My first cousin did a “Laughing Yoga Session” as part of her Hen Night in Brighton which I thought a bit odd at the time – but it definitely beats running round with “L” plates on your back waving a bottle of vodka. I didn’t think about it again until saw it somewhere else and then I saw it somewhere else again and now it’s pretty much everywhere.
“It’s a lot simpler and definitely more fun that traditional Yoga, the art of Laughter Yoga aims to keep people healthy through laughter. It’s a known fact that laughter has a positive effect on our body and mind, but sometimes life gets you so down, you can’t find one reason to laugh. With Laughter Yoga you don’t need a reason to laugh. This relies on the premise that your body can and knows how to laugh, regardless of what your mind has to say about it. You don’t need to know jokes, be happy, or even have a sense of humor to practice Laughter Yoga. It’s a body-mind approach, not mind-body.”
For it to work, you have to laugh wholeheartedly for long periods of time, between 30 and 60 minutes, for no reason at all. You just have to leave all your problems and worries at the door, and laugh like a child with no care in the world. It sounds fake and it is! Germans love it… Haw Haw Haw (see left).
fake it, fake it, and then you’ll make it”
Laughter Yoga is already a popular practice used in prisons (see image advertising this post) in Asia. John Cleese has tried it in India and he’s not surprised it’s the fastest spreading type of yoga in the world.
