YT43 | Laugh away stress, negativity and troubles

Curious about how laughter can transform lives? Today on YanaTV we meet Ms. Suchi, the world’s only female laughter therapist who mastered over 100 exercises. Discover how Ms. Suchi transformed her life and many others by developing a unique approach to laughter therapy, blending it with stretching, deep breathing, and relaxation techniques. 

Ms. Suchi’s journey from a preschool principal to a pioneer in laughter therapy began with a personal tragedy and led to a profound passion for giving back and improving mental health globally. Learn how simple laughter exercises can have profound effects on stress, sadness, and overall wellness. Tune in to explore the power of laughter with Ms. Suchi and takeaway methods to bring more joy into your life!

Discussion Topics: Laugh away stress, negativity and troubles 

• What is laughter therapy and how can it change your life? Ms. Suchi introduces laughter therapy, explaining its components and benefits, and how it can significantly impact mental and physical health.
• What are some simple laughter therapy exercises you can start with today? Ms. Suchi demonstrates basic laughter therapy exercises that anyone can do at home to begin experiencing the benefits of laughter immediately.
• How did personal tragedy lead Suchi to become a laughter therapist? Learn about Ms. Suchi’s journey from losing her mother to finding her calling in laughter therapy, which transformed her approach to life and work.
• Why is laughter therapy particularly effective for stress management? Explore the scientific basis behind laughter therapy as Ms. Suchi explains how laughter interacts with the body’s stress response and brain chemistry.
• What other activities does Suchi engage in to spread positivity and wellness? Ms. Suchi discusses her roles beyond laughter therapy, including stress management seminars and her volunteer work with seniors, highlighting the broad impact of her work.
• How can you get involved in laughter therapy or volunteer to help others? Learn about opportunities to learn laughter therapy or engage in volunteer work with Ms. Suchi.
• Wrapping up

Transcript: Laugh away stress, negativity and troubles

Suchi: smiling and laughing for a few minutes is not enough these days because life has, everyone is very stressful these days. So, uh, what do they need to practice is belly laughter. So practicing belly laughter, the benefits of it is many people are not aware of it. They are not aware of it. So they think that even if you have a smiling face or you laugh for a few minutes, it’s going to help you to face the challenges of your life, but it doesn’t work that way.

So every now and then people go into depression. They feel low, sad. Some of them start to have suicidal thoughts and stuff. So practicing belly laughter for 15 to 20 minutes where you laugh from your belly is very, very beneficial for us to feel this way, like ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, that kind of mood

Yana: Welcome to Yana TV. Today our guest is Miss Suchi and she is the only female laughter therapist in the world who knows more than 100 exercises. Suchi, When we talk about laughter therapy, uh, How do we define that? What is laughter therapy? 

Suchi: known around the world is just the different types of exercises. What did I do is based on my experiences and my knowledge, I designed and weaved lots of activities together to create laughter therapy. 

Yana: What could be an exercise for laughter therapy we can all do? 

Suchi: So laughter therapy itself is, It consists of simple stretching, deep breathing, practicing various types of exercises for 15 to 20 minutes. That’s practicing belly laughter. After that, there’s progressive muscle relaxation, where I play soothing piano music with water sounds, use my voice to calm people down, and then there’s a Q& A. So that’s the whole, various steps of like a sequence, sequence of laughter therapy. When it comes to exercises.

We need to make sure that we have taken our meals at least half an hour to one hour before, before we practice the belly laughter. We need to make an eye contact when we do that. And we need to make sure that we do not really remember that we are this, we are that, but just be like a child and be in that play zone, play mood, yeah? Clapping is an important part of it as well. So make sure we clap this way, not like that anymore. So we activate acupressure points of our hand and we feel better. Okay. So if you’re ready to start, I’m going to. 

Yana: Is there just to make sure that we are safe, right? Are there any people who should not be doing it or should be, you know, check their doctor first before they do this or is it okay for anyone?

Suchi: okay for anyone and everyone should practice that it’s just that as I mentioned before that they should Have taken their meals at least one hour before practicing the exercises as we are going to be doing just one So it’s pretty safe for everyone to join us. 

So the very first exercise is handshake exercise. Now during COVID times, we don’t want to touch anyone’s hands and this is perfectly fine. So we just pretend to shake hands, right? A, there are sounds that we take deep breaths in so, A, A, A. Then we lock our hands. Lock.

Pretend to lock minutes and you crack its types of exercises. That was the very first one.

Yana: So those you do for about 20 minutes, right?

Suchi: Types of exercises. just handshake laughter. Then there’s Roti Paratha laughter, There’s a credit card bill laughter, where we check our bill and we laugh at how much we have spent.

