Laugh After Loss: How to Reconnect with your Inner Joy (Guest: Marie-Christine)

In today’s episode, Laughter Yoga Leader, Marie-Christine from Austria, leads us in some fun laughter exercises, one of which is a top-secret beauty hack that’ll have us looking and feeling more energetic and rested in just a few minutes! You’ll have to experience it with us to believe it!

Marie-Christine also opens up about her own personal journey with Laughter Yoga: How it helped her reconnect to her inner joy and laughter after the loss of a loved one, and how laughter has enhanced and continues to strengthen her relationship and connection with her own children.

- Join Marie-Christine’s Laughter Date Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/laughterdate

- Learn more about Marie-Christine at: https://tanzyoga.jimdofree.com/

Transcript

0:07

Welcome back to the live happy podcast. We're together. We cracked the code on feeling good. And allowing more of what we want into our lives. I'm your host, Lauren tat near an attorney, author wellness arts teacher. And inspirational cloud. I'm really excited for you to meet today's special guest. who's the laughter yoga leader from Austria. Medically seen is multi-lingual plays. A variety of instruments has a background in contemporary dance. And I spent over five years living in China and Vietnam. Inspired by traditional Chinese medicine. She studied. Tween a massage and yoga. And fascinated with Christine's background and talents and just love her energy and spirit. And today's episode now, the CLI scene leads us in some fun laughter exercises. One of which is actually a top secret beauty hack that'll have us looking and feeling more energetic and rested in just a few minutes You'll have to experience it with us to believe It Maddie. Casey also opens up about her own personal journey with laughter yoga I would help to reconnect her inner joy and laughter after the loss of a loved one And how laughter has enhanced and strengthened her relationship and connection with her own children Without further ado please join me in giving a warm welcome to medically seen.

