Laughter Club Sign UP

Local Laughter Club  at
Your Well-Being - Healthy Choices
Email Us to Start a Club TODAY!
8910 Main St. Campbellsburg, KY 40011
just one mile from Exit 34 off I-71 between Louisville & Cincinnati
Free Parking - Free Fun - Free Exercise
JOIN US...
either Barbara or Julie will be your leader
Call 251-504-5328 or email haha@moonsunearth.com to register and to get additional details.

Check this out for Laughing FUN http://laughangeles.com/fun/

Laughter Clubs (Laugh Clubs, Laughing Clubs, Yoga Laugh Clubs) are fully independent, not-for-profit, non-political, non-religious and non competitive community-based associations of diverse people where all are welcome regardless of gender, age, physical abilities, social or economic backgrounds. They practice the Laughter Yoga method of Laughing for no reason as a form of exercise.

• There are currently over 5000 Laughter Clubs among 53 countries

• We estimate about 200 Laughter Clubs in the USA

• Concept Introduced in the USA by Steve Wilson in 1999

• Sebastien Gendry was the first American to train as a Certified Laughter Yoga Teacher with Dr. Madan Kataria in 2004

Each club defines its own meeting frequency. People attend for various reasons. These include and are not limited to:

• Health improvement

• Learn to better manage stress and/or anger issues

• Boost Happiness

• Foster Inner Peace

• Overcome sadness and depression

• Break social isolation and create new friendships

• Develop self-confidence

• Improve and/or alleviate the discomfort of specific physical challenges

• Play and have fun in a safe and non competitive environment

Practice! Try Gaga Barnes' daily laughter session on the phone. Every day at 9 AM PST on the conference line. Call in 712.432.3900 (Iowa). The access code is 6071292#. Duration = about 20 minutes. Free. Please do not disrupt that call by asking questions. Just go along and laugh as directed.

God has a smile on His face. -- Psalm 42:5

God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid
to laugh. -Voltaire

Health Benefits Of
Laughter Yoga

Laughter yoga has profound effects on our mental and physical state of being.

"For the most part, when you go and get medical treatment, a clinician is not necessarily going to tell you to take two aspirins and watch Laurel and Hardy," says Dr. Lee Berk. "But the reality is that's where we are and it's more real than ever. There's a real science to this. And it's as real as taking a drug."

The secret of laughter yoga is that our bodies are hardwired with some surprisingly powerful natural reactions to extended hearty laughter. These side effects include:

• Blood & all major organs are fully oxygenated leaving us bursting with energy
• Blood pressure drops, circulation improves and pulse rate drops
• Depression is lifted, even chronic depression is often cured
• High endorphin levels put us in a great mood and reduce any aches & pains
• Immune, digestive & sexual systems that are switched off by stress are switched on
• Self confidence is boosted, communication skills and creativity are boosted
• Our lymphatic system is massaged and our immune systems boosted
• Stress levels reduce by 75% or more and we become more stress resistant

After just one laughter yoga session many people feel the difference. After some Laughter Yoga meditation sessions people describe surging feelings of joy and happiness.

With regular sessions people’s entire mental and physical state changes for the better. Laughter accelerates healing and many small health problems disappear. The frequency of colds & flu’s reduces. You feel happy, healthy and well.

No other fitness training regime or style of yoga has these benefits.

A recent study at Stanford University concludes that laughter stimulates the parts of our brain that use the “feel good” chemical messenger dopamine. This puts laughter into the “necessary” category of activities that are pleasurably addictive, and more so in the myriads of health benefits that accrue.

Importance Of Oxygen

Laughter helps us keep healthy by enriching the blood with ample supplies of oxygen, the lifeline of our system. According to the science of yoga, life energy (prana) flows through the breath. Through controlled and deep breathing we can enhance our own well-being. With the 20-30 minute package offered by the Laughter Club, participants take home the healthy habit of deep breathing at least 10-20 times a day. This helps to increase the lung capacity, thus enhancing oxygen supply to the body.

Check out what the experts are saying on the importance of oxygen:

"Deep breathing techniques which increase oxygen to the cell are the most important factors in living a disease free and energetic life... Remember. Where cells get enough oxygen, cancer will not, cannot occur." --Dr. Otto Warburg, President, Institute of Cell Physiology, Nobel Prize Winner (Dr. Warburg is the only person to ever win the Nobel Prize twice in medicine and he was nominated for a third.)

"Breathing correctly is the key to better fitness, muscle strength, stamina, and athletic endurance." --Dr. Michael Yessis, Phd., President Sports Training Institute, Fitness Writer - Muscle and Fitness Magazine

"Oxygenation through deep breathing boosts the immune system and can rid the body of chronic illnesses." --Dr. Sheldon Hendler, MD, Medical Researcher Cell Oxygenation, Author "The Oxygen Breakthrough"

"All body functions are breathing related. Proper oxygen delivery to all parts of your body is crucial to health and well-being. Aerobic exercise increases the body’s available oxygen and therefore promotes wellness. Delivering oxygen to the body is the responsibility of the respiratory system. Breathing is the process by which air enters the bloodstream, via the lungs. Thus, proper breathing, and correcting common breathing disorders, is the ultimate form of aerobics." --Dr. Robert Fried, Breath Connection, Insight Books, 1990, p. 52

