The Laughing Lotus: 2013

Are you stressed out or depressed?

Sick and Tired of being Sick and Tired?

Then you are invited to the Laughter Club a Community Wellness Partnership between the Laughing Lotus and the Rideout Cancer Center.

First Club to be held 9/25/2013 at 6pm. (An evening club to repeat every 4th Wednesday of each month.)

Next Club meeting to be held 10/8/2013 - 11am (This will be the morning club to meet the 2^nd Tuesday of each month)

Free Community Wellness Program

Have you ever heard the expression “Laughter is the best medicine” or “What soap is to the body, Laughter is to the soul”?

These are ancient sayings, one being from the book of Proverbs in the Bible, and the other being an old Yiddish saying. Tibetan Monks have also used laughter chanting in their practice for thousands of years. When we laugh, it changes the chemicals in our brains and makes us healthier.

Laughter Yoga is suitable for everyone! It is of especial health benefit to people under high pressure and those who are stressed or unwell.

Laughter Yoga is suitable for everyone! It is of especial health benefit to people under high pressure and those who are stressed or unwell.

With modern science to show us some of the health benefits, what was “once old is new again”. Merriment has come a long way baby! In the 1979, Norm Cousins published book, Anatomy of an Illness as Perceived by the Patient, thus starting a new era for patients and people in general, to gain knowledge and information and take charge of their own health. Norm Cousins had a rare debilitating disease of the connective tissue called Ankylosing Spondylitis . Ankylosing Spondylitis is a chronic inflammatory disease of the axial skeleton with variable involvemenet of the peripheeral joints and nonarticlar structures. This constant inflammation of the vertebra is extremely painful. He found that humor, along with other healing art modalities and following his doctor’s advice allowed him to survive. Ten minutes of “internal jogging”, as Norm Cousins sometimes called laughter, the gut-busting, tears running down your face kind, allowed him two hours of pain free sleep.

Medical Doctors have long known the health benefits of laughter on the body. Laughter sessions give a good massage to the abdominal organs like the liver, kidneys, pancreas, spleen and adrenal glands. As a result, blood flow and nourishment is increased and the function of the organs is increased. Laughter enchances your in-take of oxygen-rich air, stimulating your liver, your heart, lungs and muscles and an increase of endorphins are realeased to your brain. "For the most part, when you go and get medical treatment, a clinican is not necessarily going to tell you to take two asprins and watch Laurel and Hardy, but the reality is that's where we are and it's more real than ever. There's a real science to this. And it's as real as taking a drug." (Dr. Lee Berk, Professor of Medicine, Loma Linda University)

Who remembers the song; I want a New Drug by Huey Lewis and the News? Well, glee is free, non-fattening & legal. Research shows that sustained giggling causes the release of opiate-like chemicals in the brain. Similar to the “runners high” we often hear runners talk about. This chemical release creates a sense of intense, transient, well-being in some people. The health benefits are real with laughter yoga!

As a good friend of mine, Steve Wilson (Cheerman of the Board at World Laughter Tour) once said,

“Systemic exposure to true, mirthful laughter in a safe and supportive environment, which is what a Laughter Club is, improves your health and changes your perspective. Thus making it the most cost effective, stress reduction therapy ever discovered.”

If you would like to experience how mirth can improve your health and prevent hardening of the attitudes, join one of our Laughter Clubs for some Laughter Yoga.

What is Laughter Yoga you ask?

Laughter Yoga (Hasyayoga) is a unique concept that allows you to giggle for no reason. It doesn’t require humor, comedy or jokes. Its based on the fact that our brain’s can’t differentiate between real and false chuckle. So we “fake it till we make it”. Due to the mirror neurons in our brains, laughing is contagious. Free-flowing laughter exercises are benefical to the body; laughing dissolves stress, anxiety, anger and depression.

No tricks , no tickling , no alcohol and no jokes .

So when done in a laughter group setting and making eye contact, the chortle becomes real, the breathing becomes deeper, more oxygen is circulating around the body and you start gaining the health benefits and chemical changes in your brain! After just one laughter session many people feel the difference. After several laughter sessions people describe surging feelings of job and happiness!

Laughter Yoga was started in 1995 by a medical doctor, Dr. Madan Kataria.

Dr. Kataria and his wife Madhuri, (a yoga instructor) held their first Laughter Yoga in a park in Mumbai India with five people. There are now Laughing Yoga Therapy Clubs all around the world in over 68 countries with over, 5000 laughter leaders. Mark Twain once said, “Against the assaultof laughter nothing can stand".