All Articles, Featured, Health & Wellness

Laughter (+Yoga) Is The Best Medicine

Print This Post

March 5, 2010
	Jody England : Head Empowerment Ego

How long has it been since you really laughed? I’m talking about a full out, bust a gut, almost pee your pants belly laugh?

For me it had been awhile. I tend to be bit serious. I do have a sense of humor, but it is a little dry and mostly elicits small chuckles here or there when I’m really on a roll. So when I received an invitation from “Miss Lafalot” to join her new show on Blog Talk Radio I thought, hmmm…

Since I happened to be playing the Yes Game I decided to go for it and clicked to listen while I was doing some work at my desk.

She was doing something called “laughter yoga.” I had never heard of it and have to admit I thought it would probably be pretty cheesy, but when you’re a “Yes to Life” what are you going to do??

Say “Yes” of course!!

My daughter was home with me that day, (She’s 5 y.o.) so she stayed to listen too.

At first, I was a little uncomfortable. I mean this woman is laughing before the show even starts. She’s probably sitting in her little office or bedroom by herself, calling in to record her show and here she is laughing that it’s a great day and that we’re going to have fun together… hee, hee, hee….. being silly….  Ha, ha, ha… and releasing some tension…. Ha, ha, hee, hee, hee…

You can probably see why I was feeling a little like I’d stepped into the wrong room at the wrong conference and REALLY wanted to quietly slip out the back door without being noticed.

However, I AM a YES TO LIFE , and so I stayed.  The show progressed and Miss Lafalot had us face the East, squeeze all the tension in our body and then release it with laughter. As my daughter and I did this, I was completely self-conscious and didn’t know how I’d be able to get myself to laugh, but I DID!

According to Miss Lafalot, (Come on, even the name makes you want to giggle a little, doesn’t it?) your body releases the same chemicals and gets the same benefits from fake laughter as it does from real laughter. 

You know how relaxed and open you feel after a really good laugh?  That is largely a chemical reaction from your body.

As we faced South for the next squeeze and release, I was dutifully fake laughing and my daughter looks up at me with her teenage wanna-be face and says, “This isn’t even funny…”

I completely lost it. I started laughing hysterically! Then she started to laugh and we were practically rolling on the floor it was so funny. It was a great workout and an even better release. I loved it!

We liked it so much, we’ve been tuning in regularly to Miss Lafalot’s daily show. You should try it too.  It turns out this laughter yoga thing is an actual practice and you can get more into it if it turns out that it tickles your fancy.

“At the height of laughter, the universe is flung into a kaleidoscope of new possibilities.”  ~Jean Houston 

As for me, I’ll be tuning in as often as I can and saying Yes to laughing more and “Bee”ing Open to wonderful new experiences.  Hee, hee, hee….. ha, ha, ha, ha….

How about you?

Photo Courtesy of Doug88888