Laughter yoga is a practice that combines movement and breathing exercises with laughter. It was created in 1995 by Dr. Madan Kataria, a physician from Mumbai, India. Dr. Kataria believes that laughter yoga can reduce stress, increase energy levels, improve quality of life, promote positivity, and increase people’s ability to cope with stress and stressful situations.
Laughter yoga is similar to traditional yoga practices, but it includes the addition of laughter. This helps to cultivate joy, relieve stress, and reduce the risk of chronic disease.
Before we dive into our practice, let’s take a look at a few benefits of laughter:
- Improves mood
- Releases endorphins and feel-good hormones like serotonin and dopamine
- Suppresses stress hormones like cortisol
- Reduces pain
- Lowers blood pressure
- Strengthens the immune system
- Lowers stress levels and rates of depression
- Increases social connectedness
- Improves relaxation
- Heightens feelings of security and safety
Research conducted by Vanderbilt University Medical Center has revealed that laughing for 10 to 15 minutes burns between 10 and 40 calories. While this is not a significant amount, there are worse ways to burn a few calories.
The research also found that your body cannot tell the difference between fake and real laughter, so you can reap the benefits of laughter even when you are faking it.
Laughter yoga, like any other form of exercise, may not be right for everyone. It involves some physical exertion and intra-abdominal pressure. If you have any of the following conditions, you should not practice laughter yoga:
- Any kind of hernia
- Advanced piles
- Any persistent cough
- Epilepsy
- Heart disease
- High blood pressure
- Severe backache
- First or third trimester of pregnancy
- Have given birth within the previous two months
- Anything with acute symptoms
- Incontinence of urine
- Major psychiatric disorders
- Surgery within the last 3 months
A typical laughter yoga practice has five segments that start with warm-up followed by deep breathing exercises, childlike playfulness, laughter exercises and ends with laughter meditation.
There are three basic types of laughter exercises:
- Yogic laughter: These exercises are based on pranayama or yoga postures.
- Playful laughter: These exercises are designed to help people move from simulated laughter to real laughter.
- Value-based laughter: These exercises are intended to build positive feelings and program new automatic responses into the subconscious mind.
Laughter yoga has steadily increased in popularity since its creation in 1995. It involves several beneficial aspects of a traditional yoga class with the added benefit of making you happier.
Also Read: Yoga: Modern research shows a variety of benefits to both body and mind from the ancient practice