Laughing Yoga for Beginners

Anyone can practice laughing yoga with the proper guidance. Traditional yoga plus laughter forms a masterpiece that brings relaxation, calmness, and happiness. Generally, people differ in how they handle stuff, their understanding of things, or how quickly they grasp or learn new things. With this in mind, laughter clubs offer yoga classes based on the level of the participants. They offer beginner, intermediate and advanced laughter yoga classes to accommodate clients of all kinds. Most beginners would shy away if the trainer merged the sessions due to advanced techniques or poses.

Laughter yoga class for beginners

As a beginner, you may not understand precisely how or where laughter is used during the session. Moreover, you may not be familiar with any of the poses, and your body may not be as flexible as that of advanced participants. A typical yoga class would last for an hour or less. Likewise, a laughing yoga session goes for the same period. However, a beginner class may be slightly shorter than the intermediate or advanced classes, say 30 to 45 minutes long.

Yoga poses are not the easiest to do; however, the session coach takes the new participant slowly, helping them familiarise themselves with the practice and all it entails. Aside from making the classes short, the leader may make them longer and instead offer easy and manageable workouts for the beginners. The first few novice classes introduce what laughter yoga is about and how to handle the laughter and breathing exercises.

Steps of the beginner laughter yoga class

Some sessions have more steps than others. In others, the instructor may combine some steps into one to save time. Laughing isn’t a continuous thing throughout the session. It only happens during specific times as per the coach’s guidelines. Some of these stages are common even in advanced classes, just that they are more intense and more prolonged.

The teacher welcomes the novice group

It’s an important step considering it’s the participant’s first day. How they are welcomed plays a significant role in whether they’ll enjoy the session and be willing to come back. The clients do a brief introduction to familiarise themselves and may form a yoga family. The group is notified of the safe yoga guidelines and the importance of making the practice joyful.

The warmup stage

This stage allows the participants to warm their bodies, thus relaxing the muscles. Relaxed muscles are less susceptible to injuries, unlike when they are stiff and tight. The instructor leads the session such that the beginner group joins in.

Introduction of breathing exercises

Deep breathing is a crucial part of yoga. It contributes to physical and mental relaxation making the individual calm and less stressed. In between the breathing session, the coach allows chanting and clapping. They lead the group through this since it’s new to them. There are different ways to chant and clap; hence guidance and listening are essential. This stage doesn’t last long as the clients are yet to familiarize themselves with the breathing techniques.

Childish play stage

This step is pretty playful, and the nature is brought about by using happy phrases. It’s more like chanting but more playful. The chants made are not random, as the coach already has them figured out. They choose which to start and end with to keep the class interesting.

Laughter and meditation

At first, this stage may be difficult for the novice group. As much as the coach previously incorporated the chants, random laughter can be difficult for them to achieve. The laughter period is usually shorter at first and lengthens as the group advances. After laughing, the instructor introduces meditation as a transition practice. However, they might not achieve it on the first day of the beginner class.

Conclusion

Some laughing yoga practices are standard for all participants despite the level of expertise. But for the beginner classes, the coach switches up a few things like the length of the sessions or the stages. They try their best to make the environment conducive for the newbies. Also, they introduce light yoga techniques at first as they progress to more complex ones. 

Get in touch with Pete Cann to learn more about laughter yoga.

I hope to laugh with you soon. Find me on LinkedIn.

Pete