Laughter Yoga

Blog Post by Paul Perry
As a returning student, Paul is pursuing his Encore Career through PCC in the Gerontology field with special interest in Memory Care for Alzheimer’s and dementia-challenged people.  He has worked as an Eligibility Assessment and Verification Specialist with the San Diego County Department of Social Services and later as a Licensed Oregon Land Surveyor.

Health Benefits of Laughing and Laughter Yoga

As part of my internship as a Life Enrichment Associate with Hearthstone at Murrayhill, in their Memory Care area I have been creating and leading in some of the group activities for the residents.  One idea I had was to use some of the fun I had at the Laughter Yoga club at PCC where I learned how to laugh for no other reason than the health benefits it brings to all of us.  Laura Lou Pape-McCarthy is the organizer who every week inspires club members to spread the word.

When I first started with a small group of dementia challenged people some did not understand why we would laugh out loud for no other reason but to have fun.  But since the goal is to recapture some of that child-like fun we had when we were younger, they began to see how good it makes us feel to exercise those laughter muscles we may not use for days at a time, as well as the refreshing feeling we all get through healthy breathing techniques that go along with the laughter yoga routine.

Some of the residents had difficulty understanding “the point” of laughing our loud for no reason.  Others were tickled by the idea right away.  Quite honestly it is the less cognitively impaired ones who didn’t understand.  The more advanced residents just did what others were doing and liked it.  The exercises all start with deep unified breathing just like many of the morning get-moving type activity that groups do.  The exercises are modified for memory care as most are sitting down with some in wheelchairs and others using walkers so the movements are not as extreme as in the regular Laughter Yoga gatherings where we walk around and move our arms a lot.

The routines all have names and they help to set the stage for each exercise.  Like “Aloha Laughter” where the group collectively says out loud “Aloooo, ha, ha, ha, ha”.  That is, saying the word together and then using the “ha” part of the word to begin laughing out loud, “Ha, ha, ha, ha, etc..”.  Sounds kind of crazy but its really a lot of fun.  Part of the fun is taking a deep breath in together and then, saying the Aloha word together and then, laughing together while looking at each other’s eyes and laughing and making the moment fun.  Afterwards everybody feels good.  Trust me, I’ve seen it.

Another routine is called “Vowel Laughter” and is based around the group saying each vowel sound (a, e, i, o, u and sometimes y) and turning the “a” sound into laughter that sounds sort of like “hey, hey, hey, hey…” and then the “e” sound into laughter that sounds sort of like “tee, hee, hee, hee…” and through each of the vowels.  For example the “o” sounds like Santa Claus “Ho, ho, ho, ho…” and on.  

The idea with these “exercises” is to make yourself laugh out loud with everyone else.  That’s the hard part at first but it gets easier each time you all do it together.  There are some videos of Laughter Yoga on YouTube.com.  Just type in Laughter Yoga!

The local website is www.LYInstitute.org (Laughter Yoga Institute).

Paul W. Perry
Gerontology Student
PCC, Sylvania Campus