Lauren Host: 1:21

Christine, welcome to the Law of Happy Podcast. I'm so excited that you're our special guest today. So happy that you're here. Welcome. Thank you, Lauren. I'm very excited to be here. Thank you. So, Yeah, I'm really excited. I mean, you are in, can I ask where you are where you're located right now? Sure. I'm in Salsburg in. Wow. York. Wow. I've never been to Austria. I'd love to visit one day, and, but I find Yeah, you can come in, visit it. Yeah, I wanna, I'm in Montreal, Quebec, Canada right now. And what's so amazing about the laughter yoga community, and I mean about the, the world we live in today is that we can connect with everyone from everywhere. So, you know, it's, it's so much fun and, and I love how the laughter Yoga community brings together. Such fun, uplifting. Yes. Interesting, amazing people I find. So I'm, I'm really excited to to be chatting and laughing with you Me too. I'm very excited. Yes. The pandemic brought also good things because now the LAUGHTER community is a worldwide community and I know so many laughter yoga leaders, teachers train us ambassadors. It's really. Yeah, I agree. This is super exciting. So you're a laughter yoga leader? Leader like me. Yes. And I mean, you, your, your background is so, Fascinating to me. I love everything that you've studied and practiced over the years and that you incorporate and tied together. Can I, I definitely wanna hear more about your journey and everything that you do, but before we begin, can we jump into a a laughter exercise that we can you know, enjoy together and that our listeners can join us join us in. Yes, let's do one. One of my favorite laugh exercise. It's called the mental floss because you know, for example, just now we had also this techno technology problems. I was jumping, falling out, and jumping in the meeting, and then I just restarted the computer, but my head is burning like crazy. So let's take a little piece of our. Mental floss. You can imagine it like dental floss. It's just longer and a bit thicker. So you pull it out? Yes. You insert it into one ear and take it out the other ear, and then you floss your brain to get rid of all those stress. We laugh, laugh. You reach every corner of your brain. Our audio listeners we're reminding, we're pretending that we're. Putting floss through our ears. Nothing. Our brain to floss our brain. Exactly. And we're laughing. Oh my goodness. Really better now. So let's. Pull it out of the ear. Be careful. Yeah. Then you throw it in the dust with another set of laughter. Lauren. Oh, oh. I feel so much better. Me too. Less foggy. I feel, I feel clearer and lighter and better. Thank you. Thank you so much. So you're welcome. You know for Okay. Yeah. We can drink water and take a break when you want. Mm-hmm. Yes, dehydrate. During the laughter cause. Yes. How would you describe, we just did an exercise, but how would you describe laughter yoga to, to somebody who's never heard of it before or who's just becoming familiar with it? So for me, laughter Yoga is really a great exercise program to release stress and to like create your energy, to boost your energy levels so you get rid of your tiredness and stress and worries. And it works instantly. That's the nice part of it. You don't need to wait for the effect to come, but you feel it instantly the more you practice laughter yoga. So laughing for no reason without watching comedies or hearing jokes. You just laugh as an physical exercise. You feel all the benefits you get. Of the hormones feel good hormones. Yes. And so on. I know. Oh, thank you for, breaking it down, you know simply like this so we can Understand what we're doing. Cuz it can seem silly and, funny or awkward at first for people who have never done it before. But like you said, the, you know, the more we do it just the more it flows and. Like you said, we're not leaving laughter to chance. We're, choosing to laugh as an exercise to get all of the health benefits. Because it's so cool how the body can't tell or doesn't know the difference between It does. Yeah. Spontaneous laughter. Simulated laughter and then it often turns into, you know, Exactly. And it's also contagious. It's so amazing. Even if you watch people laughing, you also feel like laughing along. Exactly. It's. Yeah, I love, I love every part of it, so I'm getting so excited here and I love how, laughter creates such an amazing bond. We haven't met yet in person. We're, we're meeting, you know, this is, I think, the second time virtually, but I feel like I've known you forever. I feel so comfortable with you and I feel a connection with you. I feel like I know you well. I, I'm getting to know. I think the same. Yeah. Oh, thank, I'm glad. Can you tell us about your practice with your children? Yes, of course. Thanks for the question. Actually I started laughter ago when I was I mean 2017. And my kids, because I'm a single mom, so they always joined every session of me, so they know my crazy part. I mean, it's not crazy part, but for outsiders who don't know, laughter you guys yet, it really looks strange and weird if you see people laughing for no reason, especially if they're adults, because children do it actually all the time. So my children became quite used to it, that I laugh a lot and I teach people how to reconnect with their inner child and to have fun for no reason, just for the fun of it. And during the pandemic, I lost my job and I felt very, Like lost for three weeks and then I decided, okay, that's enough. Three weeks is enough of feeling down and low energy. So I checked Facebook and I found Dr. Aria on Facebook, so the founder of Laughter Yoga, and I did not know any laughter yogas yogis on the social media. So I connected with them. All. And I decided to do the teacher training the, the leaders training once again with Aria online. And that's how it all began. The big connection with Mary from Austria, with the whole world. Wow. And I love your videos with your children. They're