Laughter Yoga Is a Thing and I’m So Here for It

We have gotten pretty creative when it comes to keeping our minds and bodies healthy during the last few months but this is the first I have heard of this kind of exercise.

My grandmother used to tell me there is nothing that laughter can't cure. I like the quote from writer Madeleine L'Engle, that "A good laugh heals a lot of hurts."

I guess it makes sense that someone combined laughter and yoga together. It may sound like a new form of yoga practice but actually many of the teachings go back as far as the 1960s.

It's thought that while you are laughing you don't have the brain capacity to feel anxiety or stress. Also, they say that your body can't tell that you are fake laughing, which is much of what this practice consists of.

In case you are wondering how to practice laughing yoga, it's yoga poses with prolonged voluntary laughter. Which is weird to me, because I would think the prolonged laughter would contradict the calming breathing that I'd normally do during yoga.

The supposed benefits of this type of yoga are said to be mostly physiological. Allowing people to take a break from their worries, some tests say, helps with depression.

I'm here for it. I feel like I haven't laughed enough in the past few months nor have I taken a yoga class. So where or who does this laughter yoga? The closest practice that offers it that I could find was in Franklin, but maybe I can take a session over video chat. My only question is, can I sip on wine while I'm in child's pose?