"Putting on the Ritz" with Frankenstein (Peter Boyle) and Dr. Frederick Frankenstein (Gene Wilder) Two Mondays ago in my chair yoga class, my instructor introduced laughter yoga as a way to promote happiness, strengthen the immune system and reduce pain and stress. Laughter can relax the whole body. For about five minutes the studio was a cacophony of what some call "the best medicine."
WTF
How can you make yourself laugh for the sake of laughter in a yoga setting. First off, you must imagine something quite funny: a scene, a joke, or a potential situation that could lead to hilarity. For me it would be the time when my friend visiting from Europe snuck up behind me and pulled my cane from me while I was dancing.
Unaware of my stroke, and since it was Halloween, he thought I was using the cane as a prop with my costume. I was dressed up as Frankenstein and doing a particularly fiendish jig with my cane pressing down against the dance floor in my left hand when I felt my cane knocked away. Gasping, and stumbling a little, I hissed under my breath, "What the fuck?!"
Andreas from Germany
My friend is a funny guy. Always willing to get in on a joke, because when he visits Austin he is surrounded by jokesters. Luckily, I didn't fall or anything, just lost my step for a bit while trying to do-si-do. Having come from a foreign land only a couple days prior, he had not been informed of my situation. So he didn't see any reason to hold back from swiping my cane. Little did he know, the joke was on him.
WTF
How can you make yourself laugh for the sake of laughter in a yoga setting. First off, you must imagine something quite funny: a scene, a joke, or a potential situation that could lead to hilarity. For me it would be the time when my friend visiting from Europe snuck up behind me and pulled my cane from me while I was dancing.
Unaware of my stroke, and since it was Halloween, he thought I was using the cane as a prop with my costume. I was dressed up as Frankenstein and doing a particularly fiendish jig with my cane pressing down against the dance floor in my left hand when I felt my cane knocked away. Gasping, and stumbling a little, I hissed under my breath, "What the fuck?!"
Andreas from Germany
My friend is a funny guy. Always willing to get in on a joke, because when he visits Austin he is surrounded by jokesters. Luckily, I didn't fall or anything, just lost my step for a bit while trying to do-si-do. Having come from a foreign land only a couple days prior, he had not been informed of my situation. So he didn't see any reason to hold back from swiping my cane. Little did he know, the joke was on him.
Remember the time . . . Hijinks Much Appreciated
When my yoga instructor presses us to remember a funny time for the sake of a good laugh, the quirky Halloween incident comes to mind. I imagine this guy sneaking up behind me while I'm doing the monster mash, plotting, then snatching the cane away out from under my left arm.
Anticipating my surprise and a good laugh at his antic, he probably couldn't understand why he was the only one breaking out in giggles. Nobody else in our group was laughing (though I'm sure later that evening everybody had good laughs at both our expenses). So moments later when a friend of mine went up to him and spoke into his ear over the loud music, he quite sheepishly returned the cane to me, apologizing for what he could not have known--that I had suffered a stroke.
I couldn't control my laughter any longer. I accepted his apology without hesitation. It just made me happy to be treated like a regular Joe, complete with irony, an innocent victim of hijinks.
Con mucha risa, los veo el proximo vez.
When my yoga instructor presses us to remember a funny time for the sake of a good laugh, the quirky Halloween incident comes to mind. I imagine this guy sneaking up behind me while I'm doing the monster mash, plotting, then snatching the cane away out from under my left arm.
Anticipating my surprise and a good laugh at his antic, he probably couldn't understand why he was the only one breaking out in giggles. Nobody else in our group was laughing (though I'm sure later that evening everybody had good laughs at both our expenses). So moments later when a friend of mine went up to him and spoke into his ear over the loud music, he quite sheepishly returned the cane to me, apologizing for what he could not have known--that I had suffered a stroke.
I couldn't control my laughter any longer. I accepted his apology without hesitation. It just made me happy to be treated like a regular Joe, complete with irony, an innocent victim of hijinks.
Con mucha risa, los veo el proximo vez.
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