Play Your Way Every Day With Laughter (with Heidi B Barkwell)

Today’s special guest is Laughter Yoga Teacher, Heidi Barkwell (aka Heidi BWell). Heidi has been laughing for the past 15 years. 

In today’s episode Heidi opens up about how Laughter Yoga saved her life, changed her life, and continues to maintain her life. 

I learned so much from Heidi and loved hearing about her personal experience with breathing, laughter, and ADHD. 

This episode is jam-packed with so many fun, simple laughter and breathing games that you can practice anywhere to move through heavier emotions or energy you may be feeling, and to raise your energy up!

Find Heidi and Calgary Laughter Yoga here: https://www.calgarylaughteryoga.com

About your Host:
Lauren Tatner, founder of Law of Happy, is an inspirational teacher, attorney, author, wellness arts practitioner, and inspirational clown. She is certified as a Reiki Teacher, Consulting Hypnotist, and Meditation Teacher, Laughter Yoga Leader, and Fitness Instructor Specialist. She also trained in Theatre, Dance, Zumba, Voice, Mediation, Public Speaking, Improv, Clown, Comedy, Past Life Regression (with American Psychiatrist, Dr. Brian Weiss), Shamanism, and Qigong.

Lauren has always been fascinated with the mind, body, and spirit connection. She is passionate about teaching the power of laughter, meditation, and movement in a fun and relatable way. When Lauren gives talks and leads workshops in the corporate and private sectors, she uses a unique approach that integrates elements of her diverse skills and experience.

Lauren is the mother of twins and a rescue pup.

- Follow Lauren on IG @TheLawofHappy
- Watch & Laugh with us on YouTube
- Interested in laughing with Lauren on the show or in a customized workshop: Get in touch

Transcript

0:10

Welcome back to the Law of Happy Podcast. I'm your host, Lauren Tattler. I'm an attorney and I teach laughter as an exercise. When we laugh, we feel good, and we raise our energy. This allows more good fun things to flow into our experience. This is the Law of Happy, so let's laugh half fun and practice the law of Happy together. I'm so excited for you to meet today's special guest Heidi. Barkwell. Also known as Heidi B. Well, Heidi has been laughing for the past 15 to 16 years. She became a laughter yoga leader in 2008, a laughter yoga teacher in 2013 and was awarded laughter ambassador by Dr. Katara. Daria the founder of laughter yoga in 2018. And today's episode, Heidi opens up about how laughter yoga saved her life, changed her life and continues to maintain her life. It was such an inspiring chat with Heidi. I learned so much and especially appreciated hearing about Heidi's personal experience with breathing laughter and ADHD. This episode was also jam packed with so many fun simple laughter and breathing games that you can practice anywhere to move through any heavier emotions or energy you may be feeling and to raise your energy up I met heidi through our mutual laughter yoga friend duncan cook thank you Dunkin. we're both so happy that you connected us Please join me in giving a warm welcome to heidi

Lauren: 1:31

Heidi, I wanna welcome you as a guest of the Law of Happy Podcast. I'm so happy you're here. Thank you for being here.

Heidi: 1:37

Thank you so much for inviting me, Lauren. I'm super excited to be here.

Lauren: 1:43

I. Me too. Me too. So Heidi I'm gonna, let's just get right into it. You're a Laughter yoga teacher. Yes. And I'm so excited to be speaking with you and laughing with you and I'm wondering where you'd like to start. How did you get into Laughter Yoga?

Heidi: 2:02

Okay laughter Yoga started for me. Actually my whole life, when I was a little kid, first year, first eight years of my life, I was this happy go lucky little kid in a really great family dynamics. And then about the age of eight, nine, my parents divorced and it was a really harsh time in my life and I really. When that happened with all the arguing, fighting I, I lost my laughter. And when I became a teenager, I was, there was nothing to laugh about at all. And I. It took me, I needed to lo like I think it happens to lots of us. We lose our laughter and then when we find it again, it's like a rebirth of who we are and then it helps us to peel back all the armor we collected that was thinking errors and taking on business we never had to take on. And these layers and armor, it took a long time to. Kinda dmm, but with laughter. Laughter teaches us to lighten that load and not take ourselves so serious. Because when we're younger, we're serious. Look at how I am. Look who what I got. Look where I've been. We're so serious. Like when we're kids, we laugh. Then we get to that adolescent and we take everything super personal, super serious, and we put all this armor on. And then when we get older, we go, Hey, what, why? Why am I not laughing at this? Why am I carrying all this armor? That's not necessary anymore that we've accumulated because we're creatures of habit and We get into comfort zones, and when somebody wants us to move out of our comfort, zone, we balk. Don't tell me I'm comfortable here, but change is the only constant. And with laughter, makes change simplified. Without being able to laugh like you, you're gonna, how are you gonna change? Being mad, you're never gonna do it. But if you're laughing with all them thinking errors, and when you get. Rejected and redirected. You use it with laughter and you can laugh about it and go, aha. That's why that happened.

