Laughter Yoga New Zealand / Aotearoa

ALFRISTON
Every 2nd & 4th Saturdays of the month, 10:00 - 11:00am. Gold coin koha.
Alfriston Hall, corner of Alfriston and Mill Roads. Map link

Phone: Noel 021 237 2063 or Gavin 027 223 8720

BROWNS BAY
Saturdays, 9:00 - 9:45am. Gold coin koha.
East Coast Bays Community Centre, 2 Glen Road, Browns Bay. Map link

Phone: Jayshree Nayee 027 227 0041, Louise Stevens 027 475 3734, or Rebecca Armstrong 021 990 049

GLENFIELD
Tuesdays, 9:30 - 10:15am. Gold coin koha.
Glenfield Senior Citizens Hall, Mayfield Centre, 5 Mayfield Road, Glenfield. Please bring a blanket or mat. Map link
Email: laughterglenfield@gmail.com
Phone: Louise Stevens 0274 753 734

MANUKAU
Saturdays, 10:00 - 11:00am. Gold coin koha.
Wesley Church Lounge area, 37-39 Kolmar Road, Papatoetoe, Manukau. Map link
Email: laughtermanukau@gmail.com
Phone: Wayne and Mary Wilson (09) 266 0261, Wayne 021 1188101

OREWA
Wednesdays (except 3rd Wednesday of the month), 10:30 - 11:15am. Gold coin koha.
Orewa Community Centre, 368 Hibiscus Coast Highway, Orewa. Map link
Email: laughterorewa@gmail.com
Phone: Shaguntala 027 261 1140

PAKURANGA / AUCKLAND EAST
Saturdays, 10:00 - 11:00am. Gold coin koha.
Masada Centre, 6 Glenside Avenue, Pakuranga. Map link
(off Reeves Road behind the Pakuranga Playcentre, some off street parking)
Email: laughteraucklandeast@gmail.com
Phone: Pieter de Zwart 027 576 5838

PONSONBY

Saturdays, 10:00 - 10:45am. Gold coin koha.

The Pohutukawa Room at Youthline, 13 Maidstone Street, Ponsonby. Map link

Email: laughterponsonby@gmail.com

Phone: Gay 021 0635 035

Phone: Richard Gall on 021 0431 648, Hannah Airey on 021 998 109, or Honalee on 021 182 6167 for details.

Laughter Yoga combines laughter with yogic breathing exercises to provide 45-minute workout sessions that include 30 minutes of laughter. Laughter Yoga is the fastest growing health and fitness system in the world. It is also known as 'instant yoga' as it provides results in days that can take years to achieve in posture yoga. It has been featured in a Time Magazine cover story, on CNN and other world media including National Geographic, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, BBC, NHK Japan, Star TV, ABC News, Channel 9 Australia and many more.

Children laugh 300-400 times a day during their important formative years, but adult laughter has reduced this to just 10-15 times a day. Laughter is one of our best defenses against stress, and it is important that we find ways to laugh more to cope with stress and remain healthy in the modern world. Laughter Yoga is a perfect way to laugh and get exercise at the same time. It approaches laughter as a body exercise so it's easy to laugh even if you're depressed or in a bad mood.

Laughter Yoga is offered for free in more than 5,000 social laughter clubs around the world. It is now being offered commercially in yoga and fitness centers, aged care facilities, schools, hospitals, as well as business and government offices.

Hearty laughter provides an aerobic workout that exercises the heart, diaphragm, abdominal, intercostal, respiratory and facial muscles. Laughter yoga workouts include flexing and exercise of the arm, leg, and back muscles. The exercises strengthen facial muscles and reduce wrinkles leaving us looking younger. Twenty minutes of hearty laughter is equivalent to 10 minutes on an exercise bike. Scientific studies show that sustained hearty laughter has a wide range of beneficial effects on our mental and physical health.

Benefits to our bodies include improved cardiovascular health and reduced blood pressure. Laughter boosts our body's oxygen and energy levels and also boosts levels of immune cells that attack cancer, infection and virus. Laughter releases endorphins, a natural pain killer that is responsible for the 'runner's high'. It stimulates the lymphatic system and boosts our immune system, and also reduces levels of stress poisons in our bodies by 50% or more in minutes.

Laughter is used in hospitals around the world to speed healing and improve patients' mental outlook. It can be especially beneficial to cancer patients. Laughter improves our mental health. It can treat and often cure depression and helps us to cope with stress. Studies show that laughter boosts creativity and communication skills and also boosts our self confidence. Laughter is nature's antidote to stress. Stress kills, laughter heals. Stress switches off our digestive, sexual and immune systems. Laughter switches them on and boosts them.

Everybody needs to laugh more, says Dr Kataria, but certain groups need laughter more than others. Laughter is especially important for people who are stressed as it undoes much of the damage of stress and also provides techniques for coping with stress more easily. People who are sick or who get sick often should laugh more as laughter strengthens our immune system and helps us to fight off disease, colds, flu and even cancer. Laughter is especially important for older people as it also provides a gentle aerobic workout, boosts energy levels, maintains flexibility and helps to prevent depression. Laughter yoga is practiced in aged care facilities around the world.

Laughter yoga is also being introduced into the workplace by small companies, large corporates and government departments around the world. The benefits include reduced stress levels, increased efficiency and team building, a happy atmosphere and reduced absenteeism. In many countries laughter yoga is also being used in schools, hospitals, sporting clubs and also in orphanages, hospice, prisons and also mental institutions.

The story of Laughter Yoga starts in 1995, when Doctor Madan Kataria, a GP with a practice in Mumbai, India, was reviewing the considerable body of medical research which established the broad-ranging benefits of laughter. These benefits were not simply a sense of 'feeling good' – there were measurable improvements to physical, mental and emotional states for people who laughed often.

What seemed to be lacking was any organised way of getting these benefits to people. He decided to see if a method could be developed which would encourage people to laugh more. He started by asking people in his walking club to tell each other jokes and funny stories. This however was not a useful approach – they soon ran out of jokes, and some people found certain jokes unacceptable. After considering this problem he got the breakthrough: that the benefits of laughter did not require anything to be funny; that is, it worked just as well even if you laughed for no reason.

What was useful was laughing in a group; making eye contact; physically moving the body while laughing; and laughing out loud. He developed a broad structure for laughter sessions, comprising a number of short laughter exercises, interspersed with deep breathing to clear the lungs (the yoga aspect), followed by a winding-down process so that people are grounded when they complete the session. The laughter exercises have their inspiration in the observation that children laugh several hundred times a day; adults only a few dozen times. So, many of the exercises focus on creating a form of childlike play amongst the participants.

Please take some time to look at this film trailer when you can. It's for an upcoming film about Laughter Clubs throughout the world: