With more than 400 clubs in the United States alone and 6,000 groups worldwide, Laughter Yoga, a good mood training, is gaining momentum. It's a contagious activity that helps you stop taking things too seriously and focus on the funny side of life.
If you'd like to laugh more often, and laughter is known to have numerous benefits, practice this type of yoga. Laughing is good for your health. By doing this regularly, you will regain happiness, now easily repressed by the serious, gloomy and hectic modern world. Reversing this trend and laughing more frequently can only be beneficial. Here's how to start practicing Laughter Yoga.
Steps
Step 1. Discover the purpose of Laughter Yoga, created in 1995 by Dr. Madan Kataria
Combine gentle yoga pranayama breathing, stretching and simulated, self-induced laughter. When laughter is practiced in a group, it soon becomes genuine. Some of the benefits of Laughter Yoga include the following:
- Health benefits. The benefits that laughter brings to health are many. After laughing, the beneficial effects last up to 45 minutes, favoring the cardiovascular system and reducing blood pressure. In fact, studies have shown that, in many situations, people who suffer from cardiovascular problems have a propensity to laugh 40% less than those who do not have such ailments. Laughing also speeds up healing.
- Stress Relief. Laughter is a means of reducing anxiety and stress. It also promotes a positive attitude and a feeling of happiness. After laughing for a few minutes, the stress level decreases.
- Laughing can be an aerobic workout. Laughter Yoga is good for the heart, diaphragm and abdominal, intercostal, respiratory and facial muscles. As this is a workout, endorphins are released, giving you a feeling of well-being.
- It allows you to recover playfulness in life. Babies laugh up to 300-400 times a day as they grow up, compared to 10-15 times for adults. Laughing helps reduce wrinkles, making you look and feel younger!
- Laughing can make you look more attractive in the eyes of others, improving your communications, relationships, and maybe even your love life!
Step 2. Accept that you don't need a reason to laugh
Just start doing it. Do the Laughter Yoga exercises. The next steps will explain the typical exercises of each lesson or session. The teacher or group could develop their own variations. These foundations are the standard. Knowing them will help you practice both at home and with the group.
Step 3. Clap your hands in front of the heart chakra
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Concentrate on your stomach and laugh while making the sound "Oh, oh".
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Focus on your chest and laugh by making the sound "Ah, ah".
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Constantly alternate between the abdomen and chest and laugh loudly making the sounds "Oh, oh, ah, ah, oh, oh".
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Step 4. Place your hands on your head
Laugh with the sound "Eh, eh, eh" in your head. You need to release her from the tension.
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Then, place your hands on your chest and make the sound "Ah, ah, ah" aloud.
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Place your hands on your stomach and make the “Oh, oh, oh” sound out loud.
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Focus on your feet and stomp the floor saying "Uh, uh, uh".
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Step 5. Run the Laughter Wave
Bend your upper body towards the floor, with your palms facing the ground. Focus on the soil. Raise your hands straight up. Make the “Ah, ah, ah, ah” sound as if you were playing a siren's song. Run the Wave of Laughter several times. Laughing, you connect heaven and earth.
Step 6. Do the Welcome Laughter
While in a group, look the other participants in the eye and laugh, do it until everyone is happy. At home, look in the mirror and welcome yourself. When you look in the mirror, there is always something to laugh about.
Step 7. Extend your hands to the sky
Focus on your chest and laugh making the sound "Ha, ha, ha" for a minute.
Step 8. Think of the mantra “May all living things be happy
Let the world be filled with laughter”. Look at all the people in the world and imagine them laughing as if they are Buddhas, gods or holiness of laughter.
Step 9. Perform the Om chant
At the end of the Laughter Yoga session, do the Om mantra for one minute. Sing it to your own melody. Feel in which part of the body it resonates best. Sing the Om until you have calmed down. Then, proceed optimistically with your daily life.
Advice
- Laughter Yoga is suitable for everyone, but will specifically benefit people under pressure, stressed or unwell.
- You don't need a yoga mat or other special equipment. Only comfortable clothes that allow you to laugh!
- Laughter clubs are free, non-profit, non-political, non-religious, and run by volunteers. At the most, you should pay a portion of the rent of the place where the practice is carried out or similar overheads.
- Laughter Yoga is also known as "instant yoga" because it is thought to bring about changes much faster than normal yoga.