Lauren: 4:38

Heidi, I, there's so many amazing parts. Like you, you said so many incredible things and broken it down in a way that I haven't Thought about or expressed it. And I, love what I'm, everything that I'm learning from you and what you said. So when you're a child, we can laugh freely, then something can it happens in, in, in our lives. There are ups and downs. And so when we experience something that can be challenging, we can forget how to laugh, and then we start taking ourselves and everything so seriously. And then laughter, the laughter, yoga or laughter as an exercise or choosing to laugh brings. The laughter back into our lives and peels back the armor. I love everything how you described that the chronology with when we're a child and then when we grow up and how you brought the laughter back and it helps with change.

Heidi: 5:24

Because again, I was happy. Mad or happy, sad, mad, and then glad, and now I'm rad. This is me putting it in all the little increments of my life because I, started out really happy then. I was super sad. And then when a teenager, I was mad and and, then things turned around. When I first started becoming a Laughter yoga leader in 2006, actually, I started as a caring clown. At the Sikh Children's Hospital in 2006, I graduated as a therapeutic caring clown at the Sikh Children's Hospital, and I was a big bee, Heidi b and my, humble bee. And my puppet was Bumble and let's be together and be okay. And then I was glad in my life and again, then, because life is an up and down thing, there's no, and then I, got stagnant. And I, kept having failed relationships because I'd still had all this armor. From what I thought a relationship was supposed to be. And so I reunited with my dad after 23 years and moved, shaved my head, sold my house, got rid of everything I owned, and went to Belize and met my dad. And when I met my dad, I went, whoa, the coconut did not fall far from that tree. No wonder. And yeah I, we opened a sports bar and I had a bit of a relapse when I was down there, and then I came back to Calgary and regrouped my poop and became a teacher. I was already a certified leader and then became in 2013, became a, teacher. Laughter, yoga saved my life, changed my life, and it continues to maintain my life because yeah it, life isn't always happy. It just isn't.

Lauren: 7:26

I don't even know where to what to dig into because so many profound important things. Discuss and, get to know more about, but would you so, many key things. You mentioned that light in life, there are ups and downs, that's normal. We're all human and we ups and downs and we experience all of the different emotions. That's normal. And whatever we are feeling in the moment we can acknowledge it and feel it. But then if we choose if we want, we could feel a bit better. Feel a bit better. And also what you mentioned about how it's a you described a bit of your practice or that it's been a journey and I think that. For everyone. We're all human, having this human experience and learning and evolving and hopefully evolving and practicing as we go along. And so it's a continual exp

Heidi: 8:19

practice. Absolutely. And we're preaching the habit. Repetition's the mother key to success. Yes, exactly.

Lauren: 8:28

Can we, for our, for ourselves and for our listeners, can we do a laughter exercise just so that people can get a feel

