Laughter Yoga

I was ill last week and did not make it to class but our topic was laughter yoga.  I did a little research on the topic, because to be honest, i've never heard of laughter yoga before in my entire life.  My first impression or idea when I heard about laughter yoga was that it was doing funny yoga poses and then that would make you laugh.  I didn't find it helpful to read articles about it because I still felt that I couldn't picture what was going on.  I found this really good youtube video that explained it really well!  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAIiZkETCOc&feature=fvst  This video explains how you can use laughter yoga with two specific populations:  geriatrics and corrections.  It helped geriatrics restimulate their senses and corrections lighten up.  Laughter yoga is defined as combining unconditional laughter and yoga breathing.  There weren't speicfic poses that the participants did but just had their hands up and laughed.  An interesting fact I learned from the video is that there is no difference between fake laughing and real laughing when it comes to the psychological effects.  So when the participants are faking all this laughter they are still getting positive releases and psychological effects as if they were with a group of friends waiting for something funny to happen.  The last point that was mentioned in the video was that even though good things come out of laughter yoga, it's not a good thing to mask or bury your problems by laughing and laughter yoga isn't a cure all. 

Two other cool websites I found were the Laughter Yoga International Website.  (http://www.laughteryoga.org/) and a wellness blog (http://www.wellnessforyoufirst.com/39706.html).  These websites give testimonials and trials of how laughter yoga has helped people and done wonderful things for communitities.  Overall, laughter yoga is a good way to relieve stress and has been proven to help people self-efficasize in a work setting.  It allows you to forget everything that is going on in your life and let go to relax.  It also has positive effects on various systems in the human body.  There are a lot of disorders that are caused by stress including:  depression, anxiety, ulceration, etc.  Laughter yoga is a good way to let go of that stress before it detrimentally harms you.

I feel that laughter yoga could be implemented in a lot of different populations.  As it was seen in the video it helps with the elderly population because it stimulates a lot of activity with some of their senses instead of just sitting there.  Also seen in the video was corrections and how it can lighten their day.  Anyone has the ability to laugh, and the way we laugh is unique to each person; so laughing together can create a sense of unity beteween a group of people.