going to be doing the poses and whatever, so it has links with yoga for sure. The yoga part is the deep belly breath. And as someone who's experienced experienced it, that's so vital, isn't it, in the practice.

So in simple terms it's laughter exercises and then deep belly breathing.

And the reason why we need the two is because, as you know, the laughter exercises are a very high vibrant energy and if we didn't have the breath as that kind of counterbalance, actually it wouldn't be supportive for our energy.

And the whole essence of laughter yoga practice and a laughter yoga session specifically is that you get that real kind of meet in the middle, optimum balance, where you're feeling completely in your body and in a really resourceful energy. So the breath is a really, really key part of it. And as you know, the laughter exercises are just a ton of fun, aren't they?

They're like so liberating. Yes.

And I just remember it that in the beginning it is quite interesting because you're thinking like, oh, this is a little bit of forced fun almost the. You're doing the briefing exercise. Yes. But then you as a facilitator said you were laughing and this is how we laughing and this is what's happening.

But after a while you are truly in hysterics and there is just so much energy in the room. It's just really amazing. As I said, it's not something I have experienced before. So why would you say laughter is so powerful tool in this practice?

Because ultimately we know about the breath. Yes. We know about the movement for other practices, but why is the laughter such a powerful tool in this practice?

Well, the thing about laughter, it's just, it's natural, it's in us, it's such a beautiful free resource, but we don't use it to the actual optimum use that we could. It's when we are absolutely in laughter, we are completely in our bodies.

And when we're in our bodies, we are out of our heads and my hands are up and I'm sure yours are going to join me. Who gets in their head and stuck in their head sometimes we all do. And we could replace us sometimes with often it's humanness.

We are going to get overwhelmed, we're going to overthink things, we're going to get stressed out.

So having a practice that we can just dive into like that without having to go somewhere else to do it because this is such a great thing to bring in as self practice, which is always so useful when we're looking after our emotional wellbeing and our mental health. And we can just from really a few minutes. I know you said to start with it can feel you Said interesting.

I mean, it can feel confronting, it can feel out of your comfort zone. It can feel a bit like, oh my gosh, what am I doing? Particularly if you've maybe gone there solo.

People can come to my sessions completely on their own. But I always say to them, we're now a collective, we're now together.

And the beautiful thing about laughter practice is even if it feels a bit forced, even if you're like, oh, I'm not naturally in my laughter yet, your body doesn't know the difference between real or forced, faked, imagined laughter, but it still gets all those physiological benefits.

So even if there's that little bit of, say, resistance or a bit of discomfort or a bit of unsureness about it all, we can still kind of start to get all the juicy endorphins going and lower our cortisol by just faking it until it comes along. And then what we do is we just fall into our own natural flow with our laughter. There's a real kind of transition into the I'm here, I'm back again.

You know.

I love this entire idea of journey and the idea that the destination here is that we arrive fully immersed in our body. And you write day to day, we so disconnected from our body, we very much thinking with our minds, we working with our minds.

There is always something on our mind. And this is so incredible that this is the practice that takes us on the journey. I have arrived in my body. Now. You already mentioned few benefits.

You already mentioned the idea of endorphins being produced of cortisol, so the stress hormones going down. But is there anything else that is happening in laughter yoga, Yoga that is affecting our body and mind?

Yeah. Do you know, this is what I really, really love about it.

This is why I kind of fell in love with it because I naturally do fall into more of last half full kind of mindset and generally feel contented and whatever. And there was something when I first experienced it, it was this full body experience and I buzzed off that for 48 hours.

I literally was in this heightened state from a 60 minute practice.

So it gets us in our body there and then, but actually that can prolong and I don't know if you experienced something similar when you came to the session. So all that weekend I felt really empowered, I felt really resilient, I felt really motivated. Momentum was there.

So from a kind of mindset and mental space, it flips that switch, it almost like the Christmas tree with the lights off and then suddenly it's boom, the full dazzle so there's so many mental benefits. But what I really love about it is it doesn't just do that. Okay. There's lots of physical benefits.

Like I said, we release our happy hormones, endorphins, we lower our stress hormone cortisol, because we are laughing for extended periods of time. That's what's really key with this because normally we knee jerk laugh like, you know, and we stop like it's a joke. There's comedy.

It's reliant on something. This is reliant on us. Us choosing, us being intentional. And we extend that laughter with the extended deep, hearty belly laughter.

That's when we hit all those juicy spots. I've had people come to my sessions with a bad case of sciatica going on for them and I'm just like, okay, follow the process.

Just do what feels good at the end. My sciatica's gone. Yeah. And I'm like, wow, that's powerful. We've laugh together for 60 minutes.

