By Tiffany Williams
Editor
It is often said that laughter is the best medicine and now Ponoka residents can experience this first hand. Laughter is fun and easy and a new laughter yoga class, through the community Klaglahachie program, is teaching people how to let loose.
Bev Kym, from Ponoka, enjoys going to the group and thinks that it is quite funny.
“Laughter is contagious. There are so many dark things in the world it is good to have some laughter,” said Kym.
The group is lead by Michelle Stirling who first heard of laughter yoga from a TV clip. She took a Laughter Yoga Certification course from Dr. Billy Strean, Ph.D. (Professional Humour Dude) at the University of Alberta.
“I used to work in film production and advertising where people are quite whacky and you laugh and work all day - so I was looking for a way to put something fun, social and healthful back in my life,” said Stirling.
She says that laughter yoga started in India in 1995 when Dr. Madan Kataria was writing a paper on laughter as ‘the best medicine.’ He tested the theory by going to a park with a group of people and telling jokes. They kept on meeting but soon ran out of jokes. Then based on Neuron-Linguistic Programming principles he found that laughter for no reason was just as effective as laughing for a reason. His wife, a yoga teacher, helped him with the breathing exercises and thus laughter yoga was born.
“Laughter is stimulating and relaxing all at the same time. It pops you out of your worries and ‘into the moment’ where you forget all your cares. It is social and ‘silly’. It doesn’t require special equipment, you don’t have to lie on the floor or twist around,” said Stirling. “It is playful and light-hearted. It has been proven to reduce stress, strengthen the immune system, increase the oxygen intake and contribute to a general sense of well-being. Laughter Yoga is a way to easily and simply deal with stressful feelings of fear, boredom, anger and loneliness.”
During the 30-minute laughter session the group pretended to walk on the moon, blow bubbles, roar like a lion and shake peoples hand, all while laughing. There are no difficult yoga positions instead it consists of movement or mime.
Ponoka’s new laughter group, is one of 6,000 unconditional laughter clubs.
The free Laughter Yoga session is held every Thursday at the Ponoka United Church at noon.