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Tears of laughter, honest!

I have been practicing laughing at will for some time now. After months of sitting next to my colleague Katy, whose jokes are absolutely terrible, I regularly let out a fake giggle so as not to offend her.

With me well practiced, and Katy desperate to try out her material on a new audience, we thought that we would be the ideal candidates for checking it out!

"Fake it, fake it until you make it!" cries Lotte Mikkelsen the founder of the St Albans' Laughter Club.  In the garden of her semi-detached house 20 people lay laughing maniacally without a care in the world. 

Originally from Denmark, Lotte has been studying holistic therapy since quitting her career in IT two years ago.

"The Laughter Club of Denmark started six years ago and they now have about 250 clubs all over the country" she explained.

"They started the world laughter day, which was first held in January, and 10,000 people gathered in the city hall square in Copenhagen.

"After basically four years of talking to my friend Kira (also from Denmark), who moved here just after me, we both knew we had to start it here in England" she added.

Indian origins

But the original concept of laughter clubs were not a Danish invention, instead it was all the idea of a Indian physician.

"He took it to the local park and started gathering friends and family to come and laugh with him.

"It was originally based on telling jokes but after two weeks they had run out of jokes, so he created the concept of yogic breathing, laughter exercises and playfulness" she explained.

With this in mind, Lotte set about creating UnitedMind with the desire to spread laughter amongst the masses and also business organisations.

"I've started taking laughter shops into business organisations, it is really beneficial for them because it is about de-stressing people" she said.

Increased creativity

"When you get the stress level down you will experience more people becoming creative, productive and taking less sick days."

So this is how me and Katy ended up sacrificing our Sunday afternoon in the pursuit of eternal happiness and a jolly good laugh.

As we parked the car in the quiet street we still weren't sure which house we were meant to be attending for our laughter session.

Thumbs up for a great time.

However, from the moment we stepped out of the car the peaceful nature was soon shattered by the sound of shrieks, howls and laughter - we'd found the right address!

Upon being introduced to the group of 20 laughter addicts, we were straight into the laughing exercises which included shouting 'ha, ha, ha, he, h,e he' while clapping our hands and looking somewhat disturbed.

Thumbs up

Then it was on to just plain walking around establishing eye contact with the person in front of you and sticking you thumbs up and laughing at them - or should that be with them?!

After an hour and half the main group exercise ended with us all lying on our back and just letting our laughter flow out of us while staring into space - this was called the laughter meditation.

The rest of the group found this relatively easy to do, however I was struggling to lower the barrier of my inhibitions and laid there feeling a bit uncomfortable.

Afterwards Lotte's partner Chip explained that he too felt this for the first few weeks but once he was more comfortable the laughter just came naturally.

For me unfortunately I was left faking it just hoping to one day make it, but for the other new inductees the experience had been worthwhile.

Katy said that even though she hadn't been able to tell any jokes, after the meditation she felt more relaxed afterwards than she had in a long time!

"I found it quite easy to lay there laughing" she said. "I've always been a bit of a giggler so it was good to let it all out!

"The afterwards, I felt an amazing sense of calm and remained pretty relaxed for the rest of the day! There's definitely something about letting it all out!"

A laid back affair.

Ruth from Luton was also new to this experience but I wondered what brought her here.

"Laughter, I wanted to laugh" she said.

"I was curious to know what they would really do.

"Coming here was wonderful, I think it is very good for anybody who is feeling stressed and I think I have benefited from it.

"I do hope other people will come or start a laughter club because I think it's excellent and everybody would benefit from it" the new laughter convert said.

Natural high

Another laughing lady, Helen from Welwyn Garden City, was equally impressed with the afternoon's activities.

"I really enjoyed it and I feel a real buzz now, I feel like I have some real energy, quite high!" she said.

"Some of my friends have headaches because it can bring out toxins, but you really feel like you've worked you abdominal muscles" she giggled.

So laughter, it appears, really is the best medicine, well according to the devotees of this laughter club anyway.

Its health benefits are still to be fully recognised but this club hopes that laughter will become infectious and we will see a rise in number from the current 10 clubs in the country.

In the meantime Lotte was keen to have the last laugh and dispense some advice to anyone thinking that they may need a bit more laughter in their lives.

"There are some really easy tips to create more laughter" she said.

"Wear a smile, laugh a little bit in the morning and look for the funny things in everyday situation" she announced with a smile.

Katy looked delighted! Having had the green light, back in the car she started up again!

"So Andy - what's brown and sticky?" ......

Groan! Sigh! "Ha, ha, ha, he, he, he!