Laughter Yoga

I've written about my problems with yoga before. Even though I don't like yoga, I understood why it was a good practice. I saw the results people achieved and wanted those for myself. Today I found an article talking about "laughter yoga" and my head almost exploded. Laughter seems counter to the core of yoga.

Every yoga class seems to focus on holding precise postures and poses. There also seems to be a focus on controlling one's breath. Laughter seems like it wouldn't work with those goals. I know that I can't hold the tree pose when I'm laughing at the dogs, or even distracted by the dogs.

Maybe he should cut the word yoga and call it laughter stretching or laughing stretching. That wouldn't solve all of my problems with it, but would at least not seem like an oxymoron. The other problem I have is that he charges to be certified.

His basic premise is that laughter is good for you. Fake and real laughter are equally good for you. You should spend time laughing every day to reap the benefits. Why should anyone spend money to have a class from someone certified to learn those three sentences? Why would I give him $250 to become certified in those three sentences.

I'm not going to discount that laughter is good for stress relief. I will even add that it's a good ab workout. It does NOT cure arthritis, asthma or diabetes as his site seems to claim. Those claims also play a little into the blame the sufferer for not having the right state of mind. To me, that's reprehensible. You don't blame an asthmatic for not doing enough mentally to breathe better.