Heidi: 8:36

for what it's like? Absolutely. Okay, so let's just we'll, just do a breath because laughter really exercising is breathing the whole thing. When we're not breathing, when we're angry, we hold our breath. When we're, we hold our, this is the number one. Disease in this planet is stress. And when we're stressed, we don't breathe. And laughter creates breath work. Laughter's the highest form of meditation and breathing. So all I want us to do is take a big breath in through our mouth. And sigh out through your mouth. Ah, big breath in through your nose. This time and this time, sigh out through our mouth. Ah, and one more time, we're gonna breath in and we're gonna giggle out. So we're gonna breathe in through our nose. Big breath in. Hold it. Hold it. You can always shake it out on the end, but really, truly when we reset ourselves, and this is a great laughter exercise to reset ourselves is we can use the five fingers. So the big breath in, you just hold your hand out, like your opened hand and take a breath in up your thumb and giggle out. Big breath in going at the index finger now and gig the index up the ring finger. Come down the other side, giggle it out, he, and then the other finger, big breath in and giggle it out. He breathe in. And Gigg, we call that the hand laughter. You can use this anywhere. When you're sitting at work, when you're walking wherever. You can do a silent laughter. If you're in a place where you can't laugh out loud, you can laugh silently and just go up into your hands. Remind yourself and just breathe five times and this will reset you again if you're feeling anxious, if you're feeling depressed, if you're feeling before coming onto a podcast like I'm here feeling a little anxious and nervous, excited energy, I will breathe out my palm, my just breathe out my five breaths from my palm and reset me to keep me in balance.

Lauren: 11:46

What a brilliant exercise that is so effective and efficient, and you can do it anywhere like you said. I love it. Heidi, I've never done this one before, so you're

Heidi: 12:00

really just Okay. This one? Yeah. From the bottom. This one has been, it's around the laughter yoga community. It's not an original. I did not create this. This is something that I've learned too. So the palm of your hands starting at the bottom of your palm, and you can go down, start, breathe up to the top of your thumb. You trace your thumb. Trace your thumb. Come down to the other side of your thumb and breathe out. Then up to your pointer finger. Breathe in all the way to the top, and then come down the other side. Trace it out and giggle it out. And again, tracing the whole hand, each going to the top of the finger, giggling down, breathing now and giggling down. Okay. It reminds

Lauren: 12:41

down and giggling down. Okay. It reminds me of like, when you're a, kid or you have your hand on a piece of paper and you're just, you're tracing it with a marker or a crayon or

Heidi: 12:51

whatever, too. Yes, and this is another one just you can do by yourself anywhere you want. You can visualize it if you needed to, if you're in a place where you know, and sometimes again with us being emotional beings, emotion creates emotion. And a lot of times what we do is we stuff all that down and then people. Get angry and snap, and then they go, oh, they're crazy. No, because they didn't move that energy. We're just energy. So these little tips and tricks that will teach us is just to move your energy. Because disease is disease. You're holding it, you're not breathing, you're carrying it in your chest and your belly, which creates disease, which creates. Problem. So this is why I always say activate your own medicine cabinet and be your own big pharma. Be your own c e o because your health is your wealth. We have a lot of little playful words that we use. Fake it till you make it. And these little things you can keep in your laughter toolkit. And and even we use a pencil, that's another one that we use, is a pencil in our mouth. Oh, okay. I was gonna put it on my

Lauren: 14:16

approval.

Heidi: 14:16

Okay. Between your teeth, you can do that too, but you can bite on the pencil because this gives your mouth in a laughing motion. So the body cannot differentiate between real and fake laughter. And if it's done with willingness, you're gonna reap all the benefits. Psychologically, physiologically, and you're, just oxygenating every cell in your body and this is the whole purpose of laughter as an exercise. Yes.

Lauren: 14:44

Thank you for explaining all of that. And yes, I like this exercise where you can put the pen or the pencil between

Heidi: 14:50

your teeth because you're, yeah, you're in school or. You're getting

Lauren: 14:55

Your, mo in a smile like position. Yeah. And

Heidi: 14:59

it goes into a smile like position and you're turning your, you're actually creating your mileage,

Lauren: 15:06

right? Because there's so many benefits of just

Heidi: 15:09

exactly. Create your right on a pencil or just smile. Even when you don't want to, and we say fake it till you make it, because again, the body doesn't know the difference. And you're gonna, you're gonna reap all those benefits.

