Leeds Laughter Yoga: Try Something New for International Day of Happiness

National World - LocalTV

Laughter Yoga teacher Lynne Carruthers a.k.a. ‘Laugh With Lynne’ shares how she helps people to optimise health and wellbeing through laughter.

Transcript

00:00Get the floss out, and then we pop it into our heads, laughing as we do all the exercises like this.

00:07In goes the floss, and we're going...

00:09LAUGHS

00:11Have a great little feeling about getting all those thoughts we don't want out.

00:15LAUGHS

00:20Yeah, that's really good.

00:23I'm Lynne from Laugh With Lynne, and I'm a lefty oboe leader,

00:27and I do classes in North Leeds in between Harrogate and Leeds.

00:30I got into laughter yoga in lockdown.

00:33I wanted something to give me a bit of a boost,

00:35and also I wanted something to do a little bit of exercise based on what I was able to do,

00:40because I do have a chronic health condition.

00:44It's a musculoskeletal condition called Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, amongst other things.

00:49So a friend suggested laughter yoga because the nice thing about it is

00:53that you can do as much exercise as you want for it within your own capabilities,

00:57which I was very drawn to that.

00:59So I did try it, and then I was hooked.

01:02So I eventually then became trained to become a laughter yoga leader.

01:07Laughter is essentially a breathing exercise.

01:10If you think about what we're aiming for with laughter yoga is a hearty laugh.

01:14It's the hearty laugh that's good for your health.

01:16So if you, for example, breathe in deeply and then laugh,

01:21you're actually contracting your abdominals like this.

01:25That's actually the laugh, so that's what we're aiming for.

01:28We'll do a little breathe in, and then a laugh out.

01:35Then a breathe in, and a laugh out.

01:41Then a breathe in.

01:43And a ho-ho-ho-ho-ho-ho.

01:46And that just gets you going with your laughter muscles

01:49and exercises your mouth a little bit as well.

01:52People are often a little intrigued and also a little nervous

01:57about just laughing in front of other people, particularly if you don't know them.

02:01So we generally, you know, I'm very steady with people.

02:05I don't make them laugh, but generally if you come to class with a readiness

02:12to laugh and a wish to laugh, it generally just comes.

02:15Brain flossing is imaginary.

02:17We're trying to get rid of any unwanted thoughts that are in our brain,

02:21anything that shouldn't be in there.

02:23Just get it in every way like you would with your teeth.

02:27That's great. I think I've got quite a lot of thoughts out now,

02:30so I'm going to wang that away.

02:32And now I like to shower off just in case there's any more.

02:35I've got a little shower here ready.

02:37All the happy hormones are switched on in your body,

02:40such as serotonin and endorphins that anyone might have heard of.

02:44And it also reduces your stress hormones as well.

02:48We don't laugh because we're happy.

02:51We're happy because we laugh.

02:53So it is one of the main things about laughter yoga

02:56is that it does help your happiness.

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