"Oxygen tension in tissues enhances the action of some antibiotics — notably amino-glycosides — and the immune system, and stimulates cellular metabolism." --Linda Collison, Hyperbarics: when pressuring patients helps, Health Index

"Deep diaphragmatic breathing stimulates the cleansing of the lymph system by creating a vacuum effect which pulls the lymph through the bloodstream. This increases the rate of toxic elimination by as much as 15 times the normal rate." --Dr. J.W. Shields, MD, Lymph, lymph glands, and homeostasis. Lymphology, v25, n4, Dec. 1992, p. 147

"Oxygen plays a pivotal role in the proper functioning of the immune system. We can look at oxygen deficiency as the single greatest cause of all diseases." --Stephen Levine, a respected molecular biologist and geneticist, and Dr. Paris M. Kidd, Ph.D., Antioxidant Adaptation

"Carbon dioxide is the most abundant of all the end-products of metabolism." --Arthur C. Guyton, M.D., Textbook of Medical Physiology, W.B. Saunders Company, p. 4

Mental, Emotional, Spiritual Benefits
Of Laughter Yoga

Laughter makes it easier to cope with life and its challenges.

• Laughter puts us intensely in the moment. The ability to fully live and experience the “now” is of utmost importance because it is the only moment where we can experience happiness.
• People who laugh don't worry as much as people who don't laugh, and as such enjoy life more. Laughter makes their circumstances seem less serious and therefore tolerable. A playful approach to everyday things is a key factor in keeping healthy. Daily chores are less burdensome when we laugh while doing them. We aren't always having fun, but we do have a lot more fun with laughter than without.
• Laughter makes us feel good because it defuses three of the most painful emotions (fear, anger and boredom) by releasing them. That release, in turn, prevents or stops conflicts, eases tension, and helps people to see one another's point of view better.
• Laughter lifts us up and makes life worth living. You experience that elusive state of being called relaxation. It makes us stress less and enjoy the company of other people more.
• Laughter Yoga aims to develop joyfulness, not happiness. In contrast to “happiness”, “joyfulness” is the unconditional commitment to have fun despite all of the possible problems that we are faced with in life. Joyfulness is primarily a physical phenomenon. “You fake it until you get it”. The decision may come from the brain, but the process is physical. Because the body and the mind are so closely inter-connected, when you “do good” you “feel good”. “Motion Creates Emotion”. Being joyful / “doing good” actually changes the body chemistry and fosters a healthier state of being.

Laughter builds self-confidence

• Laughter puts us in control of our own emotions. It helps us cope with challenge and conflict better because it gives us a better perspective. It shrinks the hurts of everyday life to a smaller, if not inconsequential size. It allows us to stand above an issue, acknowledge it, and treat it lightly in the awareness that we are touched by the issue but not contained by it. If we are able to laugh about serious things, they simply can't be that huge.
• Any form of laughter is successful, yours included. The only requisite for you to succeed in Laughter Yoga is to decide to laugh no matter what. You are doing it for yourself, not to impress others. You laugh with them, not at them.
• Laughter makes us feel safer and eases much of our awkwardness.
• Laughter puts anxiety on a back burner for everyone. We can't laugh and worry at the same time. When we release anxiety (a product of the mind) through laughter, our love (the nature of our heart) surges to the surface and we are able to fully experience and enjoy it.
• When we laugh with others, we ourselves are fun, and we provide good company. Regular doses of laughter and play also take the work out of staying in love for a lifetime.
• Laughing for no reason makes us more likeable because it minimizes our need to gain self-confidence by analyzing and judging other people.
• When we laugh with others, criticism seems to collapse. We are able to let them be themselves and enjoy them even more for that.

Laughter is an important social skill that keeps communications fun

• Laughter interrupts the power struggle. It is really hard to lock down in conflict with someone when you are laughing. When people enter a power struggle and let playfulness drop by the wayside, they lose touch with their laughter, their trust in life and others.
• Laughter allows people to be more open with each other because it creates safety, and issues don't seem as awesome.
• Laughter breaks down the instinctive barriers between people and allows them to trust each other. The fears most of us have about other people are rooted in the past. We lose them when we laugh and fully experience the present.
• Laughter Yoga is a pathway to unconditional love. Loving with the mind is a two way street (I love / I hate and everything in between). Loving with the heart is only a one way street: I love, I love, I love. Also, the bonding qualities of laughter allow us to feel such emotional closeness that we want to be physically and spiritually close as well. It is something deeper than just biology. It is a part of the mystery of laughter that we have yet to solve.

In summary:

Laughter changes "who we are" for the better. Humans are creatures of habit. Most of what we consider our identity or "who we are" is really a series of learned behaviors or "what we do". Regular practice of Laughter Yoga helps reprogram negative responses into positive ones (e.g. we argue laughing; we laugh at an imaginary high credit card bill.) Nothing is taken away from the importance of the event except our reaction to it. People who saw themselves as “shy” discover themselves assertive public speakers; short-tempered individuals learn to control their moods and defuse their anger by “laughing it out”, etc. Laughter Yoga does not change your life. It changes you.