Lauren: 15:27

Exactly. It's so profound where you say that laughter. Saved your life. Changed your life and maintains your life. So you mentioned, so saved your life. So because you're using laughter as a way to feel better, to feel good

Heidi: 15:42

It just saved me for myself. Like the saying is, Namaste, get out of our own way. Most people, we create our own drama. And I was too angry to be able to get outta my own way. But once I started using laughter as exercise, it taught me not to take myself so serious. And it taught me to lighten up and be able to go, oh, and laugh at myself, oh, I am just a human. He, And to be able to laugh at myself. And this is an exercise we do. We point at ourselves and we laugh. It's the ego buster. We all have ego and we we just, and we trip and fall and maturity. We get back up and we laugh at ourselves. That's life. Motion creates emotion. We wanna go through that. You don't wanna suppress anything you want. All these we're, a cable of energy. This is a power pose right here. Even just this hands up is a power pose. Putting your hands straight up and breathing. This changes your whole dynamics in your body and you're releasing. And we with this one is yes. Yes. Another power pose. Bringing your hands up going, yes, I am mad. Yes. I'm Bring your hands up. Yeah. Put your hands straight up and reach, and then you, yes. And then you've

Lauren: 17:16

pumped, you bring them down as if you just scored a goal or something. Yes. Yes.

Heidi: 17:20

Okay. Yes. Yes.'cause you wanna release that energy, right? And and then like for me, my whole life I had to pull my foot outta my mouth because I had such a potty mouth and I didn't have a filter. And I said things a lot of times that I didn't mean, and I hurt people, but I hurt myself. By doing that, I felt terrible after. So the one trick we use also in Gibber in the laughter yoga community is gibberish. So when you're really angry, God says, and then everyone looks like you're cuckoo for cocoa pops, and you just laugh it off. They start laughing. Everybody's laughing, and then you can start at an even, table because everybody what were we, fighting about? Because we're laughing now. And this has been a really good tool for me, especially driving. Tell me what

Lauren: 18:20

you do when you're driving. Are you referring to if you're in

Heidi: 18:22

traffic or, oh, yeah, because driving is very hard nowadays. We have a lot of distracted driving. Okay. Go ahead, pluck your eyebrows while you're driving. Yeah. Go ahead and read that magazine or be on the phone while you're driving. I don't get it, but, Sometimes that can be very disturbing for me. And then I give'em the unicorn horn and I know that's not good, but I'm human. It's, like that's what I used to do. So to rechange that behavior, I go, ah, So Heidi, pull my finger out. I'm pointing and like going, aha. Okay. So not

Lauren: 19:09

your middle finger now. Instead you're,

Heidi: 19:12

choosing to, it's my little pointer finger, but in a playful way going Yes. Where you're shaking like, I'm not gonna, I'm not.

Lauren: 19:32

I like that. I like that one. So you can redirect to the It

Heidi: 19:38

can feel like range of frustration. Wanna, you still wanna release it? Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And have fun with our emotions.'cause a lot of people go, oh, I don't like when I get mad. Or, oh, I hate being a control freak. Or I, don't. Or a lot of people don't even see themselves, but see selves, see those great shadowy selves of ourselves and poke fun and play with yourself. Promote longevity, accountable, young heartedness. Yeah, and just play. Yes, Yeah,

Lauren: 20:14

exactly. You're saying you're incredible. You just keep saying all these golden tips

Heidi: 20:21

and reminders.'cause I'm in the golden years kid. So what happens when you reach this age? You, really do. You, it it's a blessing to get older. I used to go, oh no, I don't wanna get older. My, all these laugh lines and my wisdom lights and, but really, truly, it's a blessing and. We can learn to laugh and we take laughter serious when we get older. We don't need comedy, humor, or jokes. We laugh for no reason. We don't have to be stimulated by something. When you choose laughter as an exercise and you practice it like I've practiced a long time, now, I can laugh easy. Before. Oh it, took a lot.

Lauren: 21:05

Yeah. Yeah. I can relate because a lot of us, we we're kids. It's one thing that the laughter can flow freely and then something happens, life happens. We're told things from adults and we suppress our laughter And then a lot of us are it's helpful to refine it and laughter yoga, choosing to laugh as an exercise is an incredible way for so many reasons to bring that laughter back in. And there are so many benefits and I just get so excited'cause you are sharing. So many be like, there are endless benefits and I love everything that you're highlighting.

Heidi: 21:37

And and mother nature's cleverest trick at keeping us healthy, happy, and safe. It's right in your own pharmaceutical medicine cabinet, right inside yourself. Choose it. Yeah, because Exactly. Yeah. It's cheap medicine so get ahold of your medicine cabinet now. Activated it, keep it going like again, it, it saved, it changed me and maintains me.