just, There's so much fun. I feel like I'm right there with you, even though I'm watching it virtually. So you guys do, is it, is it every day or pretty regularly that you do these? Yes. When I did the training with Dr. Aria online, he challenged us for the 40 days Laughter yoga challenge to post a video every day of one minute of four, world peace. Ah. So this is now three years ago and I still do it. That's amazing. And it's just, yeah, the children join in and now with my younger daughter, she's seven now, she will be eight in May. We have since the first of this year, so January 1st, we. Started our laughter challenge that we start the day with laughter before we leave the house. We laugh together and you know, she's the one, I have two children. One is older, one is younger. With the younger one. Oh my God. We have a lot of struggles and fighting and I don't know why, but since we laugh together, since, no, now it's. March, three months or two months. It's much better. Our connection is better, our understanding each other is much better. We don't fight at all. Oh. And I really feel I love her much more now. Oh my gosh. Thank you for sharing that. Because I think a lot of people can, you know, relate know everyone's different and, and people have different kinds of relationships with, with family members and the children and people they live with. And so this was helpful to hear, how laughter laughing together has enhanced your connection and your relationship. Yes. And Judy is so much better and I'm so happy to, to have this tool and that Molina also jumps in and practice with me. And she finds the joy now just a bit. The first videos we did, she was like, Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. It was another real laughter, but now I really feel she wants to do a video with me and she feels the connection and she, she knows that it's beneficial for us, for our relationship. Ah, and she's also much lighter during her day. Yeah. That's incredible. Yeah. What an amazing mom and role model and example you are and, what a great practice. And I just, yeah. When, when I watch it, I'm so inspired to, laugh more because of, what you, and your daughters are, putting out there, on social media. And I'm, I'm inspired to do it more with my, children. I have. Twin toddlers and I'm also a solo mom. So thank you. I'm so happy to hear that. Thank you. Yeah, thank you. And can we do another laughter exercise together? Yes, sure. Okay. So before I wake up, I feel always like a bit crunched. My face is like the, the pillow is on my face still, or the rinks are there. So I take imaginary laughter cream in my hand with a very funny sound. Mm. So, yeah. Now you have the cream in your hand. Mm-hmm. You rub it a little bit and apply to your face with laughter and all the wrinkles. Please appear magically. Here we go. 1, 2, 3, and laugh. Please laugh. It's good for you and also for your skin because. The blood flow is much better. Yes. Anti secrets. Actually, I'm sharing with you. Oh yes. Perfect. Thank you. So thank you. I love that version of the of the laughter cream. So can you tell us about how you found. Laughter cuz you said that you reconnected with it in a different way during the pandemic, but when you first, how did you first discover it or bring it? I discovered it. Mm-hmm. Thank you. After my studies, after my master studies, I went to China. Because I really wanted to learn Chinese. After my five years dancing, I decided to do something for my brain. So I went to China and in China and later I went to Vietnam. And in Vietnam I saw laughter on the streets, like people went to work and before they went to the park and laughed together and I said, this is so totally weird. And I didn't know it was laughter yoga, but then I came. To Austria because my, my mom passed away. Yes, and that's when I, I lost my laughter. I really felt very heavy in my heart. Of course, everyone who knows who lost the loved one is grieving and angry and sad, and it swos around like crazy. But for me, it took seven years to get rid of this. Painful pain in my heart. Mm-hmm. And I searched in the internet, what can I do to find my laughter, to find the joy? Although I was, I'm a very positive person and positive thinking, and everything happens for a reason and blah, blah, blah. You know? And I also had fun at times, and I went out there, so I was not cleaning all the time, but there was this feeling in my heart I could not get. That's when I discovered laughter yoga. I signed up for the, the latest training. Cause there was no official course, just the latest training. And these two, two days of laughing, all this pain was gone. And I found it so magically that I continued to pass it on. And I will work with people who are grieving and reconnect to their joy in the laughter. Yes, that's the joy. Wow. Thank you for, sharing that. You're welcome. And yeah, it's incredible. The, power of laughter because we're not laughing. We're not, it's not, like you said, it's not comedy and we're not laughing at a situation or anything, but we're using it as a tool to to help us, give us some relief. Thank you for sharing your, story. And it's, Incredible how you followed your, intuition and, and felt drawn to laughter and used it as a a powerful tool to, give you some relief and to help you feel you know better. And it also to just to accept it. Right, right, right. And like you said, there is a grieving process, which is important and normal and, it's important to acknowledge how we're feeling because, you know, in life, as we all know, there are ups and downs and challenging times. And then it's all about understanding that however we're feeling in the moment is okay, but if we want to have some relief at a certain point or feel a bit better and, and, and. Up. I see it as an emotional scale or ladder because we, gradually can have some relief and, move up to feel a bit better. A bit better, and then feeling good again. But, and, that's what I love