Laugh!

Hee Hee ha ha .... lol...

I have been encouraging my yoga students to laugh for about five years now.  Ya'll have my college sweetheart to thank for this.  She informed me of a group of monks who began every day by laughing hysterically, making faces, and other forms of carrying on.  I thought this was brilliant!  Much to the benefit of the entire world, group laughter sessions have become popular all across the globe.

Students and various other folks have been increasingly providing me with more and more studies that have been done in regards to laughing.  This means that the scientific community is getting hip to this.  Niiiice!  The most recent study, my friend and student, Jakey, provided me with.  It was from the April 2009 edition of Harvard Men's Health Watch.  This was very informative.  We are beginning to have scientific proof of feeling good and why.  The best hard statistic that it had was that laughter increases blood flow 22%.  When we are under stress the arteries tighten up making it harder for blood to flow.

In our arteries there are endothelial cells.  It turns out that these cells actually produce Nitric Oxide!  What, may you ask is nitric oxide?  Laughing Gas!  This substance allows the arteries to be more elastic so they stretch and are more slippery allowing the blood to flow easier.  Studies show that laughing increased endothelial function.

Basically, this means that your own body produces laughing gas simply by laughing.  So you don't need to huff balloons at a rave, or make more frequent visits to your oral surgeon, dentist friend.  Laughing alone relaxes your arteries and makes you healthier decreasing chances of heart attack.  The best part is laughter only leads to more laughter.

I advocate silliness!