Laughter Yoga Catching on With Seniors

Seniors are frequently looking for a new way to exercise that is low impact and will have minimal chance for injury, and over the last couple years the new trend that is becoming increasingly popular is Laughter Yoga. Many seniors have been experimenting with various kinds of yoga for decades as a way to stay in shape, but this new style of yoga has a bit of a twist, and so far seniors are enjoying it. Both laughter and yoga have been found to help improve the lives of seniors, so it is not surprising that someone decided to combine the two to create the unique concept of Laughter Yoga. Surprisingly it started back in early 1995, when Dr. Madan Kataria was working on an article relating to laughter for a health journal, where he figured out that fake laughter worked just as good as real laughter. He even found that fake laughter could often create real laughter, which led him to develop what is now known as Laughter Yoga.

Overall Laughter Yoga is a mix of deep breathing techniques, laughter exercises, and stretching, all of which are great for senior citizens who are trying to stay fit and flexible. One of the great things about Laughter Yoga is it can help seniors citizens who might have dementia or Alzheimer’s Disease, as they often have trouble understanding humor and what is funny. Therefore working together as a group and laughing just to laugh, will help those seniors get some much needed help which they might not typically receive. As of late, more and more assisted living and nursing homes are offering Laughter Yoga on occasion for their residents, and it is likely that this trend will continue.