Scientific research shows that laughter produces health benefits that help prevent and heal cancer. Happily we can also access these health benefits without any need to find something funny, as the body cannot tell the difference between “real” and “simulated” laughter. So we can practice unconditional laughter – laughing for no reason at all. This is sometimes called the practice of laughter yoga – but the body cannot tell what you call your laughing

To be physiologically beneficial laughter needs to be hearty – from the belly. It also needs to be for an extended period not just the few seconds that we normally laugh.

Of course laughter is psychologically beneficial as well as physiologically. It can instantly quell anxiety and improve our mood. Even more profoundly, laughter connects us with transcendent awareness. We’re fully present and at the same time free of identification with conditioned experience. When laughing, we find ourselves completely at peace with life.