But a lot of it, as you know, from my session I delivered, I do a lot of the teaching around it. So in terms of how long the laughter was actually going for to kick that sciatica, it probably wasn't very long.

People have come with things affecting their head in terms of pains in their head. Somebody had something, she didn't even know what it was.

Something really going on with her eye where it was really in this anxious state where it was really kind of just fluttering all the time. And at the end of it, she was like, oh my gosh, my eye is completely gone. There's so often all these different things going on in our bodies.

So sciatica is a named thing that the person knew. But so often I have this pain here. My eye is causing me all this stress. I've got this pain in my hip, my knee, whatever.

Can't name what it is specifically, but it's because stress comes out in our body as we know and overwhelm and anxiety. If we do an embodied practice which helps us remember who we are and self validate instead of looking elsewhere. And we go, oh, I am enough.

I am amazing. I can do all these incredible things. Like these physical symptoms start to go. So it's such a box ticker on so many levels.

And who wouldn't want to be, as you said, a sparkling dazzle Christmas tree. I love that metaphor. That's what I'm aiming for. That's. That's what in my mind now. But you wr.

We carry so much tensions in our Body often tension that is unprocessed. And yes, this is such a free, amazing relaxant for our body.

And you speaking about those specific things like mindset, change, motivation, empowerment, I definitely felt so much better after your session for few hours because we laughed for that. No, 40, 45 minutes, which generally, yes, we. Not necessarily are we laughing for that long in our adult life, which is really sad actually.

But that's generally, it doesn't happen like that for us. So let's say our listeners are like, yes, definitely. I want to now start incorporating that laughter yoga. I want to learn from it.

Of course there is this idea of coming to the class, guided class and experiencing it, which we very much encourage people to do. But if people cannot do that, how laughter yoga can be incorporated into daily routines.

Are there any simple introductory exercises that people can start doing to think about that breath and laughter connection?

Yeah, oh my gosh, tons. But I'll be really specific because I think so often we experience classes, we hear about things and we're like, yay, activated.

And then the reality is life is life. And bringing new things in can feel like a real stretch to us sometimes.

And I think this is what's really important with wellness, that we're very real about how people are feeling in the busy. I always say choose your busy. Let's allow ourselves to choose our busy. It's very easy for us to fall into a phone, for example.

So a laugh to practice doesn't take a lot of time. Where I think it's really powerful to build in a practice is to habit stack. And that means something you're already doing do it after that.

So a great example would be everyone brushes their teeth. Okay, so we do.

Hopefully.

Hopefully we do our teeth twice a day. We do it without even thinking. I imagine I'm not the only person that sometimes has gone to bed and gone.

So I do my teeth because it's such an ingrained habit.

So if we want to build in something else that supports us, because brushing our teeth obviously does looks after our teeth, why don't we stack something on after that? So there's many levels to this. We also don't really look in the mirror ourselves a lot.

I think we're quite often just quite glancing over who we are, not really seeing ourselves. So this also invites self connection, which is a very core principle of laughter yoga. It's a self connector. It's a connector with others.

Anyone that's experienced it as a group, you feel that energy. You feel seen, you feel heard, you feel supported. You feel loved. It's a beautiful thing.

So when we're doing solo practice, looking at ourselves in the mirror right after we brush our teeth, instead of just brush, gone, next thing, next thing, and actually really seeing ourselves, we can give ourselves a high five. It's called appreciation, laughter or high five laughter and just allow ourselves to laugh.

Doesn't have to be for very long, can be for a few seconds to start, but what we want to try and do is elongate it to say, 5 to 10 seconds. Deep and hearty teeth. Brush high five in the mirror, allow yourself to laugh. Do that for seven days. And then I ask yourself how you're feeling.

Ask yourself, do you notice anything different, anything different in your energy, anything different in the way you're looking through the world? The lens you're choosing is your lens just that little bit more open to seeing the light over the other stuff going on.

Because there's always going to be lots of different shades of things going on around us. It's the shade that we choose to play in and dance in is the one that's going to give us the most reward.

Love that. And very practical and definitely playful. And that's what we want to do. We want to make it playful.

That idea of a high five, really looking deeply at who we are and just having a laugh and starting our day like that. On the Happiness Challenge podcast, I always ask people to give me and listeners a dare and something we can try to increase our happiness.

And you've just done that. So I'm very much looking forward to that. This is definitely what I'll be test driving.

Brilliant.

And can I just add, because I'm really having taught this to thousands of people now, there's always a wealth of different responses and I see and hear and honor every single one. And I really acknowledge for some people that can feel like, oh, it's simple, but it can feel quite challenging.

So if that feels a bit tricky because it's in the mirror and it's having to really see ourselves, a really gentle way to start so that you could look at. There's two different things you could do. You could just give yourself a hug and just put some laughter to it.

