Laugh for the Health of It! HOW DO YOU FEEL? To measure the immediate effects of Laughter Yoga Date: Location: Occupation: City/State where you live: Please circle the number that best reflects your feelings for each of the items below: BEFORE Using a scale of 1-10 (1=lowest, 10= highest) AFTER Using a scale of 1-10 (1=lowest, 10= highest) Enthusiasm 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Enthusiasm 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Energy level 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Energy level 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Mood 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Mood 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Optimism 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Optimism 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Level of friendship with group members 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Level of friendship with group members 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Level of muscle relaxation 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Level of muscle relaxation 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Level of mental relaxation 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Level of mental relaxation 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Ability to laugh without a reason 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Ability to laugh without a reason 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Please describe your experience doing Laughter Yoga today. I’d like to learn more about this. Please contact me. (please print clearly) Name: Email: Phone:
10
Embed
Laugh for the Health of It!€¦ · superbrain yoga, which has very precisely shed light on the benefits of holding the earlobes on the human brain. A few months ago, I was looking
This document is posted to help you gain knowledge. Please leave a comment to let me know what you think about it! Share it to your friends and learn new things together.
Transcript
Laugh for the Health of It! HOW DO YOU FEEL?
To measure the immediate effects of Laughter Yoga
Date: Location:
Occupation: City/State where you live:
Please circle the number that best reflects your feelings for each of the items below:
BEFORE Using a scale of 1-10 (1=lowest, 10= highest)
AFTER Using a scale of 1-10 (1=lowest, 10= highest)
Sarah’s LAUGHTER YOGA Cheat Sheet LAUGHTER YOGA – Hasya Yoga Laughter yoga (Hasya Yoga) is a practice involving prolonged voluntary laughter. Laughter yoga is based on the belief that voluntary laughter provides the same physiological benefits as spontaneous laughter. Laughter Yoga is done in groups, with eye contact, jokes and playfulness between participants. BEFORE A SESSION ACTUALLY BEGINS Check the Contraindications sheet – potentially check with your doctor
THE RULES
1. Eye contact – connection 2. Unconditional acceptance – create safe space/environment to support each other in
laughter/suspend judgement, not only of others, but of yourself – it’s not only okay, the more silly, playful and ridiculous you are and feel, the better!
5 Points – What is Laughter Yoga?
1. Anyone can laugh for no reason – without relying on humor, jokes or comedy 2. Initiate laughter as an exercise in a group. With eye contact and childlike playfulness, it
soon becomes genuine and contagious laughter! 3. Combines laughter exercise with yogic breathing, which brings more oxygen to the body
and the brain, providing increased energy and better health. 4. The body cannot differentiate between intentional and genuine laughter. You get the
health benefits either way. 5. In addition to laughter clubs or laughter for fun and sociability, Laughter Yoga is
beneficial in many settings: corporations, senior centers, schools, hospitals and clinics, and can be used successfully with physically and mentally challenged people.
WHY Practice Laughter Yoga? The 3D’s
1. Duration – to get the scientifically proven health benefits, we need to laugh continuously for 15 minutes. Since we do Laughter Yoga as an exercise, we can prolong the laughter as long as we want. With the prolonged practice, we can see increased blood circulation, muscle relaxation, increased oxygen levels in the blood and more.
2. Deep Diaphragmatic Breathing – To reap the benefits of laughter, it must be deep and loud, coming from the diaphragm, like a belly laugh. Laughter clubs provide safe, socially acceptable environment where loud and hearty laughter is perfectly acceptable. Withhold Judgment – Support each other with laughter!
3. Dependability – By practicing Laughter Yoga, we don’t leave it to chance, that we will subjectively find jokes, commedians or life situations to be funny. We guarantee getting the health benefits of laughter by creating the laughter – the feel-good hormones will follow!
4 steps of Laughter Yoga
Laughter Exercises – 15 sec. per exercise minimum/30-45 sec. preferred o add creativity/improv o aiming for deep, hearty belly laughs – from your diaphragm
Clapping –becomes transition between exercises o 39 energy points in your hands o Ho-Ho-Ha-Ha-Ha! o Very Good, Very Good, YAY!* o Very Good, Very Good, Yippee!* o Investigate other languages
Deep breathing and stretching – This is where the yoga comes in o When we get winded from laughing deeply, we stop, stretch and breathe so we
can Laugh more Oxygenate our cells, which ultimately boosts the immune system
o "Pranayama is control of Breath". "Prana" is Breath or vital energy in the body. On subtle levels prana represents the pranic energy responsible for life or life force, and "ayama" means control. So Pranayama is "Control of Breath".
*Childlike playfulness – This helps make it FUN! Think about the wild abandon that a
child feels. The more silly and ridiculous, the better!
5 Secrets
1. We don’t need a sense of humor to laugh. 2. Motion creates emotion. 3. You can laugh even if you are not happy. 4. It’s really not about the laughter – it’s about cultivating childlike playfulness and
allowing ourselves to be silly. 5. You can train your body to laugh.
