Laughter yoga for a healthy you

MANILA, Philippines - Interest in Laughter Yoga keeps snowballing! Intrigued by the Laughter Yoga sessions with Petron employees last July, Nivea manager Rica King, through Raissa Maislang, had invited me to conduct a Laughter Yoga session for the launch of Nivea’s new product Happy Time, a line of body lotion, on Aug. 6. Laughter Yoga enlivened the special occasion and made Nivea’s 120 employees and sales force experience the unique, always available and most relaxing way of de-stressing.

Though heavy rains kept pouring outside, the participants inside the Greenmeadows clubhouse were so warmed up and highly energized with the 10 kinds of laughter we did with mucho gusto together. The “time to laugh” laughter made the Nivea people burst into a loud, almost-could-not-believe-it laughter. They also loved the “love yourself” laughter. It is Laughter Yoga’s way to honor and love ourselves, particularly the women, who almost always put themselves last in the hierarchy of priorities.

To emphasize the vital, life-supporting role of proper breathing, we interspersed with the different kinds of laughter stretching and breathing exercises derived from yoga. When I narrated the findings of a two-time Nobel Prize winner, Dr. Otto Warburg, on the reasons why people get sick, everyone listened intently.

I also shared with them my experience last Aug. 3, when I went to my dentist Dr. Rossanna Jover. Done with the general cleaning of my teeth, she asked with a could-not-believe-look in her eyes what I had been doing. Surprised, I asked why. According to Dr. Jover, my oral environment (gum and teeth) was comparable to a person half my “young” age. She added that a staggering 74 percent of our kababayans — 30 years old and above — suffer from periodontal disease. Abnormal hormones, smoking, alcohol, bad habits, and imbalance are among the culprits. Stress is numero uno!

I rewound in my mind things I had been doing: My simple, always-striving-to-be-relaxed lifestyle remains the same. Then, Laughter Yoga dawned on me. So stunned and amazed was I that Laughter Yoga could have such a great, healthy impact on oral environment. I ended up demonstrating to my dentist some kinds of laughter to help her counter stress and get more energy flowing as she cruises through the day.

Nowadays, the workplace has become too serious because of so much stress. There is the misconception that serious people are more responsible, even more productive.

According to scientific research, laughter can help resolve stress and related issues in the workplace. However, to this day, there is no reliable and effective system to deliver laughter. The only available tool is humor; however, it is not reliable and does not lead to continuous hearty laughter.

To obtain the proven benefits of laughter, it must come from the belly and must last for a longer period of time. These two, however, cannot be had with natural laughter that lasts for just a few minutes, even seconds, here and there — not enough to experience the powerful physiological benefits laughter brings about. Laughter Yoga is the breakthrough! From my experiences, only Laughter Yoga enables a person to continuously laugh for 15 to 30 minutes with yogic breathing and stretching in between.

Some companies have introduced Laughter Yoga for a strong team building. A Danish IT company tried LYoga regularly for one year: The company’s sales increased more than 25 percent, the stress level decreased by 75 percent, though in a highly competitive market. The management and employees participated, and their stress levels were monitored scientifically. Laughter Yoga is highly capable of changing the work environment — can make people happy, cheerful, hopeful, optimistic, their mental attitude positive. The communication skills that help in team building are further enhanced. “People who laugh together work better together.”

Laughter Yoga will be the thesis project of some University of Santo Tomas students while a session for Philippine Science High School teachers and students will be held in mid-October.

For more info on Lyoga, visit http/www.laughteryogaphil.com.