When I heard a friend of mine mention “Laughter Yoga’ the other day, I asked if she was joking. Apparently not, as it was no laughing matter. She continued by saying, No one in such a yoga class wouldn’t be able to not laugh.
Laughter yoga is a practice involving prolonged voluntary laughter. It is based on the belief that voluntary laughter provides the same physiological and psychological benefits as spontaneous laughter. Laughter yoga is done in groups, with eye contact, jokes and playfulness between participants. Forced laughter soon turns into real and contagious laughter. The yoga is performed without any humorous reason to laugh, with one practitioner observing that, “The mind does not know that we’re faking it.” Even false laughs eventually became genuine, producing those infectious merriments and good feelings in the group that are healthy.
Laughter yoga sessions usually start with gentle warm-up techniques which include stretching, chanting, clapping, eye contact and body movement, to help break down inhibitions and encourage a sense of playfulness. Breathing exercises are used to prepare the lungs for laughter, followed by a series of “laughter exercises’ that combine the method of acting and visualization techniques with playfulness. Laughter exercises are interspersed with breathing exercises. Twenty minutes of laughter is sufficient to develop fully physiological benefits.
In the mid-1990s, laughter yoga was practised in the early mornings in open parks, primarily by groups of older people. Laughter yoga was made popular as an exercise routine developed by Indian physician Madan Kataria who said, I have never seen anyone dying of laughter, but I know millions who are dying because they are not laughing.
A handful of small-scale scientific studies have indicated that “Laughing Yoga’ may potentially have some medically beneficial effects, including benefits to enhanced cardiovascular health and a more gleeful mood. Depressed patients have been found to be as helped as with exercise therapy. A study by Oxford University found that pain thresholds become significantly higher after laughter and suggested that laughter produced an “endorphin-mediated opiate effect” which could “play a crucial role in social bonding”. Laughter yoga is seriously taking hold as a reputable workout and an infectious regime that helps to stop taking things too seriously and to concentrate further on a side-splitting mode of life.
Laughter yoga is a worldwide social movement that aims to promote world peace through laughter. It has beamed with perceiving the surge in independent community laughter clubs. A physically oriented technique, it is not a mental practice. You don’t need to be joyful or have a sense of humour. Its core premise is that your body can and knows how to laugh, regardless of what your mind has to say. Laughing is an easy way to bring more oxygen to the body and brain, foster positive feelings and improve interpersonal skills. Beginning in April, free laughter yoga sessions, 45 minutes long, are being offered in Renfrew County.
Laughter yoga is a fun body-mind exercise that’s a great stress buster and is a complimentary therapy for the likes of health and safety programs, team building, church groups, recreation centres, retirement homes, schools, youth organizations, support groups, etcetera. They are real-life experiences where a smile is a curve that sets everything straight.
Usually, when something appears to be, “too good to be true’, it turns out that it is too good to be true, but laughter appears to be the exception. There is a reason why babies spontaneously start laughing at a few months old and continue to laugh throughout their childhood. For many reasons most adults rarely laugh and only when there is a reason. Any sort of laughter has many benefits. Laughter truly is “the best medicine’.
On the other hand, there are some problems, if you are susceptible, you might laugh too impulsively. Cracking up at things nobody else finds funny would seem odd. Ever get in trouble for laughing in completely inappropriate situations or sometimes being angry and in an argument but end up breaking into the giggles? However, it’s not your fault the world is so damn funny!
Since my eccentricities already show through, I think rolling in the aisles with hilarity so frequently would tarnish my reputation even more, so I am hesitant. After all, I don’t even laugh going to the bank!
