What is Laughter Yoga?

1-Aside from improving our moods, laughter can reduce stress, help fight infection, and reduce pain.

Laughter relates to positive thinking. The positive thinking helps us to improve our immune system and become healthier. It helps in removing the negative thoughts from our mind and not letting our immune system become worse further.

This exercise can do a lot when it comes to improving your overall physical health. A research from physicians at the HMO Group Health Cooperative in Seattle discovered that yoga can help reduce diabetes, heart disease, and even chronic pain throughout the body. In other words, yoga works on building muscles and increasing endurance.

Laughter is a therapeutic form. In the novel One flew over the cuckoo’s nest by Ken Kesey laughter represents freedom and an escape from nurse Ratched’s restrictions.

Patch may have been on to something since science itself claims laughter is good for the human body. For one, decreasing the pain you feel and helping your blood vessels to function better; allowing them to expand which increases blood flow. All of which is good for the heart and brain. (Hara Estroff Marano,

Laughing in itself is therapeutic. People laugh for many different reasons. Some people even laugh when something horrible occurs, it is a method of escape from what horrors or mishaps are going on around you. "Many psychotherapists find humor a valuable tool in helping their patients to solve their social and emotional problems." (G. Samuel) Chief bromden was

From the obvious and widely-reported physical benefits to the researched, studied, and documented healing powers, and mental and emotional benefits. So, when we look to yoga's effects, especially on the brain, it's not exactly surprising to find that there's benefits there, too.

Within this categorization, there are different types of laughter: mirthful laughter, pathological laughter, etc. Mirthful laughter, a lesser studied, but highly interesting type will be the focus of this discussion. A commonly held belief is that mirthful laughter and humor result in positive physical, psychological, and social fitness. With such a expansive area of influence, it is difficult to understand how such laughter influences the body.

To laugh is defined as: “to express certain emotions, especially mirth or delight, by a series of spontaneous, usually unarticulated sounds often accompanied by corresponding facial and bodily movements” (Dictionary, 2013). This simple act has been suggested to boost immunity, lower stress hormone, decrease pain, relax muscles, and prevent heart disease (Smith & Segal, 2012), and those are just the physical health benefits. Other studies have suggested that laughter is a great way to ease anxiety and fear, relieve stress, improve mood, and even enhance resilience (Bennett et al., 2003). Not to mention that sharing a good laugh with friends and family can bring these relationships closer (Bennett et al., 2003).

According to the Osteopathic.org website, yoga is proven to provide physical benefits of the human body, including increased flexibility, increased muscle strength and tone, improved respiration, energy and vitality, maintaining a balanced metabolism, weight reduction, cardio and circulatory health, improved athletic performance, and protection from injury. Not only are there physical benefits to yoga, but also mental benefits such as improving a person’s mental health and is proven to increase coping skills. Furthermore, the American Osteopathic Association states, “Regular yoga practice creates mental clarity and calmness; increases body awareness; relieves chronic stress pattern; relaxes the mind; centers

Laughter is something that breaks tensions, forms bonds between its victims, and can cheer up your day. It has been scientifically proven that laughter sends rushes of dopamine (the brain’s happy “drug”) to the brain, in which results in you being in a better mood. Everyone is different; hence, everyone will find their own definition of what is funny. Though, there are usually socially acceptable things to laugh at and to not within a community. For example, in America, it is not socially acceptable to laugh if you find out someone has died, or if someone is severely injured. First instinct is to cry, consult the family, and have alone time. However, in Felicidade Eterna, their first instinct is to make it a positive situation and laugh it

Most often as people age, life happens, and their social world changes; therefore, so do their sources for humor. Thankfully researchers observed that less humor led to a less enjoyable life. One particular study of “laughter therapy” done by Kuru and Kublay showed positive outcomes in nursing home residents. The National Cancer Institute defines laughter therapy as one that “uses humor to relieve pain and improve well-being. It may include laughter exercises, clowns, and comedy movies, books, games, and puzzles.” Kuru and Kublay concluded that “[a]fter the laughter therapy intervention, general and subscales (physical functioning, role-physical, bodily pain, general health, vitality, social functioning, role-emotional and spiritual health) quality-of-life scores of residents in the experimental group significantly increased in comparison with the pretest.” If nothing else, this conclusion should motivate nursing home administrators to incorporate some type of laughter or humor therapy into the daily schedule of their

The talk delineates a detailed picture regarding the power of laughing during stressful periods. Laughing is the simplest and cheapest method to deal with stress. It can relieve pain, reduce pressure, decrease stress, and help to protect self-respect and identity. The sense of humor existed in different countries from a long time ago. For instance, jokes about the Berlin wall in the Second World

The practice of yoga makes the body strong and flexible; it also improves the functioning of the respiratory, circulatory, digestive, and hormonal systems. Yoga brings about emotional stability and clarity of mind.

The benefits of Yoga are endless. It effects the human mind and body in a variety of ways. Roughly 15 million Americans practice yoga, annually there is an expected increase of twenty percent in participants in the United States ("Yoga Statistics"). While Yoga is often thought of as a practice that involves circus like poses and seemingly impossible flexibility; it not. Even bedridden patients can gain benefit from imagining themselves going through the poses and practicing breathing techniques that are appropriate to them (Dickenson 24-25). Yoga is not something that you do at the studio and leave behind. It becomes a way of life; leading to healthier habits, improving psychological health, and encouraging spiritual growth. An article on