Wikipedia defines laughter yoga (Hasyayoga) as a practice involving prolonged voluntary laughter. Laughter yoga is based on the belief that voluntary laughter provides the same physiological and psychological benefits as spontaneous laughter.
When done in groups, with eye contact and playfulness between participants, forced laughter soon turns into real and contagious laughter. Laughter yoga does not involve humor or comedy.
To most people watching this from the outside, laughter yoga may seem ridiculous and even mildly annoying.
This form of yoga unlike traditional yoga that is over 5000 years old, is relatively new. It was developed by an Indian physician named Madan Kataria.
Since this yoga is still relatively new, it’s really difficult to say if it is effective or beneficial. Any benefits that can be gained from laughter yoga can be derived from normal yoga with less humiliation. Whether you choose to take part in laughter yoga is a personal decision is up to you.
You need to be aware that the idea of laughter yoga tends to polarize people. Most think it is ridiculous and those who do try it say that it makes them feel better. The problems arise when you try telling your friends or family that you’re into laughter yoga. Most of them will think you’ve lost your marbles.
It may be exasperating for you that they just don’t seem to understand what you’re doing. This tends to make some people feel inferior or stressed out and this contradicts what yoga is meant to do. It is meant to make you feel good. So, if you are into laughter yoga and you think your friends and family will laugh at you, maybe you should keep it to yourself and do it since it makes you happy.
The benefits of laughter yoga are that your cardiovascular health may improve and your happiness level will increase. The theory is that your body can’t differentiate real laughter from forced laughter. So, you will reap the same benefits as having a good laugh.
The theory that forced laughter becomes real when done in a group could be true because everyone is laughing at everyone else forcing themselves to laugh. In some strange way this may be true. It’s like watching “Wipeout” on TV and we can’t help laughing as the contestants fall on their face or get thrown off the obstacles. It is hilarious.
Cynics may say that laughter yoga then is no different from watching a funny movie or listening to a joke. They may be right. Laughter yoga doesn’t really have any scientific basis or even make much sense. Only those who seem to do it find it beneficial and many who do give it a try are turned off by it and never return.
Whatever they case may be, laughter yoga can neither be considered effective or ineffective. More research needs to be done on it to get solid proof that it works. If you wish to get healthy and feel better, perhaps you would do well to give laughter yoga a wide berth and stick to the more traditional forms of yoga that have been proven to be effective.
When done in groups, with eye contact and playfulness between participants, forced laughter soon turns into real and contagious laughter. Laughter yoga does not involve humor or comedy.
To most people watching this from the outside, laughter yoga may seem ridiculous and even mildly annoying.
This form of yoga unlike traditional yoga that is over 5000 years old, is relatively new. It was developed by an Indian physician named Madan Kataria.
Since this yoga is still relatively new, it’s really difficult to say if it is effective or beneficial. Any benefits that can be gained from laughter yoga can be derived from normal yoga with less humiliation. Whether you choose to take part in laughter yoga is a personal decision is up to you.
You need to be aware that the idea of laughter yoga tends to polarize people. Most think it is ridiculous and those who do try it say that it makes them feel better. The problems arise when you try telling your friends or family that you’re into laughter yoga. Most of them will think you’ve lost your marbles.
It may be exasperating for you that they just don’t seem to understand what you’re doing. This tends to make some people feel inferior or stressed out and this contradicts what yoga is meant to do. It is meant to make you feel good. So, if you are into laughter yoga and you think your friends and family will laugh at you, maybe you should keep it to yourself and do it since it makes you happy.
The benefits of laughter yoga are that your cardiovascular health may improve and your happiness level will increase. The theory is that your body can’t differentiate real laughter from forced laughter. So, you will reap the same benefits as having a good laugh.
The theory that forced laughter becomes real when done in a group could be true because everyone is laughing at everyone else forcing themselves to laugh. In some strange way this may be true. It’s like watching “Wipeout” on TV and we can’t help laughing as the contestants fall on their face or get thrown off the obstacles. It is hilarious.
Cynics may say that laughter yoga then is no different from watching a funny movie or listening to a joke. They may be right. Laughter yoga doesn’t really have any scientific basis or even make much sense. Only those who seem to do it find it beneficial and many who do give it a try are turned off by it and never return.
Whatever they case may be, laughter yoga can neither be considered effective or ineffective. More research needs to be done on it to get solid proof that it works. If you wish to get healthy and feel better, perhaps you would do well to give laughter yoga a wide berth and stick to the more traditional forms of yoga that have been proven to be effective.
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