How I landed in a Laughter Yoga Class – no really!!

I never would have imagined I’d be blogging about Laughter Yoga but here I am…..blogging about my personal experience in a Laughter Yoga class that I didn’t know I signed up for.

I didn’t even know Laughter Yoga was a thing! But truly it is.

I thought I was attending a luncheon event for caregivers with some ladies in our church who are currently caregiving. From the promotional flyer I assumed we’d be hearing a funny lady speak on caregiving and provide some comic relief. Not sure how those lines were crossed. Oh wait, yes I do. The Director while introducing the program said, “I knew if I wrote ‘Laughter Yoga’ on the flyers it wouldn’t go over in our small town.” How right she was! I wouldn’t have signed up for that becuase who has time for laughing class?! I mean I do love to laugh – often too loud and at the wrong times but laughter is a good thing. But laughter yoga? Nah. Not for me.

So imagine the side eyes all us Baptist ladies gave each other when we heard “Laughter Yoga”.

Laughter yoga lady guided us in simple small exercises of laughter. Some included inhaling and exhaling with laughter (video below). One time we poured ourselves a cup of tea and poured in laughter cream and had to drink and laugh (my personal favorite – don’t judge).

While we rolled our eyes to begin with and it seemed forced and embarrassing it somehow always ended in real laughter. We had to do childish things like talk “gibberish” to a neighbor. Another time we pretended to drive cars and at her verbal “red lights” we had to laugh really hard. We laughed at our laughter and each other’s laughter. It’s true – laughter really is contagious!

Here’s a video of one of our exercises:

With every few exercises she would tell us the benefits of laughter. She talked about the endorphins that are released with a good dose of belly laughter and that 10 minutes of laughter accomplishes the same thing as 30 minutes on a rowing machine. Did you hear that friends?!! You can laugh for 10 minutes and it equal 30 minutes on a rowing machine. My fitness plan is to laugh while doing the rowing machine and get a full hour work out. Genius level workout. Who needs a Beach Body Fitness Coach when you can do the Math like me!

This class is hard to explain. You really have to go and experience it to understand. It sounds so stupid but when you allow yourself to go there and have fun with it it’s pretty awesome.

Laughter Lady telling us to have a pretend phone conversation with someone who is hilarious.

Even these teenagers couldn’t hold back the laughter though they tried hard.

Today was fun in such an unexpected way. We were given permission to act childlike and to be silly. It was quite freeing and relaxing in a way. Supposedly the stats say that children laugh 300 times a day! Adults on the other hand only laugh at the most 20 times a day. That’s just flat out sad.

I think we need to keep listening to Jesus when he tells us to change and become like a little child. In faith and trust. But maybe also in not taking ourselves so seriously and worried about what others think. We might laugh a little more.