Laughter Yoga for ALL every Tuesday

Laughter Yoga is sweeping the UK and University staff and students can have a go for free every Tuesday between 1.15pm and 1.45pm.

You don’t need to wear special clothes, you don’t need to be able to bend yourself into Pretzel shapes (!) you just need to come in a spirit of willingness to play and have fun!

Laughter yoga (Hasyayoga) is a practice involving prolonged voluntary laughter. Laughter yoga is based on the belief that voluntary laughter provides the same physiological and psychological benefits as spontaneous laughter. Laughter yoga is done in groups, with eye contact, jokes and playfulness between participants. Forced laughter soon turns into real and contagious laughter.

The Laughter yoga sessions start with gentle warm-up techniques which include stretching and clapping. Then follows by a series of ‘laughter exercises’ that combine the method of acting and visualization techniques with playfulness.

Twenty minutes of laughter is sufficient to develop fully physiological benefits.

What are the known benefits?

Dr. Lee Berk and Dr. Stanley Tan at the Loma Linda University in California have researched the benefits of laughter and found amazing results.

1) Lowers blood pressure

2) Reduces stress hormone levels

3) Works your abs

4) Improves cardiac health

5) Boosts t-cells

6) Triggers the release of endorphins

7) Produces a general sense of well-being

Come and join in and feel the benefits for yourself!

Story submitted by Rachael Burnett
rburnett@lincoln.ac.uk