Superbrain Laughter Exercise by Madan Kataria, Founder of Laughter Yoga http://laughteryoga.org/superbrain-laughter/
This new laughter exercise is a direct adaptation of superbrain yoga which seems to be an ancient Indian practice to stimulate the entire brain. This technique has been researched upon in many universities and the results are scientifically validated.
In India, when I was in school, the most common punishment given by the teacher to non-performing children was asking them to catch their earlobes and do a number of sit-ups. I did not know where this tradition came from. But, what was very familiar in India was the practice of catching your earlobes by crossing the arms and saying, ‘I am sorry’. This is our traditional way of apologizing and asking for forgiveness. In fact, based on this, we have a laughter exercise called Forgiveness Laughter.
I never bothered to go into the details of this ritual until recently, when I found a discipline called superbrain yoga, which has very precisely shed light on the benefits of holding the earlobes on the human brain.
A few months ago, I was looking for new exercises to be introduced for school children and I found one – ‘The Superbrain Laughter’.
Here Are Steps of This New Superbrain Laughter Exercise: Take your left hand and hold your right earlobe with thumb and forefinger. Make sure that the
thumb is in front. Now take your right hand and hold your left earlobe. Again, make sure that the thumb is in front. At
this point you’re pressing both earlobes simultaneously. Make sure your left arm is close to your chest and inside your right arm.
Inhale through your nose and slowly squat down to the ground. Hold your breath to the count of 3, and while exhaling gently laugh as you start making your way
back up to a standing position. Repeat this squatting action 14 times. Remember to keep holding your earlobes and to keep your
tongue touching the roof of your mouth throughout the entire exercise. The Science Behind Superbrain Yoga Dr. Joie. P. Jones of the University of California, in his study, says that superbrain yoga uses the body’s energy centers which absorb, digest, and distribute energy to different parts of the body. These primary energy centers are actually major acupuncture points, which get affected by pressure from the exercise.
When done correctly, superbrain yoga exercise helps the energy trapped in the lower energy centers move up to other major centers of the body. As the energy travels upwards, it passes through the practitioner’s heart centre and fills it with feelings of calm and inner peace. When the energy moves up further into the throat and beyond, the practitioner’s intelligence and creativity are improved. Other benefits include regulation of the sex drive, which is especially important for teenagers.
Benefits of Superbrain Yoga in A Nutshell: According to our Master Choa Kok Sui this exercise:
Energizes and activates the brain and increases inner peace Reduces psychological stress and gives greater psychological stability Gives greater intelligence and creativity Regulates the sex drive Transforms lower energies into higher energies Ensures proper functioning of the brain Increases the flow of pranic energies within the body Makes the practitioner in general, smarter and more psychologically balanced
Don’t SKIP the meeting – SKIP TO the meeting!OBJECTIVES: 1. Identify causes of workplace-related stress and implement solutions using laughter, humor and play. 2. Use customized strategies to increase focus, creativity and productivity in the workplace. 3. Create an action plan to implement new techniques for self-care and reducing stress at work.
Happy Employees = More Productive Employees = Increases Bottom LineUse Laughter Yoga exercises & other tools to increase focus, creativity and productivity in the workplace.
✦ Laughter Shield ✦ Create Your Own Exercises When You Laugh….Shift Happens!
Workplace Stress Using Laughter Yoga Exercises Solutions
Laughter Yoga is also great exercise, and because it’s completely portable and you always have it with you, you are much more likely to do it. Don’t forget, it’s FUN!
CREATEANACTIONPLAN:The best exercise is the one you will actually do!
In addition to smile-ups and other Laughter Yoga exercises that you can practice at home, here are a few tips of how to add laughter to your daily routine…go ahead, give me a little giggle! (tee hee hee!)
Make a list of things that make you laugh and incorporate them into your everyday life.
Record, replay and rent funny movies, shows, cartoons, bloopers, and watch them often.
Listen frequently to the comedian who makes you laugh until you wet your pants!
Throw a party funded by money put into the laughter pot every time someone is caught being grumpy.
Write ‘FUN’ on top of every meeting’s agenda and start with something funny.
Tough times at work and home? Each day, put a piece of tape on your sleeve indicating where you’ve had it up to.
Surround yourself with funny pictures of you, friends and family.
Create a laughter bulletin board at work and home where everyone contributes pictures of people laughing, cartoons, baby pictures, jokes, etc.
Challenge others to have a best- joke contest.
Buy funny greeting cards. Stop while you shop and read a few.
Listen to kids laugh. It’s contagious!
*Breathing is the KEY to Life!* Here's how you can check to see if you are deep breathing properly: Imagine yourself blowing up a balloon. ~ As you BLOW into the balloon, notice that your abdomen/belly contracts and pulls IN. ~ As you take your next big breath IN, notice that you full abdomen/belly expands OUT. Repeat: Blow OUT ~ belly sucks IN; Breathe IN ~ belly expands OUT.
Need help adding even MORE LAUGHTER to your life RIGHT AWAY?!?
Join Sarah’s FREE Laughter Call – 15 minutes of energy, exercise and FUN! Every Monday morning – 9am CST, 10am Eastern Call: 218-339-2460 Code: LAUGH# (52844#) Do it for your health. It matters! Hahahahaha!