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 I'm sure you'll agree with me that there is nothing better than a big, girly laugh! We love laughing and were very intrigued to hear about the benefits of Laughter Yoga.
We chatted to Nicole Robertson from Ponsonby Laughter Club to hear why it has her hooked on laughing...
Nicole is a family therapist and laughter leader at the Ponsonby Laughter Club, founded more than a year ago with husband and clinical psychologist, Malcolm. They both deal with a lot of misery in their jobs and liked the idea of laughter as a release.  What is it? Laughter Yoga is using fun and silly exercises to encourage, you guessed it, laughter! These include things like argument laughter and clapping while chanting “Ho ho ha ha ha”. It was designed to improve health and wellbeing, help with relaxation and promote peace throughout the world. The laughs are often forced to begin with but turn into real laughter as the exercises go on. Beginnings of laughter yoga In 1995 Dr Madan Kataria, a physician from Mumbai, India was writing an article on the health benefits of laughter and realised it was so beneficial for one’s health that groups should participate in laughter together regularly. At 7am the next morning he went to a local park and managed to motivate four people to start a “Laughter Club” with him. Today there are more than 5000 clubs worldwide.  Benefits of laughingNicole says laughing provides a cardiovascular workout, which combines with the release of endorphins to not only ease stress but help shed calories. “It’s just an easy form of exercise,” she says. “You learn to use laughter in everyday life for relaxation.” She also recommends laughing while doing your usual workout as it increases the heart-rate and means you burn more calories. “Thirty minutes of laughing is the equivalent to 15 minutes on a rowing machine,” she says.  Is it for me? Nicole admits she hated the class for the first six times. “I found it really hard to look at people in the eye and laugh. I’ve always been quite a shy person and found it really quite difficult. But now she can’t get enough. “When pretending to laugh I would think ‘well I don’t feel like laughing today’. But when I don’t feel like laughing I actually laugh my hardest. It’s a release.” However, she says lots of people enjoy the classes straight away. “You know, it is hard,” she says. “(As a society) we’re not used to laughing.” But she says we should get away from this social conditioning and just let loose. “It just makes the world full of wonder again,” she says. “Kids laugh 200 times a day while adults only laugh 20 to 30 times. “You don’t have to be happy to laugh,” Nicole says, “but by laughing you become happy.”  Nicole’s top three laughter techniques 1: Cell phone laughter. “I use that a lot,” Nicole says. “Whenever I’m in a stressful situation at work I’ll pick up the phone and pretend there’s somebody on the other end and just start laughing.” 2: Yawn laughter. Take a big yawn in the morning while stretching arms out and then give your best, hearty laugh. This is also known as ‘A Day in the Laugh’ as it puts you in good spirits for the day ahead. 3: Deep breath laughter. Take in a deep breath like you would in normal yoga but giggle as you breathe out while
bending down to your knees.  Top five things that make us laugh at nzgirl1: LOL Cats There's no logical reason why we love pictures of animals with grammatically incorrect phrases, but we just do!2: Laughing Baby This explains the Laughter Yoga concept - that laughing is totally contagious. 3: Uncyclopedia A complete spoof of Wikipedia with pages taking the mickey of almost anything, and it can be edited by anyone.
4: Potter Puppet Pals We love ‘The Mysterious Ticking Noise’ especially. Look out for a mischievous Dumbledore!
5: Worst Album Covers These are always great and there are actually heaps that have accumulated over the years. Sit back and cringe. The Ponsonby class is held at 10am on Saturday mornings and is free of charge. See www.laughteryoga.org.nz for classes in your area. Holly |
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