Laughter yoga Is called Yoga Because we use the Breath ! No Poses!

The goal of laughter yoga is to breathe and to laugh, not because anyone has cracked a joke, but because laughter is a playful, social, contagious thing. The "yoga" label is a bit of a misnomer. There are no downward dogs or inversions, just people coming together, for a short session of laughter. And it has become something of a global phenomenon

Laughter Yoga is a revolutionary idea – simple and profound. An exercise routine with many variations, it is sweeping the world and is a complete wellbeing workout. There is much laughing–but without jokes, comedy or humor. It’s a holistic way to deal with our stresses, our grief, our anxieties and fears.

Laughter Yoga exercises mind, body and spirit. Dive into whichever dimension is most accessible or compelling for you. Just bring your body and the mind will follow. You can always “fake it until you make it” if you need to.

Laughing Diva’s Laughter Yoga workshops integrate Laughter Yoga exercises and the Power of Exhalation, music, movement, juggling, meditation and more. The result is a powerful, energizing and fun-filled routine perfectly adapted to the types of stress and challenges facing the client group she is working with.

Stretch and Laugh workshops for seniors and adults with physical disabilities, everyone ends up feeling motivated, energized, and accomplished. Soul Sparkle is an empowering, fun, and sexy workshop for women and performing artists. Lighten Up is especially designed for college students to foster team-building and introduce stress management techniques.

Yumm Meditation™ can find its way into any of her workshops. It incorporates humming, deep breathing, mindful yumminess….and healthy, dark chocolate. Gibberish Meditation is one of the important modalities of Laughter Yoga. Laughing Diva has her own special take on this ancient stress-releasing technique.

We are not born with a sense of humor we can actually learn to laugh?  Our body and mind can be trained to laugh at will. A laugh lets all the stale air out of your your lungs.  Breathing is fundamental to our life. It would be difficult to survive if we stopped breathing even for a few minutes. From a medical point of view, this vital and life giving force in our breath is oxygen. Learning to laugh is like learning to ride a bicycle. Once you learn, you never forget it, just as any skill.

Repetition is the mother of any skill. This is evident in people that take Beth’s One on One Coaching. The repetition of any bodily behavior over a period of time leads to the generation of a corresponding emotion in the Mind. The brain develops new neuronal circuits for a particular body-mind activity that is repeated again and again.  

According to the principles of neuro-linguistic association and to scientific research, there is very little difference between thinking about doing something and actually doing it.

Thoughts in the mind, whether real or imaginary, produce similar physiological changes in the body. When a particular set of experiences are repeated over and over, the body develops a fast ‘Knee Jerk’ reaction that is triggered without involving thinking and the rational brain. This is called conditioning.

In her Corporate Wellness Programs the emphasis is on stress-related work issues. The fact that the the brain can be cheated by such conditioned reflexes is what interests corporate America.  Before the conscious brain can rationalize and think, the body starts reacting. In everyday life, this conditioning happens during both positive and negative experiences. Repetitive experience of any kind can lead to automatic conditioned response.  Beth uses juggling to enhance the connections in brain.

In all of Beth’s workshops members develop positive conditioning of joy and bodily experience of laughter. Clapping in a rhythm, chanting Ho Ho Ha Ha Ha in unison, and positive affirmations like ‘Very Good Very Good Yay’, are a few examples of bodily expressions of joy that are practiced repeatedly in all of her Laughter Wellness workshops. The brain responds by developing new neuronal connections to produce happy neuropeptides and hormones in the body that can be triggered by the repetition of this physical action.

One of the basic reasons for falling sick is the lack of oxygen in the body cells. This is because we don’t breathe correctly. Due to stress and negative mental states, our breathing becomes shallow and irregular. This leads to lack of oxygen and accumulation of carbon dioxide in our blood which further causes anxiety, stress arousal and emotional reactions.
  All of Beth’s exercises use breathing as the foundation for improved wellness and well-being.

Beth emphasizes this in her Stretch and Laugh. The secret of good health lies in the exhalation.  Exhalation should be longer than inhalation thereby ridding some of the residual air from the lungs and allowing more fresh air and oxygen for the next breathing cycle. This can be done effectively by contracting the abdominal muscles and pushing the diaphragm outwards. Combine this with laughter, and it becomes the easiest and the best possible way to regularize breathing, and enhance the supply of oxygen.

It is apparent that our state of mind directly affects our breathing. When you are upset or under stress, the breathing pattern changes.  It becomes faster, shallow and irregular.  When relaxed it becomes deeper and slower.  This unique dual feature of breathing is controlled by our subconscious mind.

  Breathing is the only function of the autonomic nervous system that can be consciously regulated or changed.  It has been shown that if we deliberately slow down our breathing, and take deeper breaths by using the diaphragm, we will experience a sense of calm and the mind will be more relaxed. Therefore, by changing the way you breathe, you can change your state of mind.

The goal of Laughter Yoga, in all of its variations, is to bring good health, joy and world peace through laughter. Laughter is universal with no language and cultural barriers. Laughter Yoga Clubs are fast growing into a worldwide community of like-minded people who believe in unconditional Love, Laughter and Fellowship. Every first Sunday of May is celebrated as World Laughter Day.