Laugh your way to health
Manila, Philippines - After reading the Laughter Yoga session with doctors at Diamond Hotel, Cecille Natividad and Angela Valenzuela of Petron’s Human Resources Department lost no time in requesting the Laughter Yoga Club to conduct sessions in Petron’s different offices. Undoubtedly, people nowadays need to de-stress, what with all that’s happening the world over. While the world was struggling to get out of the economic rut, Influenza A H1N1 suddenly appeared, aggravating our already precarious economic and political situation. Laughter Yoga comes most handy at this time to help us stay calm, positive, and ever-hopeful.
The first Petron Laughter Yoga was conducted in their Makati head office, followed by their Pandacan office. When told that just minutes of laughter exercises the mid-body, that one minute of mirthful laughter is equivalent to 10 minutes of cardio workout on a rowing machine, that 10 minutes of hearty laughter equals 30 minutes cardio workout on a rowing machine, the amazed participants cheerfully applauded. They clapped loudly and were jubilant when they heard that one hour of hearty laughter can burn as much as 500 calories!
As in previous Laughter Yoga sessions, the participants had no inkling about Laughter Yoga, thinking it was all about laughing. A typical Laughter Yoga session encompasses laughter, interspersed with stretching and breathing exercises, healing mantras, affirmation, and a minute of prayer for world peace. A participant later said, Laughter Yoga made her “feel wonderfully relaxed, young, and even beautiful.”
Laughter Yoga helps transform immediately the mental and emotional state of a person. The worries, tensions, and negative feelings simply vanished into thin air as participants started to laugh from the heart. Laughter is no doubt the best, easiest, and the fastest stress-buster!
Made aware that what we think and say is what we attract to happen, the participants solemnly and prayerfully uttered them with their hearts and might during healing mantras.
To further stress the undeniable healthful benefits of laughter, I narrated the case of Norman Cousins, a respected editor of Sunday Review in New York City that happened about 28 years ago. The participants intently listened. Diagnosed with a fatal, incurable spinal column disease, Cousins tried all sorts of medications, including the alternative ones. All these failed and against the advice of his doctors, he checked out of the hospital and closeted himself in his apartment for one month, doing the things he enjoyed doing most — reading humorous stories and comic books, and watching comedy movies. He laughed and laughed each day like crazy, and noticed that every time he laughed, the pain vanished.
Cousins returned to the hospital a month later for a checkup. Lo and behold! The very surprised medical staff found no trace at all of the dreaded disease! Asked what extraordinary thing he did, he replied, “All I did was to laugh myself to health.” In a book entitled Anatomy of an Illness, he wrote about his incredible story. Laughter, indeed, is the best medicine!
Let’s laugh to a healthier, happier us!
* * *
E-mail author at megaabundantlv@yahoo.com.
