Laughing yoga is a movement and breathing exercise that aims to cultivate joy, bring out your inner child, and help you let go of daily life stressors. It uses deliberate laughter to promote overall wellness and claims to be beneficial against various chronic illnesses.
It is a simple, affordable and fun alternative to conventional yoga. A typical session involves stretching, deep breathing and laughter exercises5. Laughter yoga is easy to incorporate into your daily life and requires no special skill or athletic ability to practice5.
Last fall GenCare started the Laughing Yoga program for its residents and the community. Candace Snapp, the head of Vitality, says “We started talking about social fitness and it was a missing piece of the puzzle. Laughing Yoga is filling the missing piece. Sometimes new residents have a hard-time going through this life change and making the transition. We brought laughing yoga in to encourage seniors to laugh and get to know others in the class.”
There was a study done in 2022 with nurses that had worked through Covid and that study found that laughing yoga actually helped the nurses feel much better and make deeper connections with their associates. Why did they see these changes? During the class there are hormones released into the body. The simple act of laughing releases dopamine to the brain. The simple act of smiling creates good hormones. Our bodies release oxytocin and serotonin which helps to boost mood. Not to mention that Endorphins released reduce inflammation and increase pleasure.
To learn more about laughing yoga, and check out the schedule:
GenCare Lifestyle Tacoma at Point Ruston
4970 Main St, Tacoma, WA 98407
(253) 203-6460
csnapp@gencare-inc.com