On the International Day of Yoga.. Laughter yoga strengthens the immune system.. What is its story?
The world celebrates the International Day of Yoga, which falls on June 21 of each year and was celebrated for the first time in 2015, after the United Nations General Assembly approved the decision to designate this day as a day of yoga in the world.
Perhaps all of us have passed a definition of yoga or watched a video of its practitioners on various social media, or even practiced it himself, but many may not know that there is a type of yoga that you can practice on your own without a coach, which is the yoga of laughter, and through which you can strengthen the immune system and achieve instant joy and get rid of From frustration or even improving mental health and mood to help treat psychological or even organic diseases such as cancer, it may be surprising, but “Laughter Yoga” was the Egyptian Manal Al-Attar’s way to fully recover from cancer, and it even extended to her travels to India to study yoga in a scientific way and return to Egypt as the first school Yoga.
Al-Attar says of the vision: “I had cancer and (laughter yoga) was my way to overcome this dreaded disease, after which I decided to study it more deeply and traveled to India to achieve this, and I am currently organizing yoga sessions for cancer patients in cancer hospitals in Egypt.”
And about the definition of laughter yoga - according to Al-Attar - it is a series of movement and breathing exercises to promote deliberate laughter, or as I called it “laughing”, which achieves instant happiness and is used as a means to treat physical and psychological diseases, and deliberate laughter achieves the benefits of normal laughter and the body cannot distinguish it and its benefits come equal to laughter. For example, after a joke, which contributes to improving mood, reducing stress, strengthening the immune system, increasing energy levels, and treating depression without receiving auxiliary drugs to get rid of it.
Regarding the conditions for practicing “laughter yoga”, Al-Attar says that it does not require a certain fitness or flexibility, or even certain breathing exercises. Everyone can practice it even indoors and prefer to practice it in groups to enhance the feeling of laughter. Learning to laugh alone can contribute to getting rid of many of the life pressures.
And about the way “laughter yoga” interacts with the human body, Al-Attar refers to controlling breathing, then laughter allows the body to absorb more oxygen, and fake laughter is like real and achieves the same benefits.
She explains, “From normal yoga exercises, we take breathing exercises. The session begins with a warm-up, followed by a series of repetitive laughter exercises. Then what might be thought of as forced laughter turns into natural laughter, as people relax and spontaneous laughter begins to flow.”
Laughter yoga benefits
As for the benefits of laughter yoga, Al-Attar determines that it achieves immediate results by releasing happiness hormones such as endorphins, dopamine and serotonin, and blocking stress hormones such as cortisol, which achieves a better mood effect and reduces anxiety and stress levels, in addition to achieving an increase in social cohesion and strengthening relationships between individuals while enhancing feelings of security and safety. In addition, it is an alternative to antidepressants and disease resistance in general and cancer in particular, while improving the efficiency of the respiratory system through deep laughter and deep breathing by moving the diaphragm muscle completely.
Al-Attar points out that it can be practiced by anyone inside the house, but it is preferable to practice it in groups according to the theory of reflective neurons, which says that laughter or even crying is infected, and anyone of different ages can practice it, and it is not a condition that a person is happy or enjoys a sense of humor or In a good mood to do laughter yoga.
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