IMAGE GALLERY: Laugh in at Brooksby Village

Brooksby Village was filled with laughter Wednesday morning.

Robert Herrick, a certified instructor from Tewksbury, led his monthly hour-long laughter yoga at the facility. Herrick instructs the class through exercises that encourage participants to move about the room, if they can, and laugh. Exercises have included clucking like a chicken and raising one’s arms from the floor to ceiling in a crescendo of laughter.

“People think when you hear it that you’re just going to go and tell jokes, but that’s not it at all,” said Janet (Jan) Stoffregen, who lives at Brooksby Village and organized the club there. “After an hour, you’ve really spent yourself, and it’s all good breathing and you really feel great."

“People are really enjoying themselves and getting a workout at the same time,” said Mary Landry, Community Resources coordinator, Brooksby Village. “Word is spreading and more and more people are attending each week.  Plus it’s a great way to meet new people.”

“I’d say you laugh quite heartily and you’re not laughing at each other, you’re laughing with each other,” Stoffregen says. “I think it’s therapeutic, healing, and laughter is excellent medicine.”