Laughter Yoga: Everything You Need to Know

Employees laughing at work

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The skeptics out there might not have too much faith in something called “laughter yoga.” Some people steer away from the practice of yoga, particularly when it involves things like saunas, laughter, and baby goats.

It might be time to adjust your ideas on unfamiliar wellness practices, though. There’s a mounting body of evidence to suggest that laughter is an effective way to address even physiological issues.

We’re going to look at the idea of laughter yoga today, giving you some ideas as to how it works and how it can contribute to workplace wellness. So, what is laughter yoga and how does it relate to corporate wellness?

Keep reading to learn what you should know.

The Science Behind Laughing

Let’s start by exploring the health benefits of laughing.

Laughing truly does a lot more for you than give you a pleasant feeling. It stimulates a number of bodily changes that can have profound impacts. In the short term, these reactions soothe your immediate experience.

The instant you start laughing, your numerous internal organs are stimulated. These organs prompt you to take in more air at a rapid rate, utilizing the muscles and lungs in an active way. Your brain also releases endorphins when you laugh.

Endorphins help to relax your body and ease any stress you might be feeling. Further, the act of laughing spikes your blood pressure for a short time before dropping it to levels below where it was before you started laughing. Finally, stimulation of the circulatory system starts to relax your muscles even further and puts you into a comfortable state of mind.

Over the long run, a life full of laughter has similar, yet more profound effects. For one, your immune system is stronger if you laugh more. You’ll also be more resilient to stress and all of the health conditions that come along with increased stress.

What Is Laughter Yoga?

Laughter yoga is the practice of entering into laughter deliberately. You’re producing laughter on command rather than in response to something you think is funny.

You might imagine yourself trying to work up a smile in the midst of a downward dog, but laughter yoga isn’t really like that. The intense physical aspect of some yoga courses isn’t present in this type of practice. Your physical movements and breathwork are lighter.

The physical aspect is also curated in a way that should help you laugh more readily. The result is a space that’s conducive to laughter and personal growth. It’s not just a fad, either.

Laughter yoga is increasingly popular and available in more than half of the countries around the world. In most cases, the practice takes place in the presence of a full class. You can practice laughing yoga on your own as well, though.

In addition to the myriad benefits of regular laughter (discussed below), laughter yoga offers the chance to shave pieces off of one’s ego. It’s an inherently silly thing to do, and it’s a beautiful contrast to the stuffiness and seriousness of many workplaces.

For the practice to work, you have to relax and engage in something that feels more playful than many things in daily life.

How Do You Do Laughter Yoga?

Let’s look at a brief example of a standard session of laughter yoga.

The group typically starts with a few warm-ups to get your mind and body into the right space. This often begins with clapping and chanting. The group might sing “ho ho ho, ha ha ha” with their in-breaths and out-breaths, respectively.

This might also be a time to make some eye contact and smile. It’s hard not to if you’re all hoo-ing and ha-ing and making eye contact. The rest is really up to the teacher, but practices often include laughing and walking, smiling with one’s eyes, and more.

So long as the activities are transferrable to daily life and produce laughter, they fit into a laughter yoga session! There are a couple of things to note.

First, it’s important to start your laughter yoga practice with a group. There’s something about the energy that a group creates that facilitates a deeper practice. Second, note that your body can’t tell the difference between real and fake laughter.

That means that your practice is working whether or not you can get yourself into a gutwrenching fit of laughter.

History of Laughter Yoga

The originator of laughter yoga is a man named Dr. Madan Kataria. He was a physician in Mumbai in the 90s when he and his friends formed a “laughter club.” That club, in opposition to the practice of laughter yoga, depended on personal jokes.

He felt that the jokes became too rude and personal and the practice was not beneficial. When he left the group, the idea of laughter as a form of exercise struck him. He noticed that traditional yoga and laughter prompted similar breathing patterns.

He and his wife decided to find a way to incorporate the practice of laughter with the movement of yoga. Over the years, the practice developed to accommodate different practices that address different cultural challenges.

For example, one practice asks the practitioners to hold out an imaginary credit card bill and laugh at it. The practice of Laughter Yoga is now a massive phenomenon, and the benefits are scientifically backed.

We’ll discuss some of those benefits next.

Benefits of Laughter Yoga

Laughter has a way of improving your immune system, especially if you make a regular practice of it. Interestingly, the negative and positive thoughts in our brains have corresponding chemical reactions. When we have a storm of bad thoughts, stress hormones flood our bodies and put a strain on the immune system.

Alternatively, an abundance of laughter releases neuropeptides that build the immune system and help to fight illness. At the same time, endorphins get released when we’re laughing and this helps to reduce stress. Stress plays a part in as much as 80% of primary care visits and contributes to countless health conditions.

Endorphins also relieve pain by interacting with the central nervous system. The feeling is similar to the after-effect of a good run or a session at the gym. You’re relaxed, the pain is diminished, and you’re left feeling fantastic.

Not to mention, laughing hard for a long period of time does a number on your abs. You might find that a six-pack starts to take shape after a few months of regular practice!

Laughter Yoga in the Workplace

What better place could there be to practice laughter than the workplace? This is the place where we spend the most time, we experience the most stress, and we’re faced with the most challenges.

What better than a heap of laughter to cut all of that tension right in half? On a more practical note, stress and depression reduce productivity a significant amount. Workplace tensions compound upon one another when we’re stressed and sad, making it difficult to do our best work.

As laughter is the best medicine for stress (and sadness), laughter yoga could be the perfect addition to your workflow. Wouldn’t you want to work in a place where everyone’s laughing?

A place where laughter is common is one where people can feel psychologically safe expressing their thoughts and ideas. It might also be an effective way to cultivate respect and appreciation among members of your staff if you experience frequent conflict.

Why Provide Corporate Wellness Classes to Your Employees?

Workplace wellness depends on management’s ability to find and utilize tools like classes and informational sessions like these. If you put a laughter yoga class into your weekly schedule, you might just find that the rest of the week is more enjoyable and productive.

Little changes like this can have a ripple effect on the health and wellness of your staff. There are numerous other aspects of life that you can impact through workplace classes as well. Wellness is a nexus of various practices, and Twello’s has courses that can address many of them.

It’s also worth noting that employees who feel valued and appreciated by their management will be a lot happier coming to work.

Offering resources for your staff to start feeling better is a great place to start. Further, things that make your workplace more enjoyable and healthier can only serve to improve the output that your company achieves.

Want to Learn More About Corporate Wellness?

We hope our look at laughter yoga benefits was useful to you. There’s a lot more to learn about corporate wellness, though. The individuals that make up your staff deserve resources to stay healthy and happy throughout the workday.

We’re here to help you with access to those resources. Contact us for a free consultation to learn more about corporate wellness and how to achieve it.

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