The history of the origin of Laughter Yoga

Laughter yoga is a series of yogic exercises that are undertaken with the purpose of inducing laughter. Laughter yoga tries to reach your heart with some playful exercises and soon reaches the crescendo of excited belly laughter. The laughter while practicing this special form of yoga comes straight from the heart. People do not make use of tricks or jokes for practicing laughter yoga.

Laughter yoga is also known as laughter therapy and is known to have many health benefits. Some of the benefits offered by laughter yoga are as follows:

• It helps reduce stress.
• It enhances the immune system of the body.
• It strengthens the cardiovascular functions.
• It oxygenates the body by boosting the respiratory system.
• It helps in improving blood circulation.
• It is useful in toning muscles.
• It helps in digestion and constipation.

Ever since then, Dr. Kataria tried various methods for practicing laughter yoga with his friends and patients. Initially, he began his laughter yoga classes  through turn-by-turn telling of jokes. However, very soon the stock of good jokes was depleted and he resorted to certain psycho-social and playful techniques to arouse laughter in a group.

Dr. Kataria’ dedication and continuous research helped him find a branch of yoga called hasya yoga. Hasya yoga or laughing yoga  helped him obtain lasting belly laughter amongst his participants. He them designed the laughter exercises based on existing yoga postures and practices for maximum benefit. 

Dr. Kataria discovered that laughter yoga helps people feel more excited and enthusiastic. Scientific studies have also revealed that 20 seconds of a good, hard belly laugh is worth three minutes on the rowing machine. This however does not mean that you leave all the physical forms of exercises. It simple means that in order to have efficient and effective results, you must include laughter yoga or laughter therapy in your daily routine.

In order to know more about laughter yoga, log on to www.yogalaff.com. Yogalaff activity is a laughter yoga workshop that is conducted free of charge on a walk-in basis. Participants can join this workshop and have a good laugh periodically every week.

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