Laughter — we all do it. Whether it’s among family and friends, watching television, or just a moment that brings you joy in your everyday life, laughter is a part of the human experience. But it turns out laughter can mean a lot more than a fleeting moment. It truly is the best medicine. That’s how married couple Alik and Lauren Colbert from New Jersey became the Laughing Lovebugs.

“We wanted to normalize laughter. This should be normal. It should be normal to laugh. You don’t have to have a reason. You don’t have to wait until you’re happy to laugh,” Lauren said.

Laughing Lovebugs is a laughter yoga practice taught by the Colberts, certified laughter yoga instructors who you’ll often find finishing each other’s sentences. Dr. Madan Kataria founded Laughter Yoga in Mumbai in 2005. Through his studies, he discovered that laughter is as good for your health as it feels. The practice doesn’t require a yoga mat or learning any poses. Instead, Dr. Kataria combined intentional laughter with traditional yoga breathing techniques — no comedy necessary. In fact, it turns out the brain can’t tell the difference between spontaneous laughter and simulated laughter.

“That’s what makes it so powerful … you’re actually choosing to laugh. The session we lead, these laughter exercises serve as a coping tool, but also in your daily life serve as a way to release tension, pent up energy, anxiety, depression, loneliness, stress, among a whole bunch of health benefits. Laughter Yoga is the only exercise routine that benefits your mental, emotional, and physical health at the same time … and also since we’re not relying on a condition, it helps to activate the happy chemicals in your body, which are dopamine, oxytocin serotonin and endorphins,” Lauren said.

According to the Mayo Clinic, the physical benefits of laughing include enhancing your intake of oxygen-rich air, stimulating your heart, lungs, and muscles, and increasing the endorphins released by your brain. It can also activate and then relieve your stress response, leading to an increase and then decrease in your heart rate and blood pressure. The result? A good, relaxed feeling. In the long term, laughter can improve your immune system, ease pain, help to cope with difficult situations, connect with others, and improve your mood and self-esteem.

The Colberts found laughter yoga while going through a stressful time. In 2018, Alik had been laid off from his job after sustaining an injury, and Lauren had recently rejoined the workforce but in a very stressful job position. She began looking for a unique way to relieve stress, stumbling upon laughter yoga. Lauren invited Alik to a session with her, after taking a session that was not led by a certified instructor. Once taking a session together with a certified laughter yoga instructor, the two noticed the difference and found themselves wanting to become instructors themselves.

“I had my own prejudices and I went there with bias in my mind. And if you took a rating of how I felt on a scale of one to 10 [before the session began] I was at a two. I was out of work and stressed out about that. Halfway through the session I just checked back in with myself … and when I rated myself again, I was not at that two that I started with. I was at an eight. Nothing in my life had changed, it was just one session,” Alik said. “I didn’t have to have a reason to feel good. I actually just feel good, just because. And that was a breakthrough. That’s why I wanted to know how can we get certified?”

One of the biggest challenges the two faced was during the pandemic when they realized they wouldn’t be able to hold their sessions in person, even though this was such a tough time for people everywhere. An essential part of laughter yoga is community. But after helping a relative through laughter with a scary bout of COVID, the two realized they could replicate their practice virtually.

When COVID first hit, Lauren’s uncle was diagnosed with COVID when it was still new and no one knew what it would be like. It got so bad that her uncle ended up in a hospital’s ICU.

“Over a couple of weeks he started to feel a little bit better where he was able to talk. Alik and I wanted to help him so much and support him in another way, with laughter,” Lauren said.

“And we learned that we know about the benefits of laughter, and we knew that … you don’t have to laugh, per se, to actually reap all the benefits. Just from hearing people laugh it raises your spirits and raises your emotions and lowers those hormones in your body in a stressful moment. So we figured since he can’t join us, he can still reap some of the benefits of laughter by hearing us laugh, so we would call him on the phone, and laugh with him, and within a couple of weeks he ended up being able to laugh with us,” Alik said.

One of the things that the Laughing Lovebugs pride themselves on is their customized sessions based on the group and the challenges being faced. The Laughing Lovebugs hope to change lives everywhere through laughter. They even host monthly Fly-Bys where for four days, you can escape to a destination to enjoy the Feel Good Getaway experience and immerse yourself in all the laughter your body needs.

“We can talk about it all day, but when people actually get to experience even just a laughter yoga exercise it helps them to really see or feel the benefits themselves,” Lauren said. “Everyone is always welcome to feel it themselves and once we share these laughter yoga sessions [we hope] these laughter exercises helps people to connect with themselves and tap into that laughter.”

To learn more about laughter yoga or book a session, click here.