Becoming a Laughter Yoga Leader

Late last year, a friend sent out a mass e-mail asking who would like to join her at a training session to become Certified Laughter Yoga Leaders. Thinking about my experience with laughter yoga and having come across a lot of research lately about the benefits of laughter, I decided this would be a good thing for me to do. The fact that this particular workshop was being held practically in my backyard made it obvious to me that this was something I shouldn't pass up.

So, last December, during a typical frosty, wintry, snowy  Chicago weekend, a nice-sized group of people from diverse backgrounds and locations met at a social hall of a retirement complex in a northwestern suburb of Chicago to learn  how to become Laughter Yoga Leaders. While the weather outside was bitter, wet and freezing, the atmosphere inside was warm, friendly and inviting. It didn't take long before this room full of strangers bonded and became friends.  It was amazing how close we all grew to feel for each other during this short amount of time, considering that laughter was the main method of communication throughout the experience.

Laughter Yoga

A few years ago, I had the opportunity to try Laughter Yoga at a local health club. The session was lead by Dr. Matan Kataria, the man who developed Laughter Yoga in Mumbai India in 1995. As a physician, he was looking for ways to combat the stress of living in Mumbai, so he decided to test the theory that laughter really is the best medicine. Dr. Kataria organized a laughter club in the local park and had people come together to tell jokes and laugh. This lasted for a few weeks until some of the women became offended by the humor and the jokes became stale. Not wanting to give up on the practice of laughter, Dr. Kataria talked to his wife, a yoga instructor who shared some breathing techniques with him, and the idea of simulated laughter exercise was developed. Today, laughter yoga is practiced throughout the world. Research has shown that there are many physical, psychological and emotional benefits obtained from laughing. Interestingly enough, the body derives the same rewards whether the laughter is real or fake. The best part of laughter yoga is that the person doesn't have to be happy, be in a good mood or have a sense of humor to get the benefits of the session. 

This was something I needed to experience for myself.

Six Years Later...

Six years ago I hired a "New York Times Best-Selling Author" to teach me how to write a book proposal that sells.  She also said she would represent me or find me an agent (that never happened... but she made a LOT of money teaching me how to write a book proposal that so far hasn't sold.)  After I finished my proposal, several people read it for me and said it was way too technical, needed to be more personal and didn't reflect my personality at all. Back to the drawing board!!! Oh well... everything is an experience. I had to chalk this one up as well.   Over the years I also learned  that to sell books I would need a platform. My first thought when I heard this was "Miss America" and what she stands for. I quickly found out that this is a different platform and indicates the number of people who will buy my book.  Fast forward to now:  Building a sturdy and strong platform is what I am working  to accomplish.  Also since I am writing on a book on how parents can raise children who are healthy and fit, I want to get the viewpoints of kids who battle obesity, find out how it impacts their lives and what they wish their parents would do differently. I'd also like to talk to kids whose parents raise them with healthy habits to find out what they are doing that is successful. I'd also like to get the parents perspective---- the positive and the negatives of raising kids in today's society. Labels:

A New Direction

Realizing that getting programs started in schools would not happen over night, I decided to shift my focus and branch out in a new direction.  I wondered what was the best way to educate parents of young children on how to raise their youngsters with healthy lifestyles. Then the idea came to me that I should write a book geared toward parents of young children --- teaching them skills that would promote life-long habits and healthy living.

Excited about this new project I was about to take on, it hit me that I don't know the first thing about writing a book. Where do I start... what would I include... how do I research this... who will buy it and a host of other questions filled my mind. While I didn't have the answers somehow I knew that  I'd figure it all out. 

While I believed that teaching wellness-based physical education classes in the schools is a necessity, it's only part of the answer. Children also need to be raised with healthy habits in their homes. The problem is that an excessive amount of parents don't live healthily themselves. So how can they teach their children how to eat nutritiously, exercise and relax, when they don't have a clue how to do it themselves? It's a big problem that is growing larger every day. 

