I don't know how many of you have ever heard of "laugher yoga", but if you haven't, one thing I will say is that most of us are missing laugher in our lives. On average children laugh 300 times a day. Years ago, the average adult American laughed 15 times a day (way less than children obviously), and now, unfortunately in the times we're in with high-stress work environments, longer working hours, lack of jobs, constant electronic interference, psuedo online relationships and the list goes on and on..... we (American adults) actually only laugh about 5 times a day (if that). How sad is that!
Think about the last time you had a REALLY good laugh, I mean so good that you started crying and you thought you were going to pee your pants and/or start hyperventilating cuz you were laughing so hard? I can honestly tell you in the last 10 years, for me, that's maybe been a handful of times. Yet, in high school I had a great friend that together we'd make each other laugh so hard that I'd fall out of the chair gasping for air and literally would crawl away to another room or outside of the house just to catch my breath and stop crying from laughing so hard.
Think about the last time you had a REALLY good laugh, I mean so good that you started crying and you thought you were going to pee your pants and/or start hyperventilating cuz you were laughing so hard? I can honestly tell you in the last 10 years, for me, that's maybe been a handful of times. Yet, in high school I had a great friend that together we'd make each other laugh so hard that I'd fall out of the chair gasping for air and literally would crawl away to another room or outside of the house just to catch my breath and stop crying from laughing so hard.
I miss those moments! Laughter is truly a key to longevity!!!! One of the oldest women on this earth, at age 122, stated that the key to living so long was "laughing on a daily basis".
So, if you are here in Chicago, I invite you to join me to attend the next laughter yoga class in Skokie next month on Dec. 17th, 2011 (a "meetup" group is organizing it. If you haven't heard of meetup, they are nationwide and you should check them out, any interest you have, someone has probably created a meetup group for it.... and it's free to join, just create a user name and search your neighborhood at: www.meetup.com). Here's the Skokie laughter yoga meetup: http://www.meetup.com/Laughing-Yoga-Club/events/26786301/
And here's a great website on a local Chicago organization that offers laughter yoga to corporations and other group settings. The website gives a lot of amazing information on what laughter yoga is all about, so it's worth checking out (they don't seem to offer regularly scheduled classes, but seem to be contracted for events instead, but nonetheless, totally worth checking out their website). And if you are not in Chicago and are interested in laugher yoga near you, I suggest you simply Google "laughter yoga" and add the name of the city you're in and see what you come up with. http://www.laughteryogachicago.com/laughter_yoga_why_now.htm
Let us all live in love, laughter, sunshine and vitality!!!!
Lucy
PS Going to improv comedy shows, watching America's Funniest Home Videos, watching comedic movies that truly make you laugh, are all great sources for laughing as well.
