What Is Laughter Yoga
Laughter Yoga is a unique concept where anyone can laugh for no reason without relying on humor, jokes or comedy. We initiate laughter as an exercise in a group but with eye contact and childlike playfulness, it soon turns into real and contagious laughter. The reason we call it Laughter Yoga is because it combines laughter exercises with yoga breathing. This brings more oxygen to the body and the brain which makes one feel more energetic and healthy. The concept of Laughter Yoga is based on a scientific fact that the body cannot differentiate between fake and real laughter if done with willingness. One gets the same physiological and psychological benefits. It was started by a medical doctor Dr. Madan Kataria from India with just five people in a Mumbai Park in 1995. Today there are thousands of Laughter Clubs in more than 100 countries
Why Laughter Yoga - 3 Reasons
1. In order to get the scientifically proven health benefits of laughter, we need to laugh continuously for at least for 10 to 15 minutes. Since in Laughter Yoga we do laughter as an exercise, we can prolong our laughter as long as we want. On the other hand, natural laughter comes for just a few seconds here and there and is not enough to bring about physiological and biochemical changes in our body.
2. To reap the health benefits of laughter, laughter has to be loud and deep coming from the diaphragm. It should be a belly laugh. It might not be socially acceptable to laugh loudly, but Laughter Yoga clubs provide a safe environment where one can laugh loudly and heartily without any social implication.
3. Natural laughter that courses through our life depends upon many reasons and conditions, but there are not many reasons which make us laugh. That means we are leaving laughter to chance, it may happen it may not. In contrast, in Laughter Yoga clubs we are not leaving laughter to chance, but doing it out of commitment. This is a guaranteed way of getting the health benefits of laughter.
What Happens In A Laughter Yoga Session
01
Laughter Yoga Session
02
Laughter Meditation
03
Guided Relaxation (Yoga Nidra)
All these components can be done one after the other if done indoors. But, like in Indian laughter clubs, which are normally conducted in public parks, groups only do laughter sessions and stretching exercises. Every Laughter Yoga session is led by a laughter leader or teacher, who explains and gives commands for different laughter exercises.
Four steps of Laughter Yoga
01
Clapping: We clap with our hands parallel to each other for full finger-to-finger and palm-to-palm contact and chant ho ho ha ha in unison. This stimulates acupressure points in the hands and increases energy levels. This is a kind of warming up exercise to loosen inhibition and shyness and for those who find it difficult to laugh without any reason.
02
Deep breathing: Laughter exercises are interspersed with deep breathing exercises which increase our breathing capacity and bring more oxygen to our body and brain.
03
Childlike playfulness: The objective of Laughter Yoga is to cultivate childlike playfulness which helps one to laugh without any reason, keeps the energy levels high and builds enthusiasm. We have special childlike cheers in Laughter Yoga clubs - ‘Very good very good yay!
04
Laughter exercises: Laughter exercises are the mainstay of the session. We do intentional laughter in a group but with eye contact and childlike playfulness, it turns into real laughter.
Hearty Laughter
In this exercise one laughs by throwing their arms up and laughing heartily, looking towards the sky. When you’re laughing heartily with your arms stretched out and mouth wide open, laughter comes from deep within. It’s a very good physical and psychological release.
Top 10 Laughter Exercises
Greeting Laughter:
It is always good to start the laughter session with Greeting Laughter as it helps to connect the group as they shake hands and make eye contact. This is called Handshake Laughter. One can shake hands and look into the eyes while laughing gently (Western way of greeting). The Indian way of greeting is to join both the hands (Namaste Laughter). Alternatively, a group can do a greeting gesture from different cultures and laugh at the same time. There could also be other ways of greeting, according to the region, state or country. This is followed by ‘ho ho ha ha ha’ chanting and clapping 5-6 times and deep breathing twice.
01
Clapping: We clap with our hands parallel to each other for full finger-to-finger and palm-to-palm contact and chant ho ho ha ha in unison. This stimulates acupressure points in the hands and increases energy levels. This is a kind of warming up exercise to loosen inhibition and shyness and for those who find it difficult to laugh without any reason.
02
Deep breathing: Laughter exercises are interspersed with deep breathing exercises which increase our breathing capacity and bring more oxygen to our body and brain
03
Childlike playfulness: The objective of Laughter Yoga is to cultivate childlike playfulness which helps one to laugh without any reason, keeps the energy levels high and builds enthusiasm. We have special childlike cheers in Laughter Yoga clubs - ‘Very good very good yay!
04
Laughter exercises: Laughter exercises are the mainstay of the session. We do intentional laughter in a group but with eye contact and childlike playfulness, it turns into real laughter
