How to Teach Laughter Yoga to Children

Laughter yoga is unique in that you not only perform breathing exercises, but you also incorporate laughter into the exercise routine. With additional stress on children in recent years, including parents' divorce, school expectations and peer pressure, it's becoming increasingly important to keep our children laughing.

Things You'll Need

• Children
• Yoga mats or towels

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Instructions

Find the group

• 1

  Find a laughing club or start your own. Children learn best together. When children come together to laugh and exercise, the fun is contagious and that is part of what makes laughing yoga so effective. There are many resources online to find laughing yoga clubs. If there is not a laughing group near you, there are resources available to become a certified teacher.

• 2

  Let them play. A key way children learn is through play. Keep the group focused, but don't get upset when they stray. Sebastian Gendry, director of the American School of Laughter Yoga, says, "If they need to run, let them run. Then freeze. Then run." As the teacher, remember to be flexible. If your group likes a particular exercise, let them play with it for as long as they like. The purpose is laughter and exercise.

• 3

  Use familiar characters and bright colors. Children respond to their favorite characters more positively and learn more when familiar characters are used. One example is bouncing tiger laughter, where you put both hands together in front of your chest with elbows bent. Then you jump up and down laughing. Think of yourself as Tigger from Winnie the Pooh and, all of a sudden, every child in your group understands what you mean.

• 4

  Intersperse deep-breathing exercises in between every few laughter exercises. It is still yoga and exercise. By breathing deeply, they should regain focus to the tasks at hand. Sometimes this is difficult, but it's an important part of the exercise.

• 5

  Take a look at the exercises and know them. Plan the exercise you're going to do. The children are filled with questions about this fun new exercise. Here are a few examples of laughing yoga exercises.

  Jumping frog laughter: Squat on the floor, bending at the knees and getting very low. Jump up once saying, "ha," and then get back down. Continue in fast succession.

  Laugh with your hands on your abdomen with a "ho ho ho" and then try to laugh with your hands on your throat and do a "he he he" and focus on where the laugh originates. Pay attention to a full-body laugh and see if you can pinpoint when the laugh changes.