Laughter yoga has become increasingly recognized as a growing 400 laugh groups in the US, and 6,000 groups worldwide. Besides being easy to do, laughing yoga can relieve stress, form a more positive mindset, make you feel more refreshed and energized. Laughter yoga can be done alone, with a partner, or in a laughing yoga group if you want to practice in a larger group.
Step
Part 1 of 3: Practice Laughing Yoga Alone
Step 1. Do the warm-up exercise by clapping your hands
Laughter yoga sessions usually begin by doing warm-up exercises, for example: clapping and harmonizing the movement. Clap your hands while extending your arms in front of you to stimulate acupressure points and increase energy.
- Continue clapping in a 1-2-3 rhythm while moving your hands up, down, and swinging your hands from side to side.
- After that, start chanting the first mantra to the rhythm of clapping. Say "ho ho, ha-ha-ha" while breathing deeply by activating your stomach muscles each time you inhale and exhale.
- You can continue clapping and chanting as you walk around the room in a circle or walk straight from side to side. Make sure you breathe using your diaphragm as you inhale and exhale to the rhythm of clapping and chanting.
Step 2. Do the laughing exercise in the lion posture
Another warm-up exercise is the “laughing lion” which is done in the lion posture. Open your mouth wide and stick your tongue down. Straighten your arms forward with your fingers like a lion's claw and roar while laughing with the help of your stomach muscles. You will feel a pleasant stretch in the muscles of the face, tongue, and throat. This exercise is also an opportunity for fun and joy.
Step 3. Practice deep breathing by laughing
Another important benefit that you get by practicing laughing yoga is to get into the habit of breathing deeply so that you can laugh out loud with the help of your abdominal muscles. As you practice, you have to breathe deeply in order to burst out laughing.
- Breathe by activating the diaphragm, which is the muscle that runs across the upper abdomen just below the bottom ribs. Place your palms on your stomach while taking a deep breath and exhaling slowly through your nose. Each time you inhale and exhale, stretch and contract your diaphragm to the rhythm of your breath.
- Take a deep breath through your nose for a count of 4 and then exhale through your nose for a count of 4. As you exhale, start laughing 1-2 times with the help of your stomach muscles. Continue this exercise while continuing to breathe deeply at the same rate as you inhale and exhale. Breathe regularly and laugh as you exhale completely.
- You can also say mantras as you inhale and exhale, for example: “forgive and forget”, “give and take”, “forgive and heal”.
Step 4. Do the exercises happily
Relax while having fun and doing exercises that make you laugh and feel good. The trick is to motivate yourself so that you can laugh for no reason other than feeling happy and excited.
- Sing a song with a happy heart: “Head…shoulder knee leg knee leg. My body… stay healthy strong energy!”. While singing, touch your head, shoulders, knees, and feet and laugh every time you finish singing a line.
- Practice laughing while pronouncing vowels. Raise your right hand and say the letter “A” while drawing it with your finger. After that, make a movement as if you were patting the letter while laughing. Continue to draw the letter “E” and then slide the letter aside while laughing. Do the same for the letters "I, O, and U".
- Laugh using your imagination as if you were feeling the flow of static electricity every time you touch a certain object, for example by touching a wall or part of your body. Stay away from objects you touch by jumping up and smiling and laughing like someone has just been electrocuted.
- Say the mantras “very good” (meaning “very happy”) and “yay” after each practice to foster a sense of fun and joy. Extend both arms up in a “V” shape while chanting the mantra.
Step 5. Practice laughing to trigger positive emotions
This exercise aims to make you laugh so that it triggers positive feelings, even if you're just experiencing a negative emotion or situation. In this exercise, you must challenge negative emotions and learn to laugh at them until you feel happy and excited again.
- Start practicing laughing by “laughing at the shame” of experiencing an embarrassing incident. Tell the story again while giggling and laughing out loud. As you practice, you can raise your hands, clap, gibberish, and laugh all the time.
- Practice laughing by “applauding” while clapping your hands silently and mumbling as a sign of approval. Keep mumbling louder and louder until you laugh while continuing to clap faster and louder. Laugh as loud as you can and keep clapping for approval.
- Practice laughing with “apologizing and forgiving”. Imagine you are apologizing to someone by saying, “I'm sorry” or imagine you are forgiving someone by saying, “I forgive you.” Laugh after you've forgiven or been forgiven. You can do this exercise while holding your earlobe, crossing your arms, bending your knees, and laughing out loud.
