World Laughter laugh until the doctor does not come

Laughing clubs celebrate the World Luge Day next Sunday

04/05/2012

The World Laughter Day is organized by the Laughter Clubs on the first Sunday of May each year. In the wake of the laughter yoga movement came in the late 1990s, the idea of ​​a full day to explicitly laugh. Since then, every year on the first Sunday in May at 14:00 in the approximately 6,000 laughter clubs worldwide laughs extensively.

Not only the pure amusement of those involved is in the foreground on the World Littoral Day, but also the health benefits of the Lachyogas are discussed. Because laughter is healthy. In Germany, the World Day is celebrated in about 150 laughing clubs. One of them is the salmon club „Luck is-now“ in Frankfurt, where under the guidance of Laurenz Menzinger various exercises the Lachyogas can be learned.

Laughter for no apparent reason
Laughter clubs do not require any special humor or good jokes to laugh, but often a simple gesture or movement is enough to encourage the members to laugh heartily. Also in the laugh club „Happiness is now“ The ten or so members break into laughter for no apparent reason. Often the laugh is simulated when getting into the exercises, but the laugh club members just continue until the laughter is real. Laurenz Menzinger explained the motto of the Lachyogas with the sentence: „Fake it till you make it.“ The recruitment consultant runs the Laughter Yoga class once a week after work in the Laughter Club „Luck is-now“ in a small shop in downtown Frankfurt.

Laugh good for body and mind
This is where the members of the Laughter Club and other interested people meet to laugh heartily together. „A typical laughter yoga class is led by a trained laughter yoga instructor, who guides the group for various laugh, breathing and stretching exercises“, the club reports on its website. Laurenz Menzinger is one year old „Certified Laughter Yoga Teacher“ and once a week gives the laughter the breathing techniques and laughter exercises developed by the Indian physician Madan Kataria, such as the Lachdusche or the „I'm sorry“-Laugh. The advantages of the Lachyogas are obvious for Menzinger. „Laughter invigorates body and mind“, the laughter yoga coach explained in a recent press release. In fact, different positive health effects of laughter are medically detectable. Because laughter even helps against pain.

Positive effects of laughter on the cardiovascular system
Swiss neurologist Professor Jürg Kesselring from the Valens Clinic told the news agency „dpa“, Improve blood flow and strengthen the immune system through faster breathing while laughing. „If you laugh heartily and really, more T-cells are activated than usual, and that strengthens the body's defenses“, explained boiler ring. „That makes the laugh healthy“, So Kesselring continues. However, the therapeutic effect of laughter should not be overestimated, because „Laughing can certainly promote self-healing processes in the body, it probably can not cure diseases“, stressed the neurologist. The laughter is further assumed a positive effect on the psyche, because who „really laughs, forgets the worries of everyday life“, so the statement of Laurenz Menzinger.

Positive health effects after ten minutes of continuous laughter
The laughter yoga class begins according to the laugh club „Luck is-now“ With „a few warm-up exercises and clapping hands and continues with various laughter exercises and some breathing exercises.“ Here everyone is encouraged to get involved in the childlike game and laugh heartily. The Laughter Yoga only has a scientifically proven benefit when it laughs continuously for ten to fifteen minutes, the Laughter Club reports. Therefore, the natural laugh, which usually lasts only a few seconds, is not enough to fully exploit the positive biochemical processes of laughter in our body.

Actions to laugh at the World Day
The World Laughter Day next Sunday is what the members of the Laughter Club want „Luck is-now“ use to move on the Frankfurt Römerberg as many passers-by as possible to make you laugh „Of course, again and again head shaking and incomprehension“, that I „not everyone gets involved in the childlike play with laughter“ But the thousands of laugh clubs around the world show just how many people enjoy the laughter, said laughter coach Laurenz Menzinger. The opinion of the skeptics take care of the Lachclub members little. Criticism comes for example from the cultural scientist and laughter researcher Professor Rainer Stollmann from the University of Bremen, opposite the „dpa“ stated: „There was the primal scream therapy, then cuddly clubs and now there are just laughter yoga clubs. But the moment I find laughing the most important, namely humor, that is tickling our own vulnerabilities, is lacking in laughter yoga.“ Such critical accusations are simply laughed off in the laugh clubs. As long as the participants feel a positive effect of the Lachygas, the drive of the laughter is ultimately only incidentals. (Fp)

Picture: Jörg Sabel