So if the high five in the mirror, for any of your listeners, they're going, oh, that feels a bit scary. Give a laughter hug a go. You just gently give yourself a gentle squeeze and add some laughter to it.

And the premise behind all that is, if we are seeking inner joy, what we really need to have as a foundational piece Is deep self love. Yeah. And from the deep self love comes a self belief.

And when we've got those two areas really in our bodies, then we're much more open and available for our inner joy.

Oh, we actually all need so much more of that. And I think in the modern world that is so hectic, so changing, so much social comparison, all that self validation, so important.

And it's incredible to know that we can achieve it with laughter. It's one way of really being in our body and really giving ourselves that love and self validation. Cut. This is a podcast about happiness.

So my question to you is, what makes you happy?

How long have you got? So many things. So I guess perhaps I'll share some of my go to things for shifting energy when I'm not feeling might be the most supportive.

So I call myself a laughter mermaid. I love the sea.

So if I'm ever feeling that I really want to shift my energy, getting in the sea or looking at the sea or being on the sea, just anything to do with the sea just always, always fills me up. Mother Nature is such a gift. She's such a healer, isn't she? She's such a space to really just forget all the things and feel like ourselves.

So I'd say the sea is my ultimate happy place. If I can be in the sea and laughing, being a laughter mermaid, which is how I introduce myself at a festival this weekend, then even better.

And if you do cold water swimming, if you do cold water swimming and laughter as you get in the water gets to feel easier because this is the thing we get out of our heads and stop telling ourselves these stories of all the things which may or may not be true. And we get into our body with the laughter, it's like, oh, we can do these hard things.

And this is kind of the essence of any practices that help us feel like that. It's a reminder that we can do things that stretch us. And in the stretch and in the growth, we are more aware of our own happiness.

We take time to notice. I think gratitude practice is so powerful, but actually really quite underused and potentially a bit underrated.

It's like, oh, how can just saying that or writing that down or shift. I can see you're nodding away. It's so powerful, isn't it? Because it just rewires. It sets our mindset to plenty instead of lack.

It sets our mindset to openness. So there's so many ways that we can really flip the switch and get us feeling more joy.

And I think my Biggest intention, really, with my mission to my work. My big mission is more joy to the planet, which I know is huge. The planet is big. But, okay, go big or go home. I am going big because. Yeah.

Because I'm here for it. And I really. My biggest desire is that we get to see pockets of joy in every day. Because even on the days where that can feel really tough.

And I get it. I've been there many a time. Okay. And we will continue to go there because that's humanness. That's life. Find the pockets.

Because if we wait for joy, there's a real danger. We live here and now. That's all we know is right now in this moment. So let's be intentional. Yeah. Let's all be our own queens of joy.

Let's all be our own kings of joy. Yeah. And not outsource all this stuff. Not wait for someone else's validation. This is why it starts with self love. Self validation.

Meet yourself with love every day and you get to open your eyes to joy and you get to notice. The more you notice, the more you notice.

Yes. And the more joyful you become. So definitely being your own Joy Queen. Love that. That's definitely my intention for the rest of today.

I'm going to practice being the Joy Queen for today. When it's really gloomy today, it's pouring with rain, there is so many different things in front of me, but this is my intention and I love that.

And yeah, Joy Mermaid. Love it. I can just imagine you swimming the water, laughing hysterically. Love that cat. If listeners are like, oh, my God, I have to try it.

I have to try it now. Where they can find out more about your programs, your workshops, your membership. Tell us more.

Yeah, so I'm in all the usual places and I know you're going to share my links, but I'm extra visible, shall we say, on Instagram, because I do a lot of festivals, so that's always a beautiful place to share those. I have free content. I have five quick and juicy joy hacks. So if joy feels like it's a million miles for you, it's totally okay.

Doesn't mean it needs to stay there. So if you'd like a gentle in, I share in those in a free download. And it gives you just a little guide for every day to find some pockets.

I also host a membership called the Inner Joy Circle. And that's where we dance, we laugh, I share Reiki.

So it's like a really beautiful mix where you can come back to yourselves and really optimize how your life gets to look and feel. And I think the ownership of how our lives get to feel is really important. So it's a powerful space for you to feel your powerful self.

Brilliant, really. Thank you so much Cat. That was truly joyful. And thank you so much my dear listeners, for listening.

I see you at the next episode and in meantime, just go and have a good laugh. Thank you so much.

Thank you so much for having me, my lovely.

Thank you. Thank you everyone for listening.

I see at the next episode where I'll be test driving some of the methods shared and also sharing my thoughts and feelings about them. To keep in touch, please subscribe to my newsletter via LinkedIn.

The Happiness Challenge but in meantime, most importantly, as always, I dare you to be happy. Thank you so much.