Laughter Exercises

There are many Laughter Exercises that you can do alone and/or in a group.  In a Laughter Club you can structure the exercises to fit the group.  A club of younger, more actve people can do more aerobics.  A class of older adults might sit throughout, and do less strenuous exercises, as shown here in a workshop for seniors with Sebastien Gendry.

There are thousands of exercises, in fact the list is only limited by your imagination.  Some of the most popular ones poke fun at everyday situations.  For example, you could do "No Money" laughter and everyone shows their empty pockets while laughing.  Some of them are taken from classic yoga poses such as "Lion",  where you stick out your tongue, growl, and make your hands into claws.   Others are merely improvisational exercises taken from real life situations, or childhood games.  When you do these playful exercises in a safe environment, and maintain eye contact with the other participants,  it soon becomes real laughter.  You can go back and forth between "real" and "fake" laughter and still gain all the healthy benefts!

Sebastien Gendry's website www.laughteryogaamerica.com includes a lot of great exercises, as well as many ideas for laughing alone.   If you can't find a Laughter Club near you then try the Skype Laughter Club or maybe Phone Laughter!!

Here are a just a few of our favorite exercises from our Laughter Club here in St Louis:

• Laughter Pump -  Kneel Down while compressing your "laughter pump" with a big whooshing sound, then pull it up laughing softly at first, then louder and louder until your hand is as high up as you can stretch.
• Knee Slapper Laughter - Just raise your leg and slap that knee!
  
• Hula Hoop Laughter -  Pretend you are Hula Hooping, then change directions.  Try it with your neck, your leg!
  
• Laughter Engine - Get your "key" and insert it into your Laughter Engine ( belly-button).  Turn it as you start out with little "ha's" and then becoming louder Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha!!!!
  
• "Zip" Your Mouth Laughter - Laugh, then "zip" your mouth and be silent.  Repeat a few times.
• Watermelon Seed Spitting Contest - Pretend to eat a large slice of watermelon and then "spit" out the seeds!
  

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