NLP-South 3 July 2008

Laughter yoga with Lisa Sturge of Laughterlines!

 

You may have seen Michael Palin on his recent travels attend a laughter clinic in Germany. Whatever your thoughts on seeing people laughing for no reason on TV, we were prompted by Lisa to open our minds and have a go ourselves at Bannister Park. And it was great fun!

 

As we wiggled our toes, breathed deeply, clapped and chanted our way round the room, it was nothing like our usual NLP evening.  Just as well, therefore, that before we began, I asked everyone to be aware of their state, their beliefs about laughter and the contrast to their ‘normal’ behaviours. Lisa followed by telling us about the scientifically proved benefits of laughter and how the founder of laughter clubs, Dr Madan Kataria, had decided to use simple yoga breathing and stretching exercises to create a structure for the sessions that could be repeated around the world.

 

Lisa’s last exercise helped the chuckles to bubble up and finally subside. As everyone regained their equilibrium - and their seats - Nigel and I demonstrated how to identify and anchor three states: serious; mildly amused; chuckling with mirth. So this final exercise gave everyone resources to ramp up their laughter quotient (LQ) on demand.

 

 

Resources

Dr Madan Kataria is the founder of laughter yoga - which is currently spreading across the world from his base in Bombay, India.  You can hear direct from the ‘Laugh Doctor’ on Youtube, where he has a number of videos.

 

 

Jeya Jeyaratnam has a clear explanation of Dr Kataria’s laughter yoga on the MSN life and style site.

And of course on Lisa’s website,

you can find out even more about laughter, her courses, which are coming up soon locally and her coaching.

Lisa is also part of the Laughter Network. - a group of professionals with diverse talents and a common goal to bring more laughter and happiness into people’s lives.