Ho ho ho

Being healthy isn’t all about working out the body, to be healthy is to be happy. And what better way to be happy than to laugh?

Laughing is excellent for the body and the mind. There’s a lot of core work involved, it releases endorphins and increases happiness and feelings of wellbeing.

What happens if you’re not feeling happy though? If you’re fed up, having a bad day or are not in the mood?

Try Laughter Yoga!

Laughter yoga works on the principle that your body will experience the health benefits of laughing whether the laughter is genuine or not. In other words, your body can’t tell the difference between real genuine laughter and fake laughter. But where are these health benefits? According to BlueSkies.org laughter yoga helps to:

• Unwinds the negative effects of stress. Studies show that reduction in cortisol are sudden and long lasting. Stress is a serious health concern today and reducing its effects will have impact on our physical and mental health.

• Lifts mood by releasing endorphins and thus natural painkillers, increases feelings of caring, improves state of mind, increases optimism, confidence and self worth.

• It aids healing from illness and helps protect us. It strengthens the immune system, it is a powerful cardio-vascular work out and just 10 minutes of hearty laughter is equal to 30 minutes on the rowing machine! It increases blood circulation and relaxes the muscles.

• Laughter Yoga has the power to change your mood and outlook and there is a benefit in relationships and social interactions.

• Laughter Yoga can increase the productivity of the brain. The increase in oxygen means our brains are at the right level for optimal functioning, we feel energised and can work more creatively

All this from forced laughter? Sounds suspicious right? But actually, there is something to this.

The class I attended was a taster class so there were only 6 people, including the leader, there. I’m not sure how bigger groups differ but I imagine at the very least it takes them longer to stop laughing!

At first I was confused as to how this would work. Do we just laugh? Is there something to laugh at? What if it’s not funny?

The class starts with a small introduction to laughter yoga and to each other. We all say our names and smile at each other awkwardly. The warm up consists of some general deep breathing exercises and then pretending to laugh. At this point it is forced and looking around I can imagine everyone else thinking exactly what I am thinking: “this is really embarrassing…” However that thought lead to my first genuine laugh of the class. I realised that we were all grown ups, sitting in a room, in a circle on the floor saying “ha ha ha, he he he, ho ho ho.” so my first laugh was at our own expense.

Without giving too much away the session then continues with various laughing exercises based on real life situations where you may laugh. For example the greeting laughter where you mingle around the room ‘greeting’ the other members with a laugh, which is actually as funny as it sounds. Each scenario leads to more natural laughter, and it’s not about trying to laugh or trying to appear to be having fun, it is all natural.

The last laughing part of the class is a free-flowing type laughing where everyone is in a circle, facing each other. At this point I had tears streaming down my face with laughter. I could feel my abs tight, I couldn’t stop smiling and every time I caught a glimpse of my friend I seemed to laugh even harder in the “can you believe we’re here” kind of way.

The difficult bit is the ‘cool down’ section, where the laughter comes to a natural stop. Not easy when your brain keeps teasing you with memories of what you’ve just done and how funny it all was. The cool down involves some visualisation and focuses on calming the laughter and being present in your body, paying attention to your breathing.

All in all it was amazing. One of the best classes I have ever been to. No need for frantic exercising or high repetitions, no stress on the body. Just pure positive energy. i was genuinely happy all day afterwards.

In America they love this, and in India where it all started almost ten years ago, they do this daily. In the UK we have a very different attitude to things like this, generally very suspicious of any new-agey-american ideas. This definitely has some real benefits though, hopefully over time this will be the new Zumba, perhaps I am hoping for too much there!

I believe everyone should try laughter yoga at least once. Ignore that doubting stereotypical British voice and find your nearest laughter yoga class. If you’re in Edinburgh here is your local meetup:

http://www.meetup.com/Edinburgh-Laughter-Club-Laughter-For-Health/

Stay Happy!

References: http://www.blue-skies.org.uk/laughter-yoga/