Laughter Yoga
Posted on: November 4, 2009 - 1:36pm
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Laughter Yoga
I was doing a bit of preliminary research for a paper on the relationship between happy employees and productivity, when I happened upon this gem:
Laughter Yoga *Watch the video for lulz*
Dear zeus save me from the crazies! Personally, I love to laugh and smile but yoga AND laughter therapy? And they claim that not only will it make you feel great (i agree that laughter gives a feeling of elation) but they claim there are medical benefits! Phooey.
There are quite a few scholarly articles regarding this claim~ HERE IS ONE ~ I for one am not convinced laughter will cure a cold, meningitis or any other medical malady ~ what are your thoughts?
Slowly building a blog at ~
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Laughter and Yoga both give medical benefits.
I don't see why that is strange.
So does walking, jogging, not being depressed and eating right.
Theism is why we can't have nice things.
So give me a few examples of how laughter benefits health. I understand 'feeling good' may make a person less likely to be depressed ~ help me understand the sequence of physiological events that lead up to Laughter = Better health.
Slowly building a blog at ~
http://obsidianwords.wordpress.com/
If you are happy, and enjoying yourself, you are not depressed. Depressed animals of any type live more stressful, shorter lives.
Also, it burns calories.
HA!
Theism is why we can't have nice things.
"Also, it burns calories.
HA!"
LOL ~ no wonder I am one skinny beeotch!
Thanks for your thoughts on this.
SO lets go back to the video. These people claim that "..structured, controlled regimen of laughter will help you reap healthful benefits" So is forcing yourself to laugh going to create the same effects? This group sure seems to think so ~
Slowly building a blog at ~
http://obsidianwords.wordpress.com/
.
That sounds like something that would be disturbing to witness. A large group of people giving forced laughter?
It would be like a Jeff Dunham performance.
Theism is why we can't have nice things.
I cannot see how fake laughing would produce the same effect on the body as real laughter, laughter is a reaction to an emotion, the emotion is what may be beneficial for health. Trying to fake laugh in a big group would make me feel awkward, that would be the emotion i would be feeling not happiness. I wouldn`t last 5 seconds trying it. If staying as happy as you can does have any health benefits it would be from your general outlook on life, certainly a few awkward laughs extra a week in a yoga class wouldnt change the number that much of how many times you laughed that week. You could have laughed a hole lot more and genuinly watching family guy, and its free. This is just modern hooey. If it makes them happy, they can pay to laugh its their money. Im sure the class teacher moonlights as a ghost tracker, which they can also pay to take as a coarse.
Ah, finally a subject I know something about. High levels of anxiety and depression ( that's me ! ) cause the body to release stress hormones. I believe they are referred to collectively as glucocorticoids. If a person experiences long term production of these hormones they actually begin to work against the body in many different ways.
Cortisol is one of these hormones that if allowed to "flood" the body will cause significant damage over the long term. The resulting effects are bone loss and wasting of muscle tissue. The region of the brain referred to as the hippocampus can be greatly affected. I personally know that the eventual results are the inability to concentrate, the inability to remember and a general loss of mental acumen.
It also negatively affects blood sugar, causes circulatory problems ( like hypertension and heart attacks ) and even more nasty things.
In small amounts over a short duration these hormones actually benefit the body. That is their purpose. If for some reason the body's stress hormone "faucet" is turned on all the way and then left running, well prepare to suffer the consequences.
I have heard that you can control your moods to some extent. I believe I heard this from credible, scientific people and/or credible, scientific articles, but I can't track either down right now. If I find one of the articles again I will surely post a link here! But I believe the idea is similar to the sort of Jiminy Cricket/The King and I idea about whistling when you're nervous or afraid. You subconsciously associate smiling or laughing with being happy, so if you smile a lot, you can kind of trick yourself into feeling happier.
I agree, it sounds silly. But I'm pretty sure that it's actually been studied and quantified.
I bet it would work better if it was more "real" laughter, like getting together with friends and watching funny movies once a week, rather than awkwardly guffawing on command.
You can call me Z.
Yeah, I agree. I find that I can decrease my stress level by popping in a funny DVD and just getting lost in humor. It works to an extent. ( I used to smoke reefer
too, but job restrictions prevent that ...)
im sorry dude
Heh heh, I'm sorry too! Smoking pot totally makes me *mellow.
( *Mother Nature's prozac ? )
Smoking weed for me is much more than something i just enjoy. Since i can remember ive been an insomniac, always stayin up till the wee hours of the night buildingg things out of lego when i was a kid. As i got older controlling my sleep became harder and harder untill i smoked my first joint in grade 8. I know get 7 hours of consistent sleep everynight with that doobie 1 hour before bed time. Ironically i need to smoke weed to keep me strong for work everyday if i didnt i couldn`t run my company as id be sleeping in randm intervals all over the place. Not mind the fact that smoking a joint and playing the piano is the greatest consistant pleasure i have encontered yet in life, its just as awesme today as it ways 10 years ago. No one could take me fom my doobies!!!
infact with all this doobie talk i do believe ill twist me one up in the spirit.
Aaaah, dude you're torturing me !!!
( Well, smoke one for me then...
)
are you a cop? what do you do that you cant smoke a doob in your spare time
I have a job in which I have to drive company vehicles. My employer's corporate insurance policy requires random drug testing of employees. Many, many companies in the US do this. It sucks.
Oh, btw, it wouldn't matter if I limited my pot smoking to just off hours from work. THC embeds within your body's fat cells and metabolizes really slowly, it therefore releases those metabolites into your blood stream where they can still be detected long after your buzz has worn off. You'll continually test positive until your body has cleared itself of all traces of THC.
Ironically LSD metabolizes out of the body very quickly. It would be a much more suitable drug as far as being able to work around drug tests ....except that my grasp upon sanity is already pretty tenuous at best so dropping acid would quite possibly turn me into the psychological equivalent of Humpty Dumpty.
I do forget sometimes how strict American law is on weed. In Vancouver if you dont smoke weed you most likely certainly aren't agaist it. I admit freely that i smoke weed to anyone who asks, many of my bosses have endulged in a doob with me. I wouldn't get any work in the states.
in my teens, my group of friends occasionally would do just that; everybody would start pretend laughing and it would turn into real laughter within about 20 seconds.
After about 40 seconds it would be gasping for air hilarity.
it was only funny for a a couple of minutes though...
Eden had a 25% murder rate and incest was rampant.