is not a substitute for a proper medical consultation for physical, mental and psychological illnesses, and may not be suitable for every one. Laughter yoga is a complementary form of therapy. It is a physical and aerobic exercise which may cause strain as well as a rise in intra-abdominal pressure and internal jogging. Also, the heart rate and blood pressure will increase initially, although later, may decrease to a lower level. Please honour your body and don’t do any movements that cause pain. If in doubt, or if pain occurs, please consult your trained medical professional. Laughter yoga is contraindicated if you have:
- uncontrolled high blood pressure - severe heart disease such as angina and congestive heart failure - any kind of hernia - glaucoma - epilepsy - flu or persistent cough - recent surgery (wait at least 3 months after major surgery) - severe back ache - major psychiatric disorder - pregnancy - while the extra pressure or internal jogging may be contraindicated in the first trimester and may be uncomfortable in later months, being in the energy of laughter, gentle laughter, smiling and feeling good is beneficial for the baby. This list is for guidance only and is not meant to cover every possible condition. Please use your common sense, no strain, no new pain.
As with any exercise program, check with your doctor of health care provider first.
Having said all that, I hope you brought your “willingness.” If you just watch the video, you may get a chuckle out of it, but the real benefit is if you actually get up off your easy chair and participate. (For those who are chair-bound, this can be done sitting down, even lying down. Laughter knows few boundaries.) As with everything else in life, you will get out of it what you put into it. Decide right now to do whatever it takes to motivate yourself, to jump in. Allow yourself to feel totally silly. If you have thoughts like “This is stupid. Why am I doing this?” and so on, here’s what to do.
Know that they are just thoughts and allowing them to pass their way through your skull while you are enjoying laughter is just fine. The benefits of laughter and feeling good are so wonderful that, if you need to, just respond to your own thoughts by saying. “Thanks for sharing…and you can shut up now!” :-)
Go here now: www.joyenergyandhealth.com/aj-experiential-video
Your third mission, should you decide to accept, is: Laugh along with me or with the laughing babies on the net, every day, for a minimum of 10-15 minutes … every day. (Time commitment: 10-15 minutes a day)
Important note: the most critical thing is to install a habit of doing it daily. Therefore, if you only do 10 minutes or 5 minutes, that is great and fantastic. If you only do one minute of laughter a day, that is better than starting out with 15 minutes and then stopping. I started with 10 minutes. Now I usually laugh between 10 and 15 minutes daily. Running total daily time commitment therefore is 20 minutes, at the outside.
Protocol # Minimum Time Optimum Time
1 15 seconds x 4= 1 minute 15 seconds x 12= 3 minutes
2 45 seconds x 2= 1.5 minutes 1 minute x 2= 2 minutes
3 5 minute 15 minutes
If we start off with the absolute minimum, we are looking at: Bare Bones Minimum Daily Time Commitment: 3 and a half minutes a day. If we choose to optimize: Optimum Daily Time Commitment: 20 minutes a day. See what we are doing here? We are making it easy. Baby steps, one at a time, to build a good habit.
A word about discipline: Many, me included, have had negative connotations about this word “discipline.” It conjures up teachers telling us what to do, or military drill sergeants yelling in our faces and forcing us to do things against our will. This is a different kind of discipline. It is self discipline that we choose to do because we understand the long-term benefits. The good news and another great “secret” of life:
We only need a little discipline until we build a habit. Once a good habit is installed, it runs by itself with a minimum of effort on our part. It’s wonderful how we are constructed to be creatures of habit. This works against us when we fall into bad habits. But it works for us when we install a good and healthful habit. And healthful habits can crowd out bad habits. For example, when we have built a habit of laughing 15 minutes a day, it means we are not plunked down in front a TV. I encourage you to accept this third mission and notice how easy it is to continue such a joyous habit as laughing daily. Way to go for hanging in there up to now. Keep it up. You have great joy to capture (recapture).
Now, once again, it is time to stop reading, put this manual away. Come back to it in your own time. Remember, this is not a race. Don’t let me catch you reading any further until you: Take at least one day to one week to luxuriate with this wonderful, awesome, delightful and energizing exercise/protocol called Laughter Yoga. See ya next time.
Laughter is an instant vacation. -Milton Berle
Protocol # 4 Smiling Into The Heart
The world always looks brighter from behind a smile. -Author Unknown
Smiling feels good. Can we agree on that? So, if smiling feels good, why don’t we do it all the time and therefore feel good all the time? Hmm. Perhaps it has something to do with habits, even habits that we may have been taught. Consider our schooling: Sit still behind the desk, don’t speak unless you are given permission, put your hand up if you have to go to the bathroom and so on.
Did you know that the Latin root of the word “gymnasium” actually meant school? The Greeks and Romans understood the need for the body to move in order to facilitate learning. Our modern system of schooling was really devised to train young people to fit into the modern industrial age. We were being trained to become cogs in the assembly line! Modern schooling has more to do with rote memorization than learning to think! Rote memorization is not a lot of fun. Modern schooling has a way of sucking the fun out of learning.
This is changing since George Leonard wrote the book Education and Ecstasy. Leonard and others have alerted us to the concept that learning can not only be fun, but also ecstatic. When we “get” a concept, the “aha” moment is a moment of joy. When we are in joy, we are making more neural connections in the brain, and solving problems/challenges, big or small, can actually be easier.
We were told LSD was our salvation. Now I know it is LSBP: Laughter, Smiling, Breathing and Posture. –Matti Anttila
You have now experienced the joy that a Laughter Yoga session can access. (That is, if you have been laughing along with me on the videos. Have you?) But as you know, we can’t laugh all the time. It’s just not going to work to be laughing when the boss is giving out assignments, for example. Can we smile all the time, or at least, a lot more? Why not? At the end of our Laughter Yoga sessions, often we will do a guided visualization with smiling.
Let’s do this now: Again, you may choose a time and place where you will not be disturbed. When accessing a deeper place within you, it’s good to not have outside distractions. Here we go.
Smiling
