Deep Breathing Exercises
Laughter exercises are interspersed with deep breathing exercises to help flush the lungs as well as bring physical and mental relaxation. This is a typical and effective breathing exercise.
These exercises are designed to take a break and relaxation so that you don’t get tired doing laughter exercises continuously. You can decide according to your judgment after how many exercise to do these breathing exercises.
Ask your group to do the following instructions.
From a relaxed standing position, bend forward at the waist to a point where you are comfortable (different for everyone) while exhaling through the mouth to fully empty your lungs. Dangle your arms.
Bending helps push the diaphragm up and empty your lungs. Hold briefly.
Straighten up slowly while inhaling through your nose and take as deep a breath as possible. Raise your arms to the sky, stretching your body slightly backwards. Hold your breath for 4-5 seconds.
Exhale slowly as you bring your arms down and bend forward. Try to exhale longer than you inhale in order to empty your lungs completely. Hold and then repeat.
A variation is to hold your breath a little longer, then letting the air burst forth in hearty laughter.
There is no necessity to do the breathing exercise after every laughter exercise. You can do after two exercises depending upon the energy levels of the group.
The topics of this publication: health, relaxation, wellbeing, self