Our country is now facing an obesity epidemic. More and more adults and children have weight issues and the consequences are enormous. (no pun intended) Something needs to be done to break the cycle because unfortunately the kids are going to suffer. Many already are. Way too many young children today battle diseases that were once thought to be afflictions of the middle-aged and elderly. It's really a sad situation.

 In a way, we've become a nation of child-abusers... done in a very loving way, with only the best intentions. Well-meaning parents happily feed their kids all the fast food and junk food they want, sit their little ones in front of T.V's, computers and video games all day and provide their kids with  virtually no opportunities to exercise.  This has become the way of life in the United States. Unfortunately, as a result, this generation of kids is the first one who are expected to have shorter life expectancies than their own parents.  This isn't right or fair. Don't our kids deserve better than this?

The next week I met with  the principal of our local elementary school to explain the importance of introducing programs that would encourage healthy habits in children, the benefits of doing so and how I could work with the staff. I was sure she was going to be as excited about this as I was. Boy was I wrong. I couldn't even generate a modicum of interest. This was not going to be as easy as I had hoped. In fact, this was going to be extremely difficult if not impossible. 

But I was not going to give up. I scheduled an appointment with the school district superintendent to share my ideas with him. Over the next several years we had numerous conversations on the topic. I explained to him that corporations found that by offering wellness programs to their employees, many positive outcomes occurred. They were able to reduce absenteeism, improve morale and increase performance. I suggested that if  schools would provide wellness-based physical education classes, the same benefits that corporations were seeing  should also occur in the schools. It would be anticipated that attendance should improve, grades and tests scores should also increase and student moral should be better as well.  I explained how easy it would be to implement. It seemed like a no-brainer to me. I thought we could serve as a role model for schools all over the country. 

Instead, what I learned is that school districts place their emphasis on their students' grades and test scores, how they compare to other schools in the area, in the state and around the country and focus their attention on how to improve them. I also discovered that changes in school curriculum happen very, very  slowly. 

One night, about 10 years ago, as I was trying to fall asleep,  the phrase, "cardiac rehab for children" popped into my head. Realizing that this made no sense, my first thought was that since I became a stay-at-home mom I was spending way too much time with my kids, my mind was turning to mush and I desperately needed some mental stimulation.But then the more I pondered "cardiac rehab for children," (which  kept me up the rest of the night) it hit me that this was the answer to what was bothering me years earlier when I talked to my patients and their families about their cardiac events.As I contemplated what cardiac rehab for children was supposed to mean to me, suddenly everything became very clear. Actually the idea was very simple and logical. I realized that children need to be taught how to exercise, eat nutritiously and manage stress when they are young so they will grow up with healthy habits and reduce their chances of becoming the next generation of cardiac patients.Excitedly I knew I came up with an easy solution. Unfortunately, at the time, no one else thought there was a problem.

My Epiphany

After I got my Master's Degree in Exercise Physiology and Cardiac Rehabilitation, I was hired at a Chicago hospital working  in their department of Cardiac Rehab. Our department consisted of two people--- a cardiac nurse and myself. We took care of patients following their heart attacks, angioplasties, bypass surgeries  and an assortment of other cardiac conditions--- beginning when they were hospitalized and continuing on an outpatient basis once they were discharged. In addition to providing exercise therapy, I lectured to the patients, their families and the community on the anatomy and physiology of the heart,  causes of  heart disease and how exercise helps the heart. It always bothered me to have to tell the patients and their loved ones that their cardiac event weren't sudden occurrances but were rather  the culmination of processes that were developing for years, most probably decades. As I gave these talks over and over, day in and day out, week after week, month after month and year after year, I realized that we have things all wrong. While we have wonderful cardiac rehab programs, corporate wellness programs and adult fitness programs, we're starting much too late. Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States. In order to break this cycle, we have to start raising our kids with healthy habits and lifestyles so they won't become the next generation of cardiac patients.