Part 2 of 3: Practice Laughing Yoga with a Partner or in a Group
Step 1. Say hello to everyone using the laughing yoga technique
Laughter yoga sessions with a partner or in a group usually begin with a greeting practice so that everyone gets used to laughing in front of other people. Start by introducing yourself while babbling. Use words that you make up yourself, instead of saying the right words. After that, you can shake hands while making eye contact and chuckle. Or, put your palms together in the middle of your chest as if in prayer, make eye contact, and chuckle.
If there is a group leader, he will usually walk around clapping and laughing with the mantra “ho ho ha ha ha” to which the participants will respond with the mantra “very good, very good, yay!” while raising hands and clapping
Step 2. Do the laughing exercise with feeling
In this exercise, each participant will practice laughing heartily. Ask all participants to sit in a circle and assign one person to give the command “1, 2, 3”. On the count of three, everyone should start laughing in unison while trying to equalize the volume and pitch of their voices. After that, ask them to raise their hands, lift their heads, lift their chins, and laugh with feelings because they have to laugh from the heart.
If everyone can laugh from the heart, someone will clap and chant “ho ho ha ha ha” 5-6 times. Each participant must participate in the spell and the practice ends at the sixth spell. Have each person take two deep breaths
Step 3. Practice laughing with “laughing at each other”
This exercise aims to enable group members to communicate with each other through laughter. Divide participants into two groups and have them stand facing each other, one group on one side of the room.
Ask one group to look at the other group while pointing at each other. After that, invite them to laugh at each other and remind them to activate their stomach muscles. Do this exercise for 3-4 minutes and have them laugh at each other in increasingly louder voices
Step 4. Practice laughing with “praise”
This exercise is usually done to end a laughing yoga session. Ask participants to sit in a circle and make eye contact while giving compliments by raising their thumbs, waving, doing “high fives”, and laughing. This is a way of instilling a positive aspect of the practice and strengthening the bonds between members.
Part 3 of 3: Understanding the Meaning of Laughter Yoga
Step 1. Know the philosophy of laughter yoga
Laughter Yoga was created by Dr. Madan Kataria, “The Laughter Guru”, who believes that laughter has power and benefits the body and overall health. In order to reap the scientifically proven benefits of laughter, you must laugh continuously for 10-15 minutes in a laughter yoga class. For best results, laugh out loud and make sounds like it's coming from your stomach with the help of your diaphragm. A laugh yoga class is a safe place to laugh out loud and out loud for a long period of time.
- According to the yoga philosophy of laughter, as you practice, try to feel the joy and openness of a child again. Instead of relying on a sense of humor or laughing because something's funny, you should commit to laughing every day by training your body and mind to laugh at your command.
- Laughter yoga is able to unite the mind and body in harmony by combining deep breathing techniques, physical movement, and laughing out loud. Even if you don't like or aren't motivated to laugh, laughter yoga can help you learn to laugh as a way of exercising.
Step 2. Know the benefits of laughter yoga for physical health
Laughter exercise that is done regularly for 30-60 minutes / day will provide many benefits, for example:
- Higher production of endorphins. Laughter has been shown to trigger the production of endorphins, which are natural pleasure-carrying morphines that send signals to the brain to establish closeness and bond with other people. In addition, endorphins are able to create a happy state of mind, increase self-esteem, and foster optimism.
- Increased circulation to the lymphatic system. Laughing out loud should be done while breathing deeply to ensure that all the important organs in the body are getting enough oxygen so you can gather a lot of energy and release it. In addition, laughter will also provide a massage effect on the lymphatic system which will improve circulation to the digestive system and lymphatic system.
- Higher immunity. Better circulation will improve the immune system and increase the number of antiviral and anti-infective cells in the body.
- A healthier cardiovascular system. Laughter can help lower high blood pressure and heart rate so that the cardiovascular system functions properly.
- As a medium of catharsis and stress reliever. Laughter is also known as a cathartic and emotional release medium that helps channel blocked emotions, overcome mental disorders, cure depression, and relieve anger. Laughter is one way to channel negative emotions without violence so that you are free from health problems.
Step 3. Learn the benefits of laughing yoga holistically
Laughter yoga can improve overall physical and emotional health, for example by:
- Improve emotional intelligence. Laughter gives you the opportunity to behave like a child at play. This can help improve emotional intelligence and social skills.
- Increase joy. No matter what obstacles or problems you are going through, a long laugh makes you feel happy and excited. Feeling happy is a physical experience that you can actually experience by doing laughing yoga.
- Controlling negative emotions, for example: depression, anxiety, and stress. Practicing laughter yoga is one way of practicing so you can better control the negative emotions that make you helpless, such as depression, anxiety, and stress.
