Laughter Yoga for Yoga teachers

Are you a yoga teacher or yoga practitioner? Laughter Yoga is a great value addition to your yoga practice.

Although Yoga teachers are calm and peaceful inside, most yogis look very serious as they don’t laugh much. What is missing is the element of joy. More and more yoga teachers are getting trained as LY Professionals and incorporating it into their yoga classes. What they’re finding is that 10 minutes of laughter exercises at the end of a session (before relaxation/shavasana) is taking their yoga practice to the next level.

There’s a great connection between yoga and Laughter Yoga both Scientifically and Spiritually. Let us examine the link between them.

Connection Between Yoga and Laughter

The word 'Yoga' arises from the Sanskrit root 'Yuj' which means to integrate and harmonize our body, mind, spirit.

As the concept of Laughter Yoga evolved, Dr. Kataria found a deep connection between the fundamentals of yoga and what one did in laughter clubs. Intially, he incorporated deep breathing exercises (pranayama) from yoga with laughter exercises, which helps to increase oxygen to the body and brain.

Breath is life

Breathing is fundamental to life. One can live without food and water for several days, but cannot survive if breathing stops for even a few minutes. According to yogic philosophy, we are alive because the cosmic energy from the Universe flows into the body through the breath, which is the life energy force or as called in Yoga, Prana.

From a medical point of view, the most important component of breath is oxygen. Due to stress and negative mental states, breathing becomes shallow and irregular. We tend to hold our breath whenever the mind is upset. This leads to accumulation carbon dioxide in the blood which triggers anxiety, stress and emotional reactions.