Laughter yoga
What Is Laughter Yoga
Laughter Yoga (often called by the media Laughing Yoga or Yoga Laughter) is a form of exercise initially started in India akin to internal jogging that promotes the use of laughter as a form of physical exercise. Nobody really knows who invented it nor when it first appeared, and there are no mentions of it in the ancient Yogic literature. Several eye-witnesses (US and UK servicemen) reported seeing villagers gathering on daily basis just to laugh in the 1940s. http://hasyam.org claims to have been formally teaching and promoting it since 1970, but not to have invented it
. Whatever its origins, Laughter Yoga owes its modern success to a family physician, Dr Madan Kataria, who modernized its practice by greatly simplifying and making accessible to the common man the teachings of earlier laughter pioneers who taught very similar concepts starting in the 1960s.
It quickly grew in the mid 1990s as a grassroots social movement of independent laughter yoga clubs, promoting the ideal of a non-political, non-religious, non-racial, non-threatening, and non-competitive voluntary (simulated) approach to laughter.
Its core premise is that your body can and knows how to laugh, regardless of what your mind has to say. Because it follows a body-mind approach to laughter, participants do not need to have a sense of humour, know jokes, or even be happy. The invitation is to “laugh for no reason“, faking it until it becomes real. Laughing is an easy way to strengthen all immune functions, bring more oxygen to the body and brain, foster positive feelings and improve interpersonal skills.
6 Laughter Yoga Exercises to Try
Make like a Lion and thrust out your tongue, widen your eyes, and stretch your hands out like claws while laughing.
How do you laugh when nothing's funny? Just open your mouth into a wide smile and force the breath out. You may feel silly at first, but when you're in a group of people committed to laughing, the make-believe version often transforms into the real thing. A typical Laughter Yoga session involves some warm-up clapping and chanting ("Ho, ho, ha, ha, ha"), a few deep breaths with prolonged exhalation, 15 to 20 minutes of laughter exercises interspersed with deep breathing, and then 15 to 20 minutes of laughter meditation. Here are six ways to get started:
1. Greeting laughter
Walk around to different people with palms pressed together at the upper chest in the Namaste greeting or shake hands and laugh, making sure to look into other people's eyes.
2. Lion laughter
Thrust out the tongue, widen the eyes, and stretch the hands out like claws while laughing.
3. Humming laughter Laugh with the mouth closed and hum.
4. Silent laughter
Open your mouth wide and laugh without making a sound. Look into other people's eyes and make funny gestures.
5. Gradient laughter
Start by smiling and then slowly begin to laugh with a gentle chuckle. Increase the intensity of the laugh until you've achieved a hearty laugh. Then gradually bring the laugh down to a smile again.
6. Heart-to-heart laughter
Move close to a person and hold each other's hands and laugh. If people feel comfortable, they can stroke or hug each other.
To learn more about Laughter Yoga or to find a club near you, go to Laughter Yoga