Laughter Yoga

I am attending a teaching class in July and then facilitating a session soon after.

Photo by Jhan Castillón on Unsplash

My laughter yoga class is fast approaching. I will have a certificate to teach laughter yoga. I have been laughing my whole recovery. My most recent group said, “What you will be known for is the one who laughs.”

When I put laughter yoga in the Unsplash request for photos, I got many pictures of women doing yoga. Then I spotted the one above. And older woman fully dressed for the cold with her hands in the air. This is my kind of yoga. No mat, no skimpy garb, no hot yoga. And I can still raise my arms above my head.

Today, I got a request to send in my handouts for the laughter yoga I will facilitate only two weeks after the class. How do I put together material that I haven’t learned yet. Will my humor handout booklet do for handouts for a children’s group. Kids from 8–17 will be in the class.

Is my handout book that I put together for adults appropriate for children? I’m not sure. Would saying it may not be appropriate for all be an okay page at the beginning of the book?

Should I take out all of the questionable jokes? My grandson of 13 now, but 11/12 when we put it together has several jokes in the book. Those should be okay.

It just occurred to me that I can ask Sarah. It is her class, she is the expert, and I will be joining her to do some live sessions during the certification class that I am attending. I have included the type of questions to be completed that participants may expect for improvements from doing laughter yoga.

Credit is given to Sarah’s Laugh Healthy site on Facebook -

Probably not the questions I will ask the age group I will be working with.

It isn’t like I don’t already participate in laughter yoga, and I started laughter yoga in about 2011. Shortly after my sister died and a year after my mother died. It really was a life saver. I felt a bit guilty laughing, but it was exactly what I needed to pull me out of the depression I was diving into.

After moving from the city as my husband had retired in 2012, I continued my relationship with the laughter group from the city online. We continue to stay in touch.

Then I found Sarah and would call in and laugh on Monday mornings and continue to call in many Monday mornings. And during the pandemic she had a 20-minute live laughter yoga session that really helped.

Photo by MD Duran on Unsplash

In the mid 80s, I really learned about laughter and healing from a woman who I watched on stage laughing and crying with people. She was Dr. Annette Goodheart. She talked about laughter therapy, coaching and laughter yoga. All of which she had done.

Pat Hardy, a substance abuse counselor, living in Duluth, MN introduced me to Dr. Annette Goodheart. Pat did some group exercises that she attributed to Dr. Goodheart, who was a psychologist living in California at the time.

Annette talked about how she was paid to stand on stage and laugh and cry with people.

Through her I learned the importance of laughter in healing. I had already learned about our first two medicines being tears and laughter. It then made more sense as she could explain it scientifically.

Dr. Goodheart started laughter therapy in the late 60s. And she was a laughter coach sometime around then too. She talked about the laugh path. How to get from here to there and laugh along the way. Laughter creates the enjoyment of getting from here to there. She was clear about how coaching is not therapy.

Having a coach is someone who is on your side. Someone who helps you laugh about those things that aren’t so funny in life. She was my long-distance coach for a short time. I had her tapes and books.

She said to look forward to achieving your goals. She said to have an umbrella goal, that is like what is my life purpose. What is my purpose for living? Coaching is not that different from other coaching she said.

Since I work part-time as a culture consultant, I enjoy encouraging people I work with to smile, laugh, and cry. Even when they are in crisis and don’t feel much like smiling, laughing and can’t cry or feel like they are sick of crying. I encourage it anyway as healing.

The laughter yoga teaching credentials are something fun for me. It will be something I can share with others, but mostly just for me. And if I am scheduled to present after lunch, it is fun to do something with laughter yoga or humor.

Originally published at https://vocal.media.