Laughter Therapy and Mindfulness Practices

Laughter therapy, also called therapeutic laughter, is used to relieve pain and stress and to promote a general sense of well-being. Laughter therapy is simply a method of 'laughing for no reason' in which the person interacts in a group setting with improvisation or pantomime-like exercises and childish games without humour, jokes or funny events. The aim is thus to benefit from laughter.

Mindfulness is purposefully drawing attention in the desired direction so that we can stay in the present moment without judgment. It is also defined as a conscious understanding of what is happening in the moment we live in with an open and loving attitude. According to another definition, mindfulness includes paying attention to what is happening in the present moment, noticing the quality of this attention, and accepting what is noticed without judgment. With conscious awareness, the individual discovers how to live in harmony with all the events that take place in the present moment, place and time, without any evaluation, rather than the sorrows and regrets of the past, the anxieties and worries of the future. Mindfulness helps us to relate to our experiences by enabling us to see the positive-negative, good-bad experiences we have had objectively.