Laughter Yoga 101 – in Other Words, Basic Info.

Laughter clubs run on the premise that we laugh together for fun and fitness. There are many things we can do for fun and fitness, but none as simple as choosing to laugh and consciously do deep breathing exercises. You do not need any props, just a willingness to make it regular and do it. It is easier to laugh together in a group, that’s why laughing clubs have taken off all around the world.

Deep breathing has many benefits, some are to oxygenate and circulate our blood around our bodies. It also increases our lung capacity, strengthening the muscles around our lungs. We become more aware of how we breathe too and it encourages deep, diaphragmatic breathing, instead of the shallow upper lungs, which becomes automatic to breathe shallowly when we feel stressed or uptight.

Deep belly laughing gives us an aerobic workout, even more than exercising on a rowing machine, which you may find quite surprising? Then we have little, quiet, gentle breathing, which reminds us to calm down, be quiet, still. How beneficial to receive such a reminder?

Following are just a few of these, to give you a feeling of what we do at laughter club. Go to the Ferntree Gully Laughter Page click here.

Exercises:

Deep breathing – breathe deeply through the nose and out the mouth. We frequently do three big breaths and on the third out breath, we laugh loudly and at times, giggle it out.

Slow breath in short bursts – breathe in with short sniffing breaths, which is a type of basic yogic breath, following by a long slow exhalation through the mouth.

Chanting – between the exercises we shout ‘ho ho, ha ha ha’ three times and as well at times throw our arms up in the air and say ‘Very good, very good, yay’ twice.

Singing for health

I often mention we sing a lot, because it helps with establishing brain neurons, known as Neuroplasticity. The songs are often nursery rhymes or very well-known songs – you can do this yourself in the shower! Occasionally we use the song words, however generally we sing the tune with ha ha words, or humming, even he he he, because we mix them up. You can sing the words to remember the tune and switch into non-verbal, because it fires up the right side of the brain, also called the creative side of your brain.

Laughter exercises

We do the laughter exercises as in improvisation theatre, which helps extraordinarily, laughter attendees to tap into their own ingenuity, to be and feel inspirational and you are never the same again!!! Laughter is often referred to as ‘faking it till you make it,’ because you may find it difficult at first, which is rather to be expected than to the contrary. Because the body cannot differentiate between genuine and fake laughter, it relaxes and gets involved, providing the many and varied health benefits of spontaneous laughter.

Examples of laughter exercises

There are traditional, almost old as time, ones that we regularly do, such as

– Greeting – High fives, Namaste with hands in prayer position, shaking hands, other international ones too.

– Unbuttoning Cardigan – say ha, ha, ha, as one undoes each button and with the final button, a big laugh.

– Lion – good for the thyroid gland also – make like a mane with your hands by your ears, poke your tongue out, growl and laugh, clawing your hands around.

– Cup of tea – we jiggle it to ho, ho, ha ha ha, then throw the tea bag over our shoulder, put out our pinkie finger and act superior, pretending to be Mrs Bouquet, or have a Twining’s, or at the Windsor Hotel for high tea.

– Kookaburra – make Kookaburra sounds.

Basically, laughter exercises are both regular ones and with a lot of spontaneity throughout the session as well. When we do a Zoom one, various people from other countries bring the flavour of their country and share their favourite laugh.

Cheerio and do your best to be kind and gentle with yourself, have fun, at the same time exercising a good balance of hope and discipline. Bye for now, until next time, laughter blessings.

Feel free to contact us for a chat as we are friendly and love meeting people, as we are all in this together, this business of living a life. Thank you for your interest in reading this, did you learn something of interest today?

We would love to see you sometime, either when we meet in the park or on Zoom. We meet outdoors at 11am on the 2nd, 4th and 5th Sunday and on Zoom the 1st Sunday. You may also join the Meetup group, click the button below.

Lots of Love and Laughter, Lynette Mitchell. xo