There is Teh Tariq laughter, where you stretch your arms. So there’s some exercises, and then you laugh during those 15 to 20 minutes by using those exercises. They’re like Teh Tariq, Roti Paratha, Jungle theme laughter, Three Aged laughter. So there. Various types of laughter, uh, laughter exercises, which are picked up from coaches around the world.

Yana: And we know that overall, in general, it is really good to laugh. People know this. And then do you have like your own understanding? Why is it so beneficial for people actually to do laughter therapy? Yes. 

Suchi: smiling and laughing for a few minutes is not enough these days because life has, everyone is very stressful these days. So, uh, what do they need to practice is belly laughter. So practicing belly laughter, the benefits of it is many people are not aware of it. They are not aware of it. So they think that even if you have a smiling face or you laugh for a few minutes, it’s going to help you to face the challenges of your life, but it doesn’t work that way.

So every now and then people go into depression. They feel low, sad. Some of them start to have suicidal thoughts and stuff. So practicing belly laughter for 15 to 20 minutes where you laugh from your belly is very, very beneficial for us to feel this way, like ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, that kind of mood.

Yana: When you say belly laughter, like could you, could you demonstrate for us?

Suchi: is our belly. What we do is we do, if you’re starting and you’re just practicing it for the first time or second time, then you just need to make sure that you’re doing it right. So you place your one hand on your belly. So you breathe in from your nose, take a deep breath in. Okay. And when you breathe out, you breathe out from your mouth and go, So you should feel a jerk here. If it doesn’t, then you’re not doing it right. So most of the times people laugh from only this part of the body.

And they think I’m not, you know, they’re not feeling good or what, but they can change their energies. So this is based on neuroscience that when you practice belly laughter, your body energy changes, your body chemistry changes, your brain chemistry also changes. So practicing belly laughter for 15 very, very beneficial for all of us.

Yana: And so what we say, right, especially on the exhalation. So you inhale and then as you’re exhaling, you need to feel almost like you’re, there’s a bit of a trembling in your stomach, right? When you laugh. And then you know, you’re doing it correctly. I will try it home. 

Suchi: Yeah, so when you inhale, so you inhale live cheap prana all the good energies of the world like. Abundance and your good health and you inhale. So when you exhale, you’re exhaling negativity, toxicity, whatever is not working in your life, whatever you’re not happy with, just exhale and 

Yana: laugh Um, of course, so we also add like a mental element to this which is very important, right? So it’s not only physiological Action actually, but also it’s a mental focus. So that’s how so it works together

Suchi: It works together very

Yana: beautifully. I know that, I mean, laughter therapy sort of sounds very, uh, like joyful and I know a little bit of your story and I would like to talk, you know, with you today about it. I mean, the, the event that brought you into the laughter space was actually not so joyful. So would you like just to share with us, uh, like what happened and how did you decide that you want to become alaughter ambassador, I would say. 

Suchi: Thank you. Yes, it’s really, um, uh, important to share my journey when it comes to how did this all happen. So 11 years back when I lost my mom to cancer. Prior to that, I was working as the international preschool principal, just paying my bills and leaving or just surviving like anyone else, like not thriving the way I am doing now. When my mom was leaving, that’s the moment I felt that everything inside me totally changed.

It just changed me and made me a new person, where I became very aware of giving back to society, helping people, connecting with people in Rio, then thinking about the whole world. So, the idea of working on myself. self development, thinking about my legacy, thinking about the whole world. What can I do to make this world a better than the one I inherited? 

I just wanted to give back. So I would go to places like Uh, the wheeling hearts where I chop watch tables in the kitchen, I will go to workers dormitory just to spend some time with the migrant workers to talk to them and to ask them what their problems are, what I can do for them like distribution of fruits and stuff.

So I was finding my ways where I came across a local coach, laughter coach, Mr. Ram. So I picked up some exercises from him, let’s say 15 to 20. And after that, I became very interested in brain development, became interested in body energy, manifestation, Ikegai, and all these topics, just subjects just came to my mind and wanted to know more. And that’s how the journey started.

Yana: And here you are today. Sorry about your mom. for anyone who has to live through this, It’s like a big also initiation process when you really have to sort of finally find the stability and essence and core within yourself.

So thank you for doing that. I can see that, you know, you have been moving more and more in this direction with the work that you do. So besides laughter therapy, I know that you also do stress management. So let’s maybe talk a bit about this.

So we know what the stress, I mean, usually when there are so many things going on that the mind or body or sometimes together mind and body, I’m not able to handle it properly and to process and the person gets over, like overwhelmed, right? And this is usually the overwhelming feeling is what’s causing stress.