Lauren: 22:07

I wanna ask you, how do you, how Heidi, how do you maintain it? Because I always say, and always remind myself that we're all human and no matter what we know, teach, practice, we're human. So we can have a day or a period or a moment where we forget, we get caught up in a, let's say, Not so great feeling or emotion. And we can forget how to access

Heidi: 22:29

and use our tools. And so how every day I can forget in a high, moment that I have to remind myself.'cause that old Heidi, it will always come back. We're only human, right? You're always gonna have good guy, bad guys. It's just how it is and we can't be. You have to be gentle in the process.'cause I was a master of beating myself. I was the master of self-sabotage, and that just made me always go back there. So now me learning to be gentle with myself, allowing me to be angry, allowing that anger to flow through, because that's not me. It's just a feeling. So I'm not gonna attach myself to it. I'm gonna let it go through me, but I'm gonna use a gibberish. So I don't hurt myself or anybody else while I'm saying it. The same with crying. If I feel that day, I'm, what am I doing in my life? We don't always have it together. Then a retro moon comes in and I'm Meno pausing and I got. I, got I'm, tearing up my eyes for what? I don't know. I'm just crying. So I just let it happen and then let it go and giggle at it. Give myself a hug and say, oh, thank goodness you're human kid. Good. You're still in there. Good job. And let it go. Again, letting it go is really a big thing. For me,'cause I used to carry everything. So again, it's practice. When I wake up every morning I laugh and tap. So I do I used to do five minutes, laugh, silence five minutes, five and five. I do 10 and 10 now. So laugh and tap. When I get up, I laugh and tap. I, tap out my body. I tap out my face. This is just to get all the lymphatics in our body going. Just to get everything and tap out my wrinkles, my laugh lines. Get everything going, and I giggle and I awaken, and then I do a 10 minute silence. And my intention, what I want for that day, I don't think about what I need to do. I don't think about what I have to do. I just think, ah, today I want it to be whatever is on my plate for the day. I have to work. I got three meetings. I want them all to be successful, and I just breathe into that. And just, and if I don't have a no day, a lazy daisy day, and I just, I do that and I do that every morning. I'm on three and I, have an accountability calendar, so I keep it on my fridge and I have meditate, laugh, fast and workout. So these four things I want on a daily. For me. And then I do the happy face when I laugh. I do the meditation straight face. I do an X that I worked out, whether it's eye roll or skate every Friday night, or I go swimming, I go play, or I work out and do a stretch and breathe. And then I fast. I've been doing an intermittent fasting because, Just for the change, for more energy because I'm a little bit of a glutton. I like to eat all the time. I like to I hear you. It's been really good. And I'm on, so I'm on 373 days of the meditation and laughing and I'm on 37 days of the fast, and I've been working out for my whole life. I have to. Being as high energy. I've, had, I've been diagnosed with A D H D and I didn't go on any kind of pills or anything. I, thought, oh, that's just, my brother said, oh, that's just selective. You're a selective listener. But truly, when I've looked into it and read about it, I went, oh, that's why. I'd be here and then, oh here and then here and here. And then this is where the anger came from. And then when I was really excited, I like just talking now, I said 18 things and then nobody can keep up. And then everybody goes slow down. I'm so excited. So learning to breathe and laughter has made me laugh at myself and go Calm down, hides. It's okay. Explain yourself It's a journey, but I really truly I'm, in, I'm, I pay forward laughter because laughter is taught me how to do everything in a more lighter way. A playful way. I'm playing my way. Yes. I'm just playing my way every day for a new day and just going with it really. It's incredible.

Lauren: 27:22

I I just wanna take in everything that you've said because you've said so many important things and there's so many benefits to laughter and you mentioned A D H D and I I, can relate and I think that A D H D can be is I know that the word superpower is, getting used a lot these days, but I really believe it's it's a gift because it's, what I feel what it represents or means to me or how I see it, is it's a lot of creative and credible energy that flows through you. I'm, listen, I'm not a medical

Heidi: 28:02

no doctor,

Lauren: 28:04

but but, that's how I see it and feel it is that it's, incredible creative. Amazing energy that flows through you. And then with the laughter and the different tools that you described, like the different the, laughter, the breathing, the tapping, your accountability calendar, like all the different tools that you implement and incorporate into your life allows you to use your gifts in a such a beautiful. Yeah. Way that flows and benefits you and the world because you have such a beautiful energy. Like I just wanna keep talking to you. Laughing and playing you're, such a bright light and I just wanna follow you around.

