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This is very interesting reading. I am a great
proponent for laughter as those of you who know me can readily attest.
I would like to start a laughter club here in Belgium, so if you are
interested in joining, or would like to know more about how it works
after you have read this article from the Herald Tribune, please just
contact me via the "Contact Us" page on the website , or simply
click here. In any case you can always put a comment against the
article if you want to.
Enjoy the article
Geoffrey
Tribune Newspapers: The Hartford Courant
Published October 12, 2006
At first, the concept sounds odd. One might say kooky.
Twenty-five minutes of scheduled laughter, provoked not by witty
one-liners or comedy routines -- just a dozen people standing shoeless
in a dimly lighted yoga studio, cracking up at exactly what is hard to
say.
"It's so normal to go around scheduling our anger, our disappointment,
our worry," says Steven Barrett, a massage therapist leading this block
of planned laughter. We drive to work, he says, shoulders scrunched and
stressing about the day ahead. We hunch behind office cubicles fretting
about deadlines and paperwork.
"And that's considered normal," Barrett says. "But maybe that's not so
normal."
Maybe we'd do well to lighten up, he says, even if it means pencilling
some regular spells of laughter into our weekly calendars.
Such
is the philosophy behind the newly launched Laughter Yoga Club of
Glastonbury, one of more than 5,000 circles claimed in a worldwide
movement, and what organizers believe is the first in Connecticut.
Begun a decade ago by a physician in Mumbai, India, the non-profit,
non-denominational Laughter Clubs blend silly child's play, laughter
bursts and yogic breathing techniques into a therapeutic mix that
proponents say reduces stress and helps control a host of ailments such
as high blood pressure, heart disease, depression and anxiety.
"This is all about coming together and creating a little community of
joy and happiness," Barrett tells the group gathered last Thursday for
the second in the weekly series at Sacred Rivers Yoga Studio. Then he
launches them into the chant that will be the refrain over the next 25
minutes:
HO HO, HA HA HA, they repeat with a rhythmic clap.
The smiles spread. The energy builds. The giggles erupt within seconds.
Along with Lois Grasso, founder of Hartford's OxyGenesis Institute, a
non-profit that specializes in therapeutic breath work, Barrett leads
the group in a range of exercises that may appear a bit goofy to the
outside observer: spontaneous laughter, speaking in gibberish, chanting
and cheering.
Yet, the participants dive in with abandon, not a
hint of reluctance or self-consciousness about them. The chuckles that
begin as forced and fake become a contagious swell of deep belly laughs
and snickers.
"Uh, my stomach," says a winded Penny Gadbois, 53, giggling, hand over
her belly.
Gadbois and her best friend, Susan Fowler, 56 -- both of Colchester,
Conn. -- enjoyed the inaugural session so much, they returned for the
second and have agreed to make it a part of their regular routine.
"It seems wacky, it does," Gadbois says after the class. "But when you
come and start doing it, it's actually very nice." Among the benefits,
both women counted tension release and a shifted mood that carried them
through the week.
"My legs are vibrating, my arms are vibrating," Gadbois says. "I feel
alive."
Gadbois and her fellow chucklers have science on their side.
A host of studies in recent years have shown laughter's vast physical
and emotional benefits, drawing links to management of depression and
anxiety, healthy heart functioning and coping with pain in chronic
illness.
A study released last year by the University of
Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore showed laughter may help
reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease.
Copyright © 2006, Chicago Tribune
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