Why is laughter yoga healthy for everyone?

Hello everyone. Today I want to inform you about Laughter Yoga. I discovered this in my quest to improve my own health and perhaps it can help you in the future too. I also know that if you started doing Laughter Yoga you would become more loving, among other things, so if everyone started doing Laughter Yoga the world would become a lot friendlier. That's already a beautiful thing, right?

Laughter yoga is something special that was invented by a doctor from India, Dr. Maran Kataria, who was also interested in the scientific results of what laughter does to a person. He developed this concept of Laughter Yoga in 1995. It all started in a rather pioneering way in a small park in Mumbai, India, with 5 people whom he had managed to inspire to laugh together. At first they all told funny jokes that made them laugh, but soon the comments to each other became less funny and sometimes somewhat disparaging and so on. Just not funny anymore. To which he thought, what if we start laughing about nothing! Laughter for no reason was born. That is also the name of his book “Laugh for no reason.”

You actually start by pretending to laugh, which eventually turns into real laughter, even shaking your stomach with laughter. You only experience the real positive things about laughing after laughing for at least 10 minutes, so laughing at the coffee machine does not give you the same positive effects as laughter yoga gives you. After a while it becomes one big happy intention when you all laugh about nothing. It's not just laughter, because it's called laughter yoga. There are also other exercises such as breathing, stretching exercises and some meditation exercises. We often start with clapping hands, which immediately massages and also stimulates abdominal breathing. The yoga exercises between laughter come from Hatha yoga. Laughter yoga is also an aerobic exercise because you train your diaphragm and your abdominal muscles very well, so who knows, you might even lose some weight! Did you know that 1 minutes of laughter is equivalent to 10 minutes on a rowing machine at the gym? Cool, right! It's also a good facial massage, all that laughter, so you still look young. 

The whole thing is a bit crazy at first, because we also act quite crazy with all those laughing exercises, such as moving with your arms and talking gibberish to each other, but you surrender to it and then you get used to it and it's over. very nice.

Laughter yoga really gives you a wonderfully relaxed and cheerful feeling. You feel more energetic, more tolerant, more forgiving, more loving, it's really great because your body produces endorphins all the time you're laughing like that. That's a happy hormone. Laughter yoga is good for everyone and it really works all day long. It also strengthens your immune system and there are many other benefits, but just see what it will bring you if you do it!

Maarten Janssen