Heidi: 28:53

It's a busy, make sure you get a roller skates on. It's super fun. I am a super blessed little individual, but again, with age and we have to check our moral compass. And not every person on this planet, if I could say we live in a place right now where We have a lot of mental health issues and I don't know anybody who doesn't. That's the human animal experience, and I say be your own mental health guru. Make your own laughter program, whether it's laughter, but make sure you're exercising, you're eating right. Sleep is huge. Sleep deprivation causes a lot of problems when you can be your own guru. Get. Tips and tricks from whoever or what resonates to you. Make your own guru package and create yourself, but it's all within, like if, you go think you're gonna get it from someone else, you really aren't. You have to do your own work and be your own. Own advocate and promote yourself. Promote longevity accountable, young heartedness. This came to me in a little bit of a dream and I, think it was my spirits guides going. Just get it.'cause you've been told so many times they're tired. I dunno. I just know I'm a blessed little kid. And it somehow it worked and I'm so grateful and thankful and yeah, I'll always laugh and share the laugh and Yeah. I'm so happy to be here. I'm

Lauren: 30:37

so happy you're here. And literally here if, a guest it's an honor and like I just wanna keep talking,

Heidi: 30:44

you're

Lauren: 30:45

amazing. And I just wanna ask you something, Heidi, is there something that I did not ask you but you think that I should have? And what would your answer be?

Heidi: 30:55

I guess the only thing is My name, I didn't really introduce myself, did I? So my name is Heidi Brenda Barkwell, and that's a horrible last name. I was teased my whole life and this is how Heidi, I took out the a r K and said Heidi, be well. And my mantra became, be willing to be well with laughter. And I've stuck with that. Now yeah. And it's super fun and playful, Heidi. Be, be willing to be well with laughter. And I have to remind myself all the time because I still have days where I'm not feeling it and I don't really feel like doing that and then I fake it till I make it and then I'm laughing going, oh, never glad I did that. Yeah. It's funny. We're just human in this great experience and yeah, we're just laughing our way together. Yeah, exactly. We're moving our way home and we're laughing all the way.

Lauren: 31:57

Yes. It's it's a great reminder and fun. So thank you for for sharing that. And also, how can people find you?

Heidi: 32:06

Okay. So I am with Calgary Laughter Yoga. Dot com. You can go to calgary laughter yoga.com or go to Facebook and go to Calgary. Laughter Yoga. We have a free session every Sunday at 5:00 PM Mountain Standard time. And you can come join us every Sunday for free. I work with an umbrella of leaders and teachers. We're for hire. If you wanna hire any one of us, you can go to the webpage and see us all in what works for you. And the other thing that you can do is every night at 7:00 PM Mountain Standard Time, you can go to laughter yoga international.org. Or on Facebook, laughter Yoga and Dr. Madran Kataria, he is the founder. It started in 1995 in a Mumbai park, and now we're at 27, 28 years of Laughter yoga. And the mantra is, yes, take your life serious. Just don't take yourself so serious. Take laughter. Super serious

Lauren: 33:18

and practiced it.

Heidi: 33:22

Oh my gosh, thank. Thank you so much. Thank you so much, Lauren, for inviting me. This has been amazing and you're amazing and thank you so much for having me. My pleasure.

Lauren: 33:36

Thank you so much So Heidi, thank you so much and big hugs

Heidi: 33:42

And, lot hug. Big sweet, please kid. Yay. And and

Lauren: 33:48

yay. And we'll do a a goodbye laughter exercise right where we wave and laugh.

Heidi: 33:53

Sure.

Lauren: 34:15

Okay. Bye. Thank you.

34:17

Thank you for having tuned into this Law of Happy episode. If you smiled, laughed, or felt inspired, please subscribe, rate, review, and share the Law of Happy podcast with someone you'd love to have fun with. And if you'd like to laugh with me as a guest on the show or in a customized program, you can email me at lauren@lawofhappy.com. I look forward to laughing with you soon.