And these days it’s like almost everyone is stressed because everyone is overworked and just trying to do too much probably in 24 hours. So people understand that what is stress and to try to have less of this. So when we talk about stress management, maybe you can also give us like one or two exercises that people can do. Um, That would help them to have less stress.

Suchi: Perfect. Yeah. It’s possible for me to talk about this topic because I have been delivering talks in international conferences for more than five years now, and I have spoken at 300 conferences. So when it it comes to stress, it’s really important to first understand what stress is. So the way we are designed, the way we are designed and built. So whenever there is a threat, it might be a real threat or harm, or it might be a perceived one. When that happens, our brain starts to release a mixture of neurochemicals.

Norepinephrine, Adrenaline, and Cortisol. When that happens, we have this urge of, I need to take some action, I need to do something about it, I need to do, and that’s what is called stress. So if there is, everything is okay, you’re doing your part very well, you need to spend some time calming your mind down so that you can keep your stress hormones in check. Because the brain wouldn’t really know if the threat or the harm is a perceived one or a real one. So that’s what we all of us need to know. Oh, so God has designed me or whatever you believe in, the way I am designed in such a way that if there is a threat,

I need to take the action. That’s where my brain is tasked to release those chemi, neurochemicals. And I find that there’s, there’s an urge for me to take the action. And that’s stress. So as long as all of us keep, keep that in check, and we only get those neurochemicals, when there is really a need, we are going to be okay living a very peaceful and blissful life. So one, number one is Keep your thoughts in check.

Make sure what’s going on on your mind to keep reminding yourself that you are doing fine, you’re doing okay. Calm your mind, mind down a few times a day if there is a need, or at least once a day so that you are connected with yourself and you know how powerful you are. So that’s number one tip.

Yana: How do you do that? I mean, for most people who, uh, have very unruly mind, they find it very difficult to calm their mind. So

Suchi: yeah, it can be as simple as weaving that into your routines. Like can be at the beginning of the day when you are starting your day, you play some nice soothing music with piano sounds to sit, sit up straight and tall, close your eyes.

It 10 minutes. When you do that, you just have a grateful heart and just Visualize the day being a very successful day. Visualize your month, you’re going to be a very successful month. So you connect with yourself, connect with your superpowers. Sit up straight and talk, close your eyes, play any music which calms your mind down.

That’s how you start your day. So you can do it at the beginning of the day, you can do it in the middle of the day, during lunch time, when you are feeling very overwhelming, say, excuse me. You can go to near the water body nearby or in tree, garden, park. If it’s not available, it can be a real tree or an artificial tree. Just sit near water body and nature and then play the music. Close your eyes and connect with yourself. You will get that power back, which you might be losing due to the chaos in the day

Yana: power of the mind, right? Beautiful. So this is what you use. Basically use the mind to calm down the mind.

Suchi: Yeah.

Yana: I love that. Um, I also know that you do a lot of work in volunteering and I think particularly in a, is it a silver generation volunteer, right? With which organization? 

Suchi: Yeah. It’s uh, called SGO. Silver Generation Organization. And we work for AIC. Mm hmm. agency of integrated care. So we are, uh, serving the seniors, the elderly of Singapore

Yana: Singapore, right? How long have you been doing 

Suchi: that? serving the seniors for past four years as a silver generation ambassador. Before that, I used to voluntarily go, used to go to elderly homes, senior activity centers, wherever I find them. I might just push the wheelchair to take them for a walk or just spend some time with them when they are doing the activities, just assist them. And be with them. I used to do that. But now as a silver generation ambassador, officially I have been working with SGO for past four years.

Yana: And what we were discussing also, the main sort of interaction, I guess, is actually to go and have a conversation with seniors, right? So that’s what it is. It’s about human contact, eye contact, and, um, just, uh, being curious about their life. I’m so now I am curious, right? So after all those years that you have been doing that, are there any stories of men or women that may be like, just really standing out in your mind when you think about it?

Suchi: Yes, there are many. But just to show a few would be, uh, some of the seniors, uh, not feeling very good at the particular day when we’re visiting them. And we spending some time talking to them about the programs, the policies, the various information which they need to do, sharing with them and telling them that we really care for you.

Uh, there’s all these, uh, these subsidies are available for you. Uh, tell us if you need any kind of support or help or any assistance. Uh, When we do that, genuinely, it does make a difference in senior’s life. So there were times when we visited the senior, he or she might be feeling very low or thinking of committing a suicide or just feeling very depressed that particular day.

