Laughter Yoga comes to special workshop at Mind, Body & Breath Yoga

FLORIDA - There is nothing better than having laughter in your life. Everyone knows how it lightens the spirit and with the stressful holiday season upon us, now is a perfect time to experience a unique “Laughter Yoga” workshop coming to Mind, Body & Breath Tuesday, Dec. 7, at 7 p.m. The workshop will be led by Jodi Peister, a certified laughter yoga teacher, minister, and the founder of Dr. WellbeingSM. Peister, also known as The Laughter Lady, gives lectures and workshops about body-mind medicine, laughter and spirituality. In addition, she also runs therapeutic laughter clubs and trains people to run them as well. “Laughter is a sacred gift we can give ourselves,” Peister said. “It’s like a door to bliss because when we laugh we get a taste of the deliciousness of being alive. The drive to ‘go go go’ and ‘do do do’ disappear and you enter the present moment, and that’s the only place you can really live.” The Tin Man For Peister, laughter provides an immediate experience and when muscles are relaxed, stress hormone levels go down and endorphin levels go up. For a society that is constantly on the move, the simple act of laughing is a way to slow down and it can’t hurt those blood pressure numbers either. The workshop, which is open to all ages, will combine simple movement, play and fun “exercises” that will stimulate laughter on many levels. Peister said laughter is like an inner cleansing mechanism and likens it to the oil that The Tin Man in the Wizard of Oz needed to function. “It’s not going to solve problems exactly like it did for him, but it’s a great doorway for anybody who wants to step into their inner world and get to know themselves,” she said. A Rockland County native who earned an M.D., Peister also trained extensively in alternative and ancient medicine. She created her current business of Dr. Wellbeing several years ago after becoming inspired by studying the work of Madan Kataria, an Indian physician who was the founder of the Laughter Yoga movement. ‘The best medicine’ But it was more than that class that inspired Peister to. It came from personal experience that led her to embrace the power of laughter, truly proving the cliché that laughter is in fact, the best medicine. According to Peister, children laugh naturally 150-300 times a day, because they have not had been totally conditioned yet by a culture which represses joyful laughter. Humor is intellectual - when something strikes the mind as funny, then it’s OK to laugh. But Peister said you can relearn to laugh like you did as a child and you can remove those inhibitions and feel better as a result. “We’re stressed out today, this is a tough time - but if I’m stuck in traffic, I can be angry - or I can laugh instead,” she said. “It’s all about empowerment - it’s about taking control of your internal world and choosing a state of happiness.”