LAUGHTER AS MEDi-Zen

“Give me a challenge!” I yell out, smiling, feeling fully relaxed and zenned out despite the horn blasts, groans of exhaust fumes of mac trucks, and the roar of a motorcycle brigade passing through the speakers.

I am in the midst of a meditation battle my friend Eric setup at a biohacker conference. 

My competitor?

A first-time meditator named Blake, a beefy, tall bro with ripply muscles beneath a white tee that I met by the nootropic beverage bar minutes earlier. 

Hearing that Eric was looking for two volunteers for the next battle, I cheekily volunteered us and Blake, an athlete, naturally, was not one to back away from competition. 

They affixed us with wired caps that measure brainwave frequencies on a screen for onlookers while pumping out loud, distracting soundtracks designed to spike anxiety–scenes of babies crying, office phones ringing off their hooks, crowds and whistles screaming at a rowdy soccer match, and ambulances weaving through traffic phased in and out. 

I meditate daily, had been for 5+ years at the time, and was fully confident in my ability to stay calm under high-stress conditions–I’m a former New Yorker–it’s going to take more than a siren to shake up this serene siren.

“Ali, you’re LOSING!” Eric shouts at me at the back of the space. 

It takes a moment for me to process this …

What? This California-roll munching, whey protein-shake-sipping, second-string quarterback-lookin’, yoga virgin was beating ME at meditating? 

He might be an alpha male in his own mind, but my mind was going into alpha waves if it’s the last thing I do. 

The idea of his victory is so outlandishly comical to me that I laugh out loud, the snickers surging through my whole body.

Suddenly the audience roars and a buzzer sounds, signifying the end of the match. 

We both come-to snatching the caps off our heads and staring at the projector screen that had been capturing the frequencies. 

Blake’s graph looks pretty consistent throughout the entire time … rolling mountains and valleys signifying a state of calmness and serenity.

My graph, on the other hand, had sharper points–higher highs and lower lows with more spikes along the same distance–meaning more brain activity–up until the very end.

Right at the time I broke out in laughter, the line dipped low and lengthened into a soft, shallow, theta wave arc. 

Eric was stunned. He’d run these battles in the past, but never had he seen this happen before. 

He asked me what I made of it in our debrief.

“That laughing is really, really good for me.”

But it’s not just good for me–it’s good for everyone. 

A Japanese study found that diabetics that were exposed to a comedy show vs. those exposed to a boring lecture had significantly lower blood sugar (about half the amount) after eating a meal.* Their jovial state of mind must have triggered their brains to send new signals to their cells, which ‘turned on’ genetic variations that encouraged their bodies to naturally regulate the genes responsible for processing blood sugar.**

Quoth lead researcher Keiko Hayashi from the University of Tsukuba,  “We should laugh more."*

Sure, there are plenty of people and events and entertainment that I invite into my life and seek out to get me in a state of giggly bliss, but I ask you, if you also see the benefits of a belly laugh, why do you not more people create a regular practice out of it, just like meditation and exercise?

I’m incredibly grateful to the crew at Coldtowne Theatre in East Austin that currently hosts us in their space monthly to laugh and get out of our comfort zones for Opun Mic Night.

It’s puns and wordplay improv plus writing prompts and a traditional open mic on a different theme every month.

Come join us, ‘cause I don’t know about you, but I wanna die laughing and live longer because of it too.

* ‘A Weekly Shot of News and Notes,’ The Washington Post

**As per Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself, Dr. Joe Dispenza