Laughter Yoga Therapy

Laughter is free, anyone can do it and the more you do, the better you will feel. Have you noticed how freely our children laugh? Statistically, children laugh between 300 and 400 times a day, as compared with adults 15 – 17 times a day.

Laughter has never been more important than it is now because as we grow older, we become serious and lose the beneficial habit of frequent laughter. Laughter gives an immediate release of tension and uplifts the spirits.

With regular laughter comes the ability to renew one’s sense of humour, get back in touch with the inner child and experience increased feelings of joy. Who could dispute that children have fun?  We need to give ourselves permission to be silly. Forget our issues and challenges and simply be silly, laughing at anything and everything, when appropriate of course and through that, we release inhibitions and learn to laugh again.

Health and Social Benefits of Laughter Yoga

There is much scientific that has been done on the many beneficial outcomes to be had from laughing. Recent investigations by Robert Provine suggest that laughter is a form of communication, probably the first one in the human race, which later evolved, with the liberation of voice from walking and breathing, into human language.

The benefits of laughter are many as can be seen online at Wikipedia. This article is thorough, explaining a little about laughter and the brain and health. Being an aerobic exercise, 100 laughs equals 10 minutes of rowing, which gives your internal organs a massage. Deeper breathing oxygenates the blood. Laughter strengthens the immune system, releases feel good endorphins, lowers blood pressure and it also brings people together. Laughter helps to open our hearts and we feel connected firstly with each other, then with our own internal self.

Fake Laughter Becomes Spontaneous

In addition, our subconscious mind does not recognise the difference between fake laughter and that of real belly laughter. To that end, it can be developed and used as a practical daily exercise in order to improve our health and well-being.

Are you ready and prepared to ground more laughter into your daily life? You could very simply arrange to get together and do laughter exercises with friends, however at least consciously laugh more with yourself each day. Try it. Several times during the day, consciously laugh for one full minute at a time for you gain improved health. One minute of full belly laughter is of equal benefit to the lungs as doing ten minutes of rowing. The idea of laughter is to have fun and look for ordinary things to laugh at. No doubt our kids will support us in this endeavour and as they grow older, we can help them to keep laughing instead of losing this God given ability.

Here is the link to Dr Kataria's latest YouTube video entitled "I don't feel like laughing but I will try!". It is quite entertaining and will give you the idea of a well known saying 'motion creates emotion'.  If you want to change your state, choose to do something else.  This helps you to move out of a less conducive way of feeling and being, to a more positive one.  Try it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUkPGL4zQyw&feature=player_embedded#!