Laughter yoga is a buzzing word in today’s pace-driven world. By bringing out your inner child, this yoga practice helps you to express yourself funnily and lightheartedly. Laughter yoga exercises comprise an array of movement and breathing exercises to encourage intended laughter. This yoga minimizes your stress level and also, reduces the chances of getting chronic diseases. By practicing breathing techniques, this yoga improves your uptake of oxygen that activates the parasympathetic nervous system.
The popularity of laughter yoga is increasing day by day as this yoga practice induces a healthy life. At present, this yoga is accessible in more than 110 countries and becoming popular online. Yoga experts are offering laughter yoga workshops in places like community halls, campuses, and workplaces so that people can lead a wholesome life.
How to perform laughter yoga
Laughing yoga is generally performed in a group, such as in a club or workshop. A deft yoga trainer encourages trainees/attendees through several exercises/movements to promote amusement and laughter.
Most sessions start with simple breathing techniques, followed by clapping, and finally, chanting to stay relaxed. For example, your yoga session may start with clapping metrically 1-2, 1-2-3 and finally, it will end with chanting like “ho-ho, ha-ha-ha.”
Initially, you may find it puerile; this exercise aims to promote a healthy life by leaving your ego at home. Laughing makes your mood lighter but you might be astonished to know its medical benefits.
The session can also comprise various exercise techniques, citing positive pronouncements, mild stretching, breathing exercises, and meditation. All these practices will make you laugh, stay relaxed, and take yourself lightly.
Laughter yoga never encourages you to laugh at others or jokes. This practice is a combination of deep breathing, laughing and physical movement. Laughter yoga is the best way to create consonance between your mind and body. In a nutshell, laughter yoga minimizes stress, promotes healthy well-being, lessens blood pressure, and makes you more socialites by connecting with others.
The Benefits of Laughter Yoga
Apart from uplifting your mood instantly, laughter yoga has many other benefits. If you practice this yoga regularly, it will help you to lead a healthy life.
1. Lowers Blood Pressure
Laughter yoga uses many funny movements and breathing techniques that will lessen your blood pressure. It also minimizes the level of cortisol, the stress hormone in your blood. By enhancing your mood and energy levels, this type of yoga cultivates a positive mindset. This is very much effective as aerobic exercise in reducing self-induced stress.
2. It is a Wonderful Aerobic Exercise
By practicing laughter yoga, you can burn more calories. Several experts believe that the calories burned during 100 laughs are equal to the amount burned during 10 minutes of rowing. Laughter exercise offers massage to your internal organs.
3. It Enhances the Oxygen Intake
By practicing laughing, you can take a longer inhale and exhale. It will rejuvenate your body with oxygen, which is a pivotal element of your body.
4. Improves Your Concentration
While laughing you inhale oxygen and thus, your brain performs more actively. With laughing your brain stays more focused and energetic.
5. It Improves Your Immune System
Laughter yoga will uplift the flow of the lymphatic fluid and enhance the number of lymphocytes (the killer cells of your body that prevent infection). When the numbers of lymphocytes increase, your immunity will also increase. As per the research performed by the National Cancer Centre in California and Linda Loma Medical Centre, Indiana State University, your immune system uplifts by 40% with laughter.
6. It Makes You Happy
Everyone feels rejuvenated after a wholehearted laugh. Though laughter yoga initiates with a forced laugh, it soon converts into a real one. Laughing stimulates the release of endorphins (the happy hormone). This is also a natural painkiller. To overcome the pain in your body, practice laughter yoga regularly.
7. Improves Your Respiratory System
Once you practice laughing, your heart gets invigorated with more oxygen. Laughing encourages flowing more oxygen into your lungs.
8. Improve the Health of Your Heart
To make your heart happy, laughter yoga is very much effective. Your blood vessels inflate when you laugh and it uplifts the blood circulation and makes your heart healthy & happy.
9. Improves Pain Tolerance
Several medical studies have been performed to check the level of pain tolerance and how it is related to laughter. It has been proved that people who perform laughter yoga have more pain tolerance.
Benefits of Laughter
- Laughing releases endorphins and “happy” hormones like dopamine and serotonin
- Laughing overpowers stress hormones like cortisol. Thus, laughter yoga improves your mood, reduces pain, minimizes blood pressure, strengthens your immune system, and lessens stress levels and depression.
- Laughing with others will make you more socially active. This will strengthen your bonding and relationships. Laughing is also related to the feeling of security and safety. A person can stay relaxed by laughing.
- Several health experts believe that your body can’t distinguish between fake (forced) and real (spontaneous) laughter. You can also get benefitted by doing forced laughs. But not many studies have been published that can claim how beneficial laughter yoga is for your physical and mental health.
- Though laughter yoga improves you mentally and physically, you should not replace it with your present treatment methods that are recommended by your healthcare provider. Laughter yoga can be used in conjunction with other treatments.
The Bottom Line
Laughing yoga has no downsides and it can be practiced by anyone to improve the quality of life. Laughing yoga influences you to express yourself less seriously by doing some funny movements. Laughter yoga practices, and breathing techniques will not only help you to stay away from daily stressors, but also make you rejuvenated. Though more studies are required to elucidate its benefits, there are no side effects of this practice. Hence, people can easily practice it without any second thought.
