Laughter Yoga

By Ben Stephens

I have this friend, we’ll call her Annie. We met when we both worked as Tour Guides in Central Australia, many moons ago. We used to guide for some of the wealthiest guests that would venture out to Uluru and immerse themselves into the culture. When it’s 43 degrees, more flys around your mouth than you could ever count and you’re explaining the Kuniya story of creation, you would want Annie to be by your side for comic relief and help you through the ordeal of eating flies.

I remember a sunset tour we once collaborated on, we had six guests with us and an esky full of Tasmania’s finest sparkling. We took them to a Kantju Gorge, on the north-east side of the monolith to watch the sun change the colour of the rock from a deep red to an inspiring hive of brightness. It was at this point after the guests had ingested enough sparkling that Annie asks everyone to gather around in a circle. I thought she was going to take them on a journey through the Dreamtime. She didn’t.

What did proceed was Annie conducting a laughter yoga session with three couples who didn’t know each other before the day started. I had never seen Laughter Yoga take place, but through the magic of 15 minutes, Annie never once stopped laughing, causing a contagious cackle around the group, who were all strangers earlier that day.

I tell you this part of my life, dear reader, only to then let you in on the best yoga practice in Bondi. The team at Laugh and Live Well meet every Saturday at 10am at the Bondi Pavillon to share a laugh and walk you through a number of hilarious exercises. All they ask for in return is a small donation of $5 for the session, that goes to covering the venue and club costs. If this sounds like a bag of laughs to you, I recommend RSVP’ing so you don’t miss your spot on the mat, do that HERE