But our visit as a single generation ambassador. You does make a difference in their lives when we have a conversation with them, genuine, genuine conversations. And without judging them, of course, we listen to them attentively. So when we are leaving, when we say goodbye to them, then they say that, um, I feel uplifted.

I’m I’m going to take good care of myself. From today I will start moving around a little bit more. I’m not going to, Keep myself locked in my room. I’m going to go down to the senior activity area. I’m going to be exercising from tomorrow or today and I will take good care of my diet and stuff. 

Yana: When you look at seniors you have worked with and when we look at what is happening in Singapore, um, do you think senior people are happy or not happy here?

Suchi: I wouldn’t say all of them are happy because some of them are still learning how to, how to take good care of their, not, I wouldn’t say they’re learning. It’s wrong to say they’re learning, but they are trying to cope with, Inflation, they’re trying to cope with what’s happening around them, but our agency and our office people, our team is working regularly, like every single day to reach out to them and provide support to them.

So being happy is something I think it depends on how one perceives it when it comes to happiness. So some of them are working on it. Some of them have compromised with their lives. So this is how it’s going to be. And I don’t need to do anything about it and stuff. So overall is very important when we reach out to them, we talk to them about how can they be happier.

Yana: And teaching them, I guess, also through the tools, right? How to do that. And they just also, just as listening to you, I’m probably reflecting to myself and also just for our audience that if, you know, if you’re listening to it right now or watching this interview and you feel that you would like to contribute and you would like, you know, to volunteer your time, that here is one of the organizations and one of the ways how you can do that.

I’m sure that people are always needed who just actually just go and talk to people. Yeah. So thank you for doing this kind of work. You mentioned at the beginning that you were thinking about, like, why are you here? And What is your legacy going to be? So what it is maybe that you would like to create or what are you building right now? Would you like to share with us?

Suchi: Yeah, sure. Um, as I mentioned that 10, 11, 11 years back, I was complaining about life. I was just paying bills and stuff, not doing anything for the world. But after that there, there were some changes happened in me and I started to think about others. community, world at large. So I’m doing my part by, uh, spreading positivity, spreading laughter, peace, love around the world. And I, I would like to do it on a larger scale.

Like I would like to do it, uh, where I’m known to people. They can reach out to me, uh, as in when they feel low or they are having any, if they are having suicidal thoughts and stuff, because I have saved of 35 people who were having suicidal thoughts. They’re doing very well. One of them has more followers than me on social media. Uh, so I also saved 53 people from depression. Yeah. So we’d like to do it for, at a larger scale, where people know about me, they can reach out to me, and I’m, I don’t charge for this. Yeah, this kind of work.

Yana: Now you’re going to have like a line of people, you know, since you said that you don’t charge for this.

Suchi: I would love to reach out because the most satisfactory part is when you are able to save someone’s life. I feel very, comes, I to where the energy comes. I get energy to do more. Yeah.

Yana: So I guess we can, you know, safely say in the camera that again, if someone is watching right now and you feel a bit low, maybe you know with someone who needs a bit of help, right. And just kind of pick you up, then you can reach out to Ms. Suchi and then she would help you. 

Suchi: Yeah. Perfect. You they can do that. So in order for them to reach out me, they just need to Google my name. I have done a lot of work in the past year, so if they write Miss that Ms. Dot, S-U-C-H-I Miss Suji and if they Google it they’re going to find all of my social media handles and my work. 

Yana: That’s also going to be in description of this video by the way. Let me ask you maybe like a slightly different question. Uh, when you look at your younger self, maybe you, I don’t know, let’s say 15, 20, 25 years ago. Um, If you were to say something to that younger woman, what would you say today?

Suchi: Okay, well done. Uh, you are what you are today because you did what you did 15 to 20 years back. So, good job for being resilient and not giving up. I love that. I love that. And this is probably also the motivation for all younger people. And maybe the absolutely final question for today is we are coming towards the end of the interview. Is there a big dream that you have in your heart that you would like to be fulfilled? Yeah, of course, yes. I keep on dreaming about traveling around the world to spread laughter.

Yana: So that would be the big dream. Thank you so much for joining us today. And that was me switching on Yana TV. And as we said, there will be a lot of resources under this interviews with the therapy and also volunteering and exercises that you can do. And if you do feel that your Not very well right now in your life, mentally or emotionally as, uh, so just add them. You can just reach out to her and she will be happy to help you. So thank you so much for watching us today. I am very grateful for Yana TV being hosted at Muse studio. And please remember, subscribe to the YouTube channel and share this video with friends.

When we have conversations, they are becoming just so much deeper. Thank you. And see you next time. I I’ll say that I already feel more joyful just after this a few seconds Come.