Have you ever noticed how good you feel after a good laugh? The kind that clears your mind and pinpoints your focus on whatever struck you as so funny. Usually those kinds of laughs happen when you're surrounded by friends and family. I guess that's the idea behind laughing yoga meditation.

In a weekend yoga workshop I participated in a few months ago, we did a 15 minute laughing yoga meditation exercise. The whole class and the instructor, about 20 of us, laid down on the floor, each of us resting our head on the belly of the person next to us. And we began to laugh. "Ho, ho, ho," "Ha, ha, he," cackles, giggles and so on. With each laugh, I could feel not only my laughter but that of my friend behind me whose belly was gently massaging my head and neck in time with her laugh. I could also enjoy the laughter of the friend that had her head on my belly. And on top of that, we could all hear each others laughs.

It was like a variation on the Monty Python skit about the Ministry of Silly Walks except this time with laughs. Everyone had a laugh of a different sort, deep belly laughs and high pitched squeaky laughs, tiny titters and loud guffaws. After a while, as the initial glee with our assignment subsided and we needed some inspiration to keep the laughs rolling, or maybe it was the complete hilarity of the moment that inspired some of us to break out even sillier laughs – screeching monkeys, cackling witches, and snorts, oh my! As we continued our laughing yoga exercise we egged each other on,  lifting each other up in the spirit of the meditation.

If you have ever awoken with cheeks sore from smiling and abs sore from laughing, after a laughter-filled evening with funny friends, then you know how the class felt after our time was up for our laughing yoga meditation. We were very quiet and still, at peace and happy, and even a little physically tired.

At the time I participated in that meditation I did not realize that Laughter Yoga is a new form of yoga that is gaining popularity worldwide, but given my laughing yoga experience I can clearly see why it is. It was the best kind of exercise, the kind that sneaks up on you. You do it because its fun and feels good, even if it gets a bit challenging. Everything that's good for us should feel so good.