The Health Benefits of Laughter Therapy

Did you know that on average a child laughs four hundred times a day where as an adult only laughs twelve times a day!

On a recent trip to the Kidz Up North exhibition we attended a short seminar that was both funny and informative. Isobel Dickson of good-mood-training spoke about the health benefits of laughter and how we all should actively laugh more in our day to day lives to feel the health benefits in the long run. Some of these benefits include the fact it lowers stress and anxiety, it can boost our immune system by 40% for 4-6 hours and acts as an aerobic exercise to tone muscles.

A laughter therapy class would certainly benefit children as well as adults to improve stronger social connections, friendliness and warmth to those around them. Activities you could do for example are:

• Shaking another person's hand with a hearty laughter.
• Tensing your shoulders and then relax with an over exaggerated 'ahhhhh'.
• In a group everybody has to laugh and throw around imaginary confetti.

These are just a few examples of exercises you could do, here is a list of twenty five laughter yoga exercises.

I shall leave you with this inspiring TED talk by Ron Gutman entitled The Hidden Power of Smiling.