Laughter Yoga - The Idea, Plus Some Example Exercises

I have recently become fascinated with the idea of laughter yoga. It seems that those people who have positive personalities tend to laugh a lot. They usually have less illnesses and stress than those who dwell on their situations. This can play a part in helping to live happier, longer lives.

Too little laughter in our lives can have serious consequences for our mental, physical and social well-being. For me, this is reason enough to find out more about how laughter therapy can help.

Contrary to normal ideas, most laughter does not come from jokes; it comes from relationships between people. Laughter therapy works to boost the immune system, helping the body and mind fight illness and eliminate stress.

Well documented and ongoing research in this area has led to new and beneficial therapies being used by doctors, and mental health professionals, using humor and laughter to help patients. Remember the old saying 'laughter is the best medicine'? Well it might just turn out that this is more true than you can imagine.

Similar to traditional yoga, laughter yoga incorporates breathing, and stretching techniques, along with laughter. The therapist usually uses a structured format, including several laughter exercises, for a period of half to three-quarters of an hour.

Here are some warm up and dynamic laughter activities you can practice at home, but remember such activities always work better when practiced in a group. These exercises should be practiced for two or three minutes each, with a short break between to catch the breath.

The 'Namaste' exercise is a good way to begin; ideally with a partner, bring both hands together in front of your chest with your palms touching (as if in prayer). Your hands could be at the chest, below the chin, or above your head. Close your eyes and bow your head. The Namaste gesture is often done in conjunction with the pronunciation of the word Namaste. In India however, the meaning behind the gesture is so clear that no verbal explanation is needed.

The first time add a smile, then shake hands with your partner and broaden the smile to a grin, then, ideally with another partner, Namaste again with a laugh, then continue and greet the whole class.

Next you could try the Conductor Exercise. Play some stirring music and then imagine you are the worst conductor in the world. As you direct your orchestra, you sing made up words to the tune, even la la la ha ha ha if you cannot think of any words. In a group every one is conducting, no one is listening.

Another good one is counting 1 to 10; sit on the floor, in a circle if in a group, and say the numbers one to ten, modulating your voice so that one is very soft and TEN is very loud. Try to all keep at the same pitch; move this on, by using laughter instead of the numbers.

Cleaning Fun; for this exercise, you have an imaginary long feather duster and are trying to dust at the limit of your range. Dust very carefully and smile, and then very briskly and start to laugh. Cleaning is fun, fun, fun.

In the Kick Boxing Laughter exercise, you attack an imaginary opponent, with sharp stiff kicks and punches with your hands and feet, while at the same time laughing ha,ha,ha he, he, he with each punch or kick.

One last example is the 'Electric Shock Treatment'. For this one, you walk carefully around the room; at every third step, you get an electric shock. React by jumping up and down and shaking your arms, to relieve the shock - all the time laughing.

While these exercises do not appear very funny when described, it is amazing how practicing the physical act of laughter seems to reinforce itself. This causes you to act the way you do when amused by a joke or funny situation and your whole system is 'fooled' into responding positively.

The benefits of laughter have long been recognized; these types of therapies can play a valuable part in helping some of us to get more of this great medicine into our lives.

This squidoo lens has some great information about laughter therapy