Issue 11 April 2011


Quantum


HEALTH


Yoga with a Smile W


By Lily Dawn Robertson


ant to elevate your mood and feel better? Forget the pills. Forget the alcohol. Forget the chocolate cake.


Simply open your mouth and laugh.


If you’ve never quite become a fan of yoga, here’s a form that might just make you a convert–Laughter Yoga. Yoga began in India over 5,000 years ago, and it wasn’t until a century ago that it made its way West and began to gather followers. In 1919, North Americans were introduced to Raja yoga. Many other forms quickly followed: Hatha, Iyengar, Vinyasa, Ashtanga, Kundalini, Krialu, Bikram, Power yoga, among others. Now this ancient practice of integrating mind, body and spirit through postures, breathwork and meditation has


www.quantumhealthmagazine.com


morphed into one of its latest forms, Laughter Yoga, which in the course of a few years has spread faster than an unattended bush fire, with over 6,000 clubs in 60 countries.


Recently, a six-week Laughter Yoga class was offered in my community. Being an avid yoga student I was at first skeptical, but then my curiosity got the better of me and I soon found myself in the class with twenty others, most of whom seemed just as dubious and puzzled as I was.


I had read what Doreen Bakstad, a Yoga Laughter Leader Trainer in Vancouver Island, Canada, had written on a website: “Laughter, real laughter, exposes ourselves. It is a definite inroad to our core being. It is laughter without boundaries.”


Quantum Health 31 Lily Dawn Robertson


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78