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Laughter Yoga is a new navigation program to help
you navigate through life and stay “on top”.
- Laughter makes it easier to cope with life and its challenges
- Laughter puts us intensely in the moment. The ability to fully
live and experience the “now” is of utmost importance
because it is the only moment where we can experience happiness.
- People who laugh don't worry as much as people who don't laugh,
and as such enjoy life more. Laughter makes their circumstances
seem less serious and therefore tolerable. A playful approach
to everyday things is a key factor in keeping healthy. Daily chores
are less burdensome when we laugh while doing them. We aren't
always having fun, but we do have a lot more fun with laughter
than without.
- Laughter helps us cope with challenge and conflict better because
it gives us a better perspective. It shrinks the hurts of everyday
life to a smaller, if not inconsequential size. They appear not
as overwhelming. It allows us to stand above an issue, acknowledge
it, and treat it lightly in the awareness that we are touched
by the issue but not contained by it. Most of us have a tendency
to pay such close attention to our issues that they eventually
become a huge part of all we see. If we are able to laugh about
serious things, they simply can't be that huge. All the uncomfortable
traits of the people we interact with in our life suddenly seem
both unimportant and entirely bearable when we can laugh about
them. We are even able to convince ourselves they are somehow
endearing, and we view them with indulgent affection.
- Laughter makes us feel good because it defuses three of the
most painful emotions (fear, anger and boredom) by releasing them.
That release, in turn, prevents or stops conflicts, eases tension,
and helps people to see one another's point of view better.
- Laughter helps us cope with problems better. When we trust
we drop our defenses. As laughter opens us up and allows us to
be vulnerable, we become willing to make changes. We no longer
need to keep score of the good things we do for others. We lose
track, and we don't even care. Laughter makes us generous to a
fault and we feel better giving than receiving.
- Laughter lifts us up and makes life worth living. You experience
that elusive state of being called relaxation. It makes us stress
less and enjoy the company of other people more.
- Laughter Yoga aims to develop joyfulness, not happiness. In
contrast to “happiness”, “joyfulness”
is the unconditional commitment to have fun despite all of the
possible problems that we are faced with in life. Joyfulness is
primarily a physical phenomenon. “You fake it until you
get it”. The decision may come from the brain, but the process
is physical. Because the body and the mind are so closely inter-connected,
when you “do good” you “feel good”. “Motion
Creates Emotion”. Being joyful / “doing good”
actually changes the body chemistry and fosters a healthier state
of being.
Laughter builds self-confidence
- Laughter makes us feel safer and eases much of our awkwardness.
- Laughter puts anxiety on a back burner for everyone. We can't
laugh and worry at the same time. When we release anxiety (a product
of the mind) through laughter, our love (the nature of our heart)
surges to the surface and we are able to fully experience and
enjoy it.
Laughter is an important social skill that keeps
communications fun
- Laughter interrupts the power struggle. It is really hard to
lock down in conflict with someone when you are laughing. When
people enter a power struggle and let playfulness drop by the
wayside, they lose touch with their laughter, their trust in life
and others. This only leads to a downward vicious circle that
benefits no one. It leads us to focus on our own needs and not
the needs of the people around us.
- Laughter allows people to be more open with each other because
it creates safety, and issues don't seem as awesome. It allows
us to express ourselves more clearly because we think more clearly
when we laugh.
- When we laugh with others, we ourselves are fun, and we provide
good company. Regular doses of laughter and play also take the
work out of staying in love for a lifetime.
- Laughing for no reason makes us more likeable because it minimizes
our need to gain self-confidence by analyzing and judging other
people.
- When we laugh with others, criticism seems to collapse. We
are able to let them be themselves and enjoy them even more for
that.
- Laughter breaks down the instinctive barriers between people
and allows them to trust each other. The fears most of us have
about other people are rooted in the past. We lose them when we
laugh and fully experience the present.
- Laughter is a pathway to unconditional love. Loving with the
mind is a two way street (I love / I hate and everything in between).
Loving with the heart is only a one way street: I love, I love,
I love. Also, the bonding qualities of laughter allow us to feel
such emotional closeness that we want to be physically and spiritually
close as well. It is something deeper than just biology. It is
a part of the mystery of laughter that we have yet to solve.
- Laughing with others preserves our dignity - a need for relationships
and the people in them.
Laughing for no reason develops our sense of humor
and helps us find more laughter in our lives.
- Laughing in a group for no reason helps to progressively break
down inhibition and other mental blocks which have been created
by oneself, one's parents and society. Once these barriers are
removed, the infinite potential to laugh unfolds automatically
and a sense of humor starts flowing.
Unfolding infinite potential through laughter
- Every human being has infinite potential to perform and achieve
anything he desires, but most of his power lies dormant and untapped.
The human brain has a left and a right hemisphere. The left side
of the brain is analytical, logical, calculative and concerned
with learning skills. You can't learn some things beyond a certain
limit. The right side of the brain is concerned with intuition,
imagination, inventions, music, art, creativity, meditation and
healing. The power of the right side of the brain is unlimited.
One of the easiest ways to stimulate the right side of the brain
is by playfulness. By being playful one can become more creative
and imaginative. It will unfold the unlimited potential of our
beings.
The problem with most of us is that we can't be playful all the
time or with everybody. A laughter club is an ideal platform which
gives an opportunity to be playful in a group, without the feelings
of embarrassment.
Laughter Yoga helps bring forth the best in human nature. Laughing
for no reason is born of right brain activity and therefore lacks
reason and defies analysis. It is deliciously out of control because
it is not a rational process. It is a purely physical process that
does not need anything the mind has to offer (i.e. a reason, some
sense of humor, or a belief of happiness). It brings forth the uncontrolled
and unsubdued voice of the heart / the soul / your higher self that
expresses and helps to manifest all of the intrinsic qualities of
human nature. It is a state of mind-body in which the dominant emotions
are pleasure, peace, love, and joy and as such it imparts a sense
of well being and freshness.
Laughter changes "who we are" for the better. Humans
are creatures of habit. Most of what we consider our identity or
"who we are" is really a series of learned behaviors or
"what we do". Regular practice of Laughter Yoga helps
reprogram negative responses into positive ones (e.g. we argue laughing;
we laugh at an imaginary high credit card bill.) Nothing is taken
away from the importance of the event except our reaction to it.
People who saw themselves as “shy” discover themselves
assertive public speakers; short-tempered individuals learn to control
their moods and defuse their anger by “laughing it out”,
etc.
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