Stress Management Yoga

Laughter yoga creates relaxing atmosphere

The Oklahoma City residents practice laughter yoga together.

Laughter yoga combines traditional yoga breathing exercises with laughter, said Ellen Mercer , a certified laughter yoga teacher in Oklahoma City. Mercer said this form of yoga began in 1995 in India when Madan Kataria, a physician, began researching the benefits of laughter. Mercer said 60 to 65 countries worldwide practice this alternative exercise.

“I think it's good for him to hear his mom laugh, because just in your normal day, you don't laugh as much as a mom,” Barker said. “I know here, he was responding to my laughter because he doesn't hear it that often.”

During the sessions, participants begin by sitting in a loose circle. After an introduction, they push the chairs aside, and warm-up exercises begin.

No humor required

One warm-up exercise includes saying “ooh, ahh, hee” and clapping. Throughout the session, eye contact and childlike playfulness are encouraged, Mercer said.

“It's a concept where anyone can laugh without relying on humor, comedy or sense of humor,” Mercer said. “We use laughter as an exercise to bring about health, joy and world peace. You can't be mad when you're laughing.”

After warm-up exercises are finished, the instructor explains the next exercise, and participants walk around the room and make eye contact with one another as they engage in the exercise. Mercer said laughter during the classes usually becomes real and often contagious.

Mercer said sessions should last at least 20 minutes, but longer classes allow for more development in other areas such as new exercises and guided

Healthy benefits

Mercer said some benefits of laughter yoga include a better immune system, lower blood pressure, cleared sinuses and improved breathing and brain function.

Becoming a certified laughter yoga instructor requires training, Mercer said. Between 12 to 14 hours are spent in a classroom as an instructor shares videos of techniques, foundation exercises and advice for creating personal exercises.

Oklahoma City resident and certified yoga instructor Pete Fredrick said he became involved with laughter yoga about two years ago after his friend mentioned it. Fredrick said he attends two weekly laughter yoga sessions.

Fredrick said he uses laughter yoga for stress management, and it helps him put things into perspective.

“I think we're all just too tense because of 24/7 whatever,” Fredrick said. “If you could de-stress somehow, you would be a better person, and how you react to other people.

Stress Management Training: Laughter Yoga | Health Book

Modern lifestyles have become too stressed out and more so in the workplace where everything is being taken far too seriously for everyone’s good. Most people are also under the mistaken impression that only serious people are responsible as well as more productive. The truth of the fact is that productive people are people who are serious about their work but who also can take themselves more lightly. According to research it has been established that laughter is a great weapon with which to resolve common stress related issues at the workplace.

Laugh Non-Stop

So, if you are considering undergoing stress management training then consider learning more about Laughter Yoga that is a cutting-edge stress management training method that can enable people to laugh non-stop for between fifteen and twenty minutes interspersed only by short breaks in which they need to perform yoga breathing exercises.

When it concerns stress management training and more particularly Laughter Yoga it is pertinent to note that in the course of our daily lives we tend to laugh only very occasionally and this is not enough to change our psychological makeup. A stress management training method such as Laughter Yoga can provide the necessary amount of laughter in our lives so as to relieve tension and stress and in this simple way make us calmer and happy.

It pays to learn more about what Laughter Yoga is so that you will get to know what you should expect from this form of stress management training. It has in fact been found that anybody can laugh and do so without any valid reason for laughing and also without needing to rely on humor or jokes or even on comedy. By laughing long enough it is possible to succeed in driving out stress from your lives.

In stress management training methods such as Laughter Yoga you will learn that laughter can be turned into a group exercise in which besides laughing you will also need to make eye contact with others and indulge in childish playfulness which has the effect of making laughter more contagious and when you join in the fun you will start forgetting about whatever was causing you stress. And. when everyone laughs with you (and not at you) you will, along with the yoga breathing exercises, find that more oxygen will start to enter your body as well as the brain that in turn will make you feel healthier and more energized – and a lot less stressed out.

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