4 Incredible Laughter Therapy Exercises to do in a Group
We explain 4 incredible laughter therapy exercises designed to free you from stress and promote your well-being.
Scientists believe that our face reflects what’s happening in our mind and it even has the ability to change the emotional state of it. This applies to laughter also i.e. When you laugh in a stressful situation your mind releases endorphin and inhibits your stress thinking you are happy.
Have A Hearty Laughter
Have A Hearty Laughter is an important exercise in laughter therapy because it helps us lead a healthy life. Laughter therapy or humor therapy is an exercise in which humor is used to promote well-being and health in general.
A genuine laugh can be very different from laughter because it should come straight from your heart, which means you can’t fake this. Contrary to what many of us think, laughter therapy is not about laughing from start to finish.
This laugh is also a classic laughter yoga exercise. To carry out the activity you must guide the group to carry out the following actions:
- Extend your arms to the sky, tilt your head back a little and lift your chin, then laugh out loud as best you can.
- Direct your laughter in a way that comes from the hearts. They can also lower their arms if necessary.
- To laugh your best, it is recommended that you think of a happy memory or socially awkward situation that you can remember and laugh about.
- Act like you did when you were a boy and a girl and see if it’s nice and comfortable. Explore how absurd, how ridiculous, and how amazing it felt.
Swinging Laughter
Swinging Laughter is a fun group laughter therapy activity that helps people improve their sense of well-being.
It should be done in a group, and all members must form a wide circle. All the members move outwards by two meters to widen the circle.
On cue from the facilitator, all people in the circle should move forward while making a prolonged sound of Ae Ae Aeeeee and simultaneously raise their hands up and burst into laughter once they meet at the center and wave their hands.
After the bout of laughter, they move back to their original position and do the same procedure, but this time using the sound Oh Oh Ooooooooooo.
On cue from the facilitator, the second time, all people in the circle should move forward while making a prolonged sound of Oh Oh Ooooooooooo and burst into laugh. Repeat the two procedures several times so that contagious laughter appears in the group.
This activity helps to reduce inhibition and shyness and to turn simulated laughter into unconditional laughter.
Also, according to the principles of yoga, laughter gives a constant massage to the digestive tract and also improves blood supply to all the internal organs. It stimulates blood circulation, which helps to transport nutrients all over the body, and it also strengthens our respiratory apparatus, which supplies oxygen to the body.
Different Laughter Sounds
Different Sounds Laughter is a practice aimed primarily at experiencing the simulated-spontaneous laughter binomial to achieve all its health benefits.
You and your group can do this while sitting or standing.
- “Ho Ho” Sounds from the Belly: Put your hand on your belly button. With your mouth open, say “ho ho ho.” Feel the movement of your abdominal muscles and let the laughter sounds from your belly stimulate the diaphragm. After a while, increase the speed and burst into laughter while saying “ho ho ho.”
- “Ha Ha” Sounds from the Chest: Place your hand on your heart and say “ha ha ha.” Feel the vibrations in your chest. After a while, increase the speed and burst into laughter while saying “ha ha ha.”
- “He He” Sounds from Your Throat: Place your hands on your neck, where your larynx is, and say “he he he.” Feel the sound in your throat. Next, burst out laughing and feel the vibrations.
- Humming into Your Ears: Place both your hands on your ears, close your eyes and mouth and hum. Slowly convert this sound into humming laughter and feel it in your head and deep inside your brain.
Deep Breathing
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.
¡If you like these activities, we share more Laughter Therapy Exercise!
