UK Laughter Therapy – A Humor Health Tip

I’ve blogged about Laughter Therapy before, but here’s a story about it over in England. Enjoy, and hopefully you’ll gain some insight on the healing power of humor.

From RedOrbit.com….

Lauging Classes

By Claire Sawers

THEY say laughter is the best medicine. Children laugh up to 400 times a day, but for overstressed adults, the average day only raises a miserable 14 laughs.

It’s a pretty grim statistic, but Edinburgh-based Jeya Jeyaratnam hopes she can reverse that with her classes in laughter therapy.

Her classes are based on laughter yoga, which began in Mumbai, India when GP Dr Madan Kataria set up the first laughter club in 1995 with his yoga instructor wife.

And now Jeya, a 48-year-old fitness instructor, leads groups through simulated laughter with a series of daft – and at times embarrassing – games.

“The body doesn’t know whether you’re genuinely finding something funny or not,” says Jeya. “The important thing is that you are working your muscles, taking in more oxygen and creating a feelgood high. Even if you have to force it, the motto here is’Fake it until you make it’.”

It might sound like a joke, but when Jeya explains the science behind her classes, it seems a serious matter.

Research shows a gut-busting belly laugh can boost the immune system and pump blood full of endorphins – nature’s own opiates and side-effect free painkillers. A dose of laughter can also lower blood pressure, reduce stress, encourage better sleep andeven tone up stomach muscles.

I decided to try out one of Jeya’s ‘laughter parties’ at an Edinburgh gym. I was a bit worried. Surveying the room, I wasn’t sure how well I’d cope doing “the funky chicken” and laughing hysterically in front of 20 strangers.

But Jeya warned me the only way to reap the benefits was to leave my inhibitions at the door.

She said: “You must be prepared to look a little bit silly, that’s the point. It is about participating and letting go of the tensions that leave us feeling stressed.

“Quite often I hear people saying they need a couple of glasses of wine before they can properly relax.

“It seems very common to only let your inhibitions drop when you’ve had a drink, and that is a shame. Why shouldn’t you feel natural and be yourself all the time?”

Jeya kicked off the class with some ice-breaking games. We walked around the room clapping our hands and chanting “ho, ho, ho”, then “hee, hee, hee”.

It felt very strange at first, but Jeya explained that this exercise stimulated the same facial and abdominal muscles as a gentle yoga session would.

Next we walked around the room nodding at strangers, but we weren’t allowed to smile or laugh.

It worked like a charm, and before long we were breaking into nervous sniggers.

For the next hour, Jeya has us blethering gibberish, dancing the twist, and mowing an imaginary lawn, all in an effort to tickle our funny bones.

Fellow newcomer Stuart Ullathorne found it awkward at first, but realised the more he relaxed, the more he got out of it.

“I definitely felt like I’d stepped out of my comfort zone,” says Stuart, 34, who moved back to Edinburgh recently after leaving a high-stress job in London.

“Once you start playing around though, you actually feel quite energised. I was glowing by the end.

“It may seem a bit bizarre just now as it’s still new, but I’m sure in five years time, laughter therapy will have grown into a big thing.”

Jeya has been called upon by companies who wanted to use laughter therapy to motivate staff or build team spirit. She held a session at Queen Margaret University College in Edinburgh, as part of a Health and Wellbeing week, organised by Lisa Lind, headof human resources.

“The staff were definitely a bit uncomfortable at first. Someone refused to take part altogether,” Lisa said. “But the class acts as a barometer – if you really struggle with the class, maybe you’re carrying a lot of tension or worrying too much aboutwhat people think.”

After an hour-long session with “JJ”, Lisa says the mood in the office was great, and a team that had problems gelling was joking around and doing the funky chicken in the corridor.

She said: “They all got a lot out of it. It seemed an excellent way of unwinding and coping with anxieties at work. It forces you to ask yourself ‘Am I taking myself a bit too seriously?'”

Lisa was worried how she would live down the embarrassment of making loud animal noises in front of her colleagues, but soon found herself getting into the swing of things.

She said: “People are full of fears and hesitation at first, but what’s the worst that could happen?

“When you’re all in the same boat, you feel you’re sharing something – even if it’s just pure humiliation.”

As well taking corporate classes in Britain and Asia to boost creativity and morale, Jeya uses her feelgood techniques to help Scottish bipolar sufferers improve self-esteem and lift depression. And Jeya, who is originally from Malaysia, knows how tomotivate even the laziest groups and reckons the universal language of laughter can relieve tensions and boost energy levels in almost anyone.

One of the central ideas behind laughter therapy is behaving like a child again. Laughing for no reason, playing around and inventing fun games just for the sake of it, are all things that Jeya believes we lose as we grow up.

“Children don’t dwell on bad things,” she said. “They’ll be crying one minute and playing and laughing the next.”

While she is not suggesting we walk around laughing constantly, she believes many could benefit from taking themselves a little less seriously.

She said: “Laughter creates an instant connection with other people and that’s often what people are looking for.

“Yes, life is still going to have its stresses and sad moments, but it’s all about learning to laugh them off a bit more.”

For more information on laughter therapy sessions, contact Jeya Jeyaratnam at jeya@scienceoflaughter-com, tel: 07766 631 192 .Or visit www.laughteryoga.org

————————

To checkout the original article, please visit: http://www.redorbit.com/news/health/920076/laughing_classes__jeya_teaches_adults_how_to_have_fun/index.html?source=r_health