Laughing
yoga cultivates merry mindfulness
Police commandos from Punjab take part in a
laughter exercise during a yoga session at the commando complex in Mohali
November 14, 2008. — Reuters Photo
NEW
YORK: Can’t touch your toes? Laugh it off.
Laughter
yoga, unlike Pilates yoga, water yoga, aerial yoga and other offshoots of the
ancient eastern practice of uniting body and breath, doesn’t aspire to sculpted
arms and bendy backs.
Laughter
yoga just wants you to be happy.
“You
may not lose fat, but you will lose the idea that you’re fat,” said Sebastien
Gendry, founder and executive director of the American School of Laughter Yoga.
“People
come because it’s the exercise they can do and it makes them feel good,” said
Gendry, who founded the school in 2004.
“It’s
the easiest form of yoga. They can’t twist, they can’t bend, but they can do
this.”
A
blend of yogic deep breathing, stretching, and laughter exercises that
cultivate child-like playfulness, Laughter Yoga was developed 17 years ago in
Mumbai, India by Dr. Madan Kataria. Laughter Yoga International now claims 600
clubs in 60 countries.
Gendry,
who was born in France, was the first American to train as a certified Laughter
Yoga teacher.
Central
to Laughter Yoga is the tenet that the body cannot differentiate between
pretend and genuine laughter.
“We
fake it,” Gendry said of the group classes he leads. “We simulate to stimulate.
We go through the motions of joy to create the chemistry of joy.”
In
one exercise attendees are instructed to repeat “ho-ho, ha-ha-ha” while
clapping hands; in another they are directed to “picture yourself jumping for
joy.”
The
exercises are unapologetically silly and very short-20 to 40 seconds each in an
hour-long class, Gendry said, to facilitate the shift from thinking to feeling.
“The
goal is not to work on muscle mass,” he said. “It is to overcome critical
thinking.” Another goal is to connect with classmates.
“Laughter
is a means to an end,” he explained. “In hatha yoga (the yoga commonly taught
in studios and health clubs), the focus is the breath. In laughter yoga, the
focus is the “dristi,” or gaze, of the other. It builds community.”
It’s
also easy. Gendry said it usually takes two days to master the fundamentals of
the method. “For those who want to teach, it takes a week,” he said. “Truly,
this is not rocket science.”
New
York City-based fitness expert Lashaun Dale, who has been teaching movement,
fitness and yoga for over 20 years, said she really enjoyed the Laughter Yoga
class she attended.
“It’s
a hoot,” said Dale. “It releases so much stress. You can’t help but laugh.
First, there’s discomfort; then it’s hard to stop.”
Dale
said the class favored gentle, healing movement over the intense stretching and
exertion of the vinyasa flow of typical yoga classes.
“It
is a way to do movement,” she said. “If you’re stressed out, you’re not taking
care of yourself. You can’t get fit until you get balanced.”
Humor
can boost the immune system and lower blood pressure, according to the Centers
for Disease Control, and laughing for 10 to 15 minutes a day can burn 10 to 40
calories.
Gregory
Chertok, sport psychology counselor and fitness trainer at the Physical
Medicine and Rehabilitation Center in Englewood, New Jersey, said there is a
staggering amount of documented findings on the importance of mood to behavior.
“It
(laughing) is not like doing a cardio workout or a plank (exercise),” said
Chertok, who encourages his athlete clients to notice their moods. “It’s less
of a physical, more of a social, benefit. Engaging with people is an enjoyable
thing.”
Chertok
noted that writer and researcher Norman Cousins, whose book “Anatomy of an
Illness” influenced Kataria, famously referred to laughter as “internal
jogging.”
He
said the Self-Determination Theory, a psychological theory of motivation, says
that anyone seeking a healthy lifestyle must feel three things: autonomy,
competence, and relatedness.
“A
person who is not physically able to do more strenuous yoga may feel more
competent and related in a setting like this (laughter yoga),” he said.
Of
course, as Pandora discovered to her dismay, even openness has consequences.
“You
cannot open up your box of emotions separately,” Gendry explained. “Laughter
and tears go side by side. The more you laugh, the more you cry. You can’t
avoid that.”