so much about laughter. It's because it's such a, great tool that anyone can use and access to, give us some relief and, help us raise our energy again and feel better and feel good. So I really appreciate it. It's a beautiful picture, Mr. Letter. I like it. I'm very visual, so I see it as a ladder or a scale, and we move up and up and up and up because it's not possible to jump from feeling, you know, overwhelmed and ex and grief and extreme sadness to flying up immediately to feeling pure happiness in place. Like, that's just not possible. And cuz we're human. Mm-hmm. And so I, I see it we, we just gradually move up by choosing a better feeling thought or doing an exercise that can help. One step at a time. Grow through what you go through. Right? Right. Exactly. And so you do so many so many fun things. I had so much fun looking at all the different things on your, on your website, and I was drawn to the fact that you do, you do a lot with with children because, you know, as we know, laughter is so beneficial for, adults and, and it's any age. Exactly. And, kids, because like you said, when we're children, we can laugh. Children tend to laugh more freely. And then, I don't know, something happens as we, grow up and, and a lot of people their laughter doesn't flow as much. So it's great to practice this as children and with children so that they can hold on to that free flowing laughter. And then as adults to wake up are inner child and play again. So, yes, and to keep inner. Yes. It's my goal with my own children that I keep their inner child going because somewhere, I dunno, every adult loses it. Right, right. And I dunno why. I mean, for me, I was, I'm very grateful that I always worked with kids. I used to work as a dance teacher and yoga teacher for any, for kids and teens and every and adults. But I feel because I always had this connection with children that I never lost my inner. Mm. Cause I know exactly where it is and what it wants, what she wants. Sorry. It's always there. And for my own children, this is my really, one of my biggest goals. That they stay connected. That they stay true to themselves. Yes. Cause with school and with friendships and whatever, some are, we float around and maybe we should do this and this and this, but just stay true to who they. Exactly. Yeah. Oh my gosh. There's so much that we can learn from, children and then practicing it with children is incredible, like, you know, for, so many reasons. And and I find too, when we laugh we just, there's so many benefits, but. We also, feel better. And I think that no matter what anybody wants to be or do or have, it's because they think that that thing or experience will make them feel better. But I believe that we, first have to access The joy from within. And I feel that laughter allows us to unlock that or, release that from within or feel that from within. And then what's amazing is that when we raise our vibration and feel the joy and the peace and wellbeing from within, we just bring in more good things and experiences and, everything is much easier. Yes. When you're in a good state and when you, I don't know, when you are radiate high in a good vibration. You draw much better things to your life. Yes. Ex. I agree. Exactly. You have such an interesting background with your dance background and the yoga and the, I I believe there's also massage. Massage. Yes. Yes. When I was in China, I also studied, so the traditional Chinese massage. It's very interesting for me, Chinese medicine. And I specialize on the feet, because I spent so many years in Asia. I thought it would be a good idea to study Chinese massage there because I'm at the, like, the roots of, of Chinese medicine. So I enrolled in a course, it was a, actually a massage hospital, so where they only treat people with massage and herbs and stuff like that. It's really incredible. Yes. And then I studied there for half a year. Very, very interesting. I met a lot of nice people. It was all in Chinese. Wait a second. Do you speak? Yes, I speak Chinese. Yes. Do you speak? You speak Mandarin or Cantonese? No, Mandarin. Mandarin, because I was in East, east China, like near Beijing. So I speak, speak pk. Oh my gosh, yes. Mandarin. Yes. And it was very fun because the second day I was there I felt so bad cause I could not understand everything, but quite a lot. But then the newspaper came, so they flipped me as doing the, the, the massage. But I was not ma must do yet. But they came and they interviewed me. And of course for the school it was like, wow, we have a foreigner. Because that time was 20 years ago. No, when was it? Two 2007. I was the only foreign 90 city. It was really. Wow. That's fascinating. I, I love hearing these, you know parts of your journey. I'm, I'm, I'm just really inspired and what what gets me so excited too is just how there are so many different tools that we can learn and, access and use to you know, for funding to feel good. Is there something else that you incorporate into, a daily? That you like to do? Yes. I have my daily movement practice, and sometimes it's shaking. Sometimes it's a yoga flow. Sometimes I massage with the massage ball here like this from Eric Franklin, so I really love Eric Franklin method. Yes, very. My, my work is generally very movement based, so I do always a very generous warmup with big movements everyone can follow. And with the children, I go very in high intensity like cardio workout. So movement is for me, the base that my, my body feels good and. Upright in a good position that my muscles are juicy and not stiff. So this is the first principle. And then I decide if I want to go like in the more meditative state with singing or playing guitar or as learned piano. Recently, I cannot do with piano playing. Yes. Wow. Yes. And sometimes I want to bring the energy up. So I move more, I go, I go chugging or dance around, or if I want to bring the energy down, I do my press work balance. Yes, I have a lot of things. And also