Laughter yoga is a thing and could be the answer to improving our mental health
Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield were joined in studio this morning by laughter yoga expert Louise Claire Gates.
Yes, laughter yoga is a thing.
We all know how infectious laughter is, especially when others are laughing with us, we can find ourselves in uncontrollable hysterics.
And why is it that we get the fit of giggles at the most inappropriate of times when no matter how much we purse our and squeeze our core, or how many beads of sweat build-up on our forehead, the laughter just forces its way out.
It's a similar situation with yawning. We very often yawn ourselves when we see someone else yawn, and I can bet that a lot of you yawned without even thinking about it after reading the word yawn five times in this one sentence!
It's an uncontrollable involuntary action.
Well, apparently laughter is something that we can control, which is something that is taught in laughter yoga, as Louise explains to Holly and Phillip on This Morning.
Laughter is also linked to health benefits and so a 45-minute class teaches people how, as adults, to try our best to laugh every day with 15 minutes of belly laughter being the equivalent to 10 minutes of jogging.
Louise is a qualified life coach and a yoga instructor and is now carrying out her PhD on the effects of laughter on mental health.
She is specifically looking at people with intellectual disabilities which she said is the first study of its kind as is very unique.
So what other excuses do we need, laughing is in itself a form of exercise and so we can get the equivalent of a workout in and improve our mental health with just a little more laughter each day.
