laughter yoga (ha ha ha for post # 200)
Now that I am a woman with few responsibilities, I took the time to look through the community education catalog that came in the mail about a month ago. There were many interesting classes that caught my eye, but the class on Laughter Yoga seemed especially intriguing. Who doesn't like to laugh? Besides I had heard about it recently in a book I read by Gretchen Rubin "The Happiness Project" Her blog can be found here. This book outlines her attempts to make her life happier and she developed a year long project. One of the many things she tried was a Laughter Yoga class but she didn't like it. Not the best recommendation but it was enough for me that she didn't like it to tempt me to try it. I like the challenging of liking something that other people don't. I have always been for the underdog.
I had images of people doing the downward dog, laughing so hard they would toot, and then tip over - or pee their pants. I had no idea what I was in for until about an hour before the class. I googled "laughing yoga" . Everything you want to know about laughter yoga can be found here.
There were about 5 other people in the class. I noticed that everyone who entered the classroom looked like someone who would enjoy the class - happy people, positive people and people who I would like to know and hang out with. There was a lot of good energy in the room.
The instructor was a young girl from Jamaica who also worked as a stand up comedian. The first thing she had us do after various introductions was to lay on the floor with our heads on the stomach of someone else. What an icebreaker. Why didn't I think of something like this for my staff meetings back in the day? We were supposed to then laugh even if it was a fake laugh. The realization that I was laying with my head on the tummy (I am a pediatric nurse and forever will use the word "tummy" instead of "stomach") of someone I had just met was enough to make me laugh. Then I laughed because the person whose tummy I was laying on laughed and my head bounced up and down, causing my tummy to bounce up and down, making the person laying on my tummy laugh. We did this for quite a long time, it seemed but it only was about 3 minutes according to the instructor. She said our goal would be to do it for ten minutes by the end of the series of classes.
We did a lot of other similar games and it was kind of like being forced to be a kid again including
an exercise where we laid on our stomach and were supposed to scream out our frustrations and have a tantrum. I found that hard. Either I am very suppressed or I don't have any frustrations, which I find hard to believe. It was easy for me to flip over on my back and laugh hysterically though
It turned out that there weren't really any yoga poses in the class. We did use breathing and some stretching though. Despite that, I left the class feeling amazingly good. This class might not be for everyone and some might find it ridiculous but I think spending two hours laughing with other people is time well spent.
It is sad that one has to force laughter. Adults laugh only about 10 times a day while children laugh about 200 times a day. We laugh less the older we get which is sad, but I guess understandable, because life gets harder.
Laughter has been called "jogging for the brain" - it increases good hormones such as endorphins and neurotransmitters, and decreases the levels of the stress hormones. Laughter has also been called "aerobics for the face". It takes seventeen muscles to smile and 43 to frown. Using all of those muscles to frown just creates more wrinkles - and who needs those? And just think how many calories you burn when you have a good belly laugh! Your brain can't differentiate between a fake laugh and a genuine laugh. So even if you have to "fake it till you make it" it is good for you.
Babies have the most genuine laughter of anyone. It is too bad that they grow up and laugh less and less often.
I had images of people doing the downward dog, laughing so hard they would toot, and then tip over - or pee their pants. I had no idea what I was in for until about an hour before the class. I googled "laughing yoga" . Everything you want to know about laughter yoga can be found here.
There were about 5 other people in the class. I noticed that everyone who entered the classroom looked like someone who would enjoy the class - happy people, positive people and people who I would like to know and hang out with. There was a lot of good energy in the room.
The instructor was a young girl from Jamaica who also worked as a stand up comedian. The first thing she had us do after various introductions was to lay on the floor with our heads on the stomach of someone else. What an icebreaker. Why didn't I think of something like this for my staff meetings back in the day? We were supposed to then laugh even if it was a fake laugh. The realization that I was laying with my head on the tummy (I am a pediatric nurse and forever will use the word "tummy" instead of "stomach") of someone I had just met was enough to make me laugh. Then I laughed because the person whose tummy I was laying on laughed and my head bounced up and down, causing my tummy to bounce up and down, making the person laying on my tummy laugh. We did this for quite a long time, it seemed but it only was about 3 minutes according to the instructor. She said our goal would be to do it for ten minutes by the end of the series of classes.
We did a lot of other similar games and it was kind of like being forced to be a kid again including
an exercise where we laid on our stomach and were supposed to scream out our frustrations and have a tantrum. I found that hard. Either I am very suppressed or I don't have any frustrations, which I find hard to believe. It was easy for me to flip over on my back and laugh hysterically though
It turned out that there weren't really any yoga poses in the class. We did use breathing and some stretching though. Despite that, I left the class feeling amazingly good. This class might not be for everyone and some might find it ridiculous but I think spending two hours laughing with other people is time well spent.
It is sad that one has to force laughter. Adults laugh only about 10 times a day while children laugh about 200 times a day. We laugh less the older we get which is sad, but I guess understandable, because life gets harder.
Laughter has been called "jogging for the brain" - it increases good hormones such as endorphins and neurotransmitters, and decreases the levels of the stress hormones. Laughter has also been called "aerobics for the face". It takes seventeen muscles to smile and 43 to frown. Using all of those muscles to frown just creates more wrinkles - and who needs those? And just think how many calories you burn when you have a good belly laugh! Your brain can't differentiate between a fake laugh and a genuine laugh. So even if you have to "fake it till you make it" it is good for you.
Babies have the most genuine laughter of anyone. It is too bad that they grow up and laugh less and less often.
This is my favorite video of Desmond - you can't help but laugh or at least smile after you see this.
So, on the eve of the tenth anniversary of 9/11, I am vowing to find more laughter in my life - mostly hopefully laughing at my self. I won't burden the world with negativity - there's already enough of that to go around.
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