my classes there every time. They're very different, depending, actually, depending on my cycle. Cause when I'm, my first week of cycle, of course I'm a bit more like, actually I don't just want to sleep and snuggle up. But if I teach, then I, I need to go out. So it's more 10 classes and they're more, yeah. Coming to the center the middle of my cycle. The classes are more more intent. This is the word I wanted to say. Ok. More intent. People, are starting to learn that they can feel better. They could feel better if they want to, and that it's a decision they have to make. So this is actually my number one goal in life to make decisions. And if it's the wrong decision, no matter, it doesn't matter. It's good that you made a decision and this was like, encourage everyone, just don't talk about it so much. But just get going. Start doing. Yes. She wanted to sign me a word. Cause when she was a baby, I taught her the a little bit sign language and she knows the alphabet. So if she wants to not be annoying, she just signs from the distance. Ik. Yeah. It's amazing. Does, I don't wanna put anybody on the spot, but does, did she wanna do a, a laughter exercise with us or Whatever you. You want to laughter yoga, exercise only if you want to. Only if you want to. Yeah, we're just laughing for no reason. Very good. Very good. Very good. Yay. Yay. I think. Yay. Yay. And okay. Do you ever combine sign, language and laughter? The sign for crazy, maybe it's this, we can combine it with laughter. Yeah. Wow. It's, it's amazing the power of laughter. I mean it cr the connection Exactly, exactly where it doesn't matter what language you speak the energy, you feel the energy. So beautiful. Exactly. Exactly. So how can people, where can listeners find you, whether it's in person or online? Online, I'm, I'm on YouTube, on Facebook, and on. I. You can find it there. I have my own laughter group. It's on Facebook. It's called laughter date. All the links are, are in the show notes and, and your, your laughter group. Do you, do you meet online on a regular Yes. Regular basis? Every Sunday at 11. Eight. No. 11. Yes. 11 morning. C e t, central European time. Okay. But it's in Canada. It's very, very early. Yeah. Right. But if somebody has a very early wakeup routine, early bird laughter, early bird laughter. Yes. Early bird laughter. Spread your wings and laugh. You know, one of my. Online laughter clubs laughter session was in Malaysia and I felt so, so happy because first of all, in Malaysia they also speak Chinese. So I felt already home and it was a early bird laughter for me because it was 7:00 AM in the morning. Perfect. Start for the day. Yes. And do you notice a difference if you don't start your day with, laughter? Yes. Oh my goodness. It's a huge different difference. Much more relaxed when I go to work. Cause I work in in a doctor's office. So I have a lot of to deal with sick and pregnant people. So sometimes they're very demanding and stressed out and I'm like, me, you know, and if I go there with my laughter package, my, my backpack are full of laughter and joy and positivity. It's much easier to go through the day. Yes, definitely. I know. And it's amazing, even if you're doing your laughter before, right? At home yes. Or before you at, you get there, but it's just, then your, your energy is, is it, it higher and it stays there. Yes. And people feel that, you know? Yes. And, and everything. I mean, and that's just a great bonus. But everything, like you said in the, in the day just seems to. To flow flow more easily and in, in just a lighter, fun way. So that's ah, that's, I just get so excited talking you know, talking about it and then sharing it with, with other people who have their own practices, you know, and include incorporate laughter. So, yeah. I love that. And oh, this is what I wanted to ask you. Yes, please. And, and we'll, okay. If there was a question that I, that I didn't think of didn't think of asking you, but I should have, and what would your answer be? I wanted to ask you, did someone sing Happy Birthday to you already today? I don't think so. If not, happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday. Happy birthday to you. Oh, thank you. So, oh gosh. So. Meaningful. Thank you. And you know what I You're welcome. I really, really appreciate that, cuz. Yes, today is my birthday and you know what else? Whenever this episode airs, it's going to be perfectly not your birthday. No, but that's okay. I feel that every day. I see every day is everybody's birthday. It's, it's a new day. An opportunity to you know that we get to enjoy and to grow Exactly. And to make new decisions. Yes, yes, yes. So this is gonna be relevant and, and brilliant for any day that this, this, this airs. That was, that was great. So thank you for, for everything. Thank you. Being you and for, for your time and sharing everything. Thank you for having me, Lauren. It's my pleasure. Thank you. So, so listen, I'm excited to to laugh with you and chat with you again soon, but to conclude today's episode. We can, do a goodbye laughter exercise. We can do the goodbye laughter. Yes. We just raise our right hand and wave goodbye and make it more fun as its low motion. First, sometimes laughter, and then you add your left. And you go faster, then you suddenly disappear from the screen, but you close to the. And you just wait with your eyelashes and then you spread your arms and lift them up. Inhale and ground yourself up in your arms, down again in front of your body. Arms facing down. Yes. One more time. Inhale, bring your arms up above your head and exhale ground yourself. Perfect. So much fun. I know. Thank you. Thank you so much. It was very special to have you again. And so listen, have a, have, you know, have an amazing. Rest of your, because I, it's a time difference, but have a, have a great night and we will, we'll laugh and thank you, Lauren. Thank you so much. All the best and happy birthday. One more time. Thank you. Bye.