Laughing your way to better health with Laughter Yoga

Always wanting to try new and interesting things, this morning I took part in a laughter yoga workshop in Zurich.  The skies had been threatening to open up, but fortunately it stayed dry throughout the workshop, which took place outdoors, in front of the China garden down by the lake front.

In the words of the organiser:

Laughter Yoga is a unique concept where anyone can laugh for no reason, no jokes or comedy.
We do group laughter exercises and with eye contact the laughter gets contagious and real.
It is based on a scientific fact that the brain cannot differentiate between real or fake laughter, therefore the body gets the benefits anyway.
This concept was created by a Medical Dr. Madan Kataria in Mumbai, India with only 5 people, today you can find more than 1000 Laughter Yoga Clubs in more than 72 Countries.

Not only does it improve your mood, but laugher also strengthens your immune system and helps you connect easily with people.

Fifteen of us took part in the workshop and as is usually the case in Zurich the group was truly international with participants from Australia, UK, Russia, Czech Republic, Poland, Switzerland, Italy and Germany, as well as a significant number of Venezuelans (who were friends of the organiser).

We started off with a series of breathing and stretching exercises, which included blowing up balloons and blowing bubbles.  The idea with the bubbles was that whilst some members of the group blew bubbles up into the air, the rest tried to blow the bubbles downwards towards the ground.  It was like reverting back to childhood for a few minutes and was lots of fun.

Afterwards we moved on to the actual laughing exercises.  These involved chasing after each other whilst laughing, hugging other group members whilst laughing and many more activities (whilst laughing).  Each time we were told to maintain eye contact, as this keeps the group laughter going.  It must have been obvious that we were having a lot of fun, because a passer by actually wanted to come and join in with us, and in the true spirit of laughter yoga she was warmly welcomed into the group.  The other important point we were told is not to stand in a circle as that is too formal and tends to make people feel a little intimidated.  Instead we were always asked to form a kind of circle, but with some people inside to break the formality.

Like many other people, I am sometimes uncomfortable with laughing randomly or too loud, due to breaking a perceived social etiquette.  The workshop provided a comfortable environment where a really open group of people were able to open up and laugh uncontrollably without fear of being judged.

Laughter yoga is something I would be interested to try again, and the organiser Fabiola is so full of positive energy that you cannot help but want to be around her, smiling and laughing.  See here for more info.

How to get more bang for your buck when swimming

If you are looking to improve your upper body strength and get a super intense swim workout in a short time, swimming paddles may be your answer.

The paddles, made of stiff plastic, fit over your hand and provide a larger surface area than your hand alone does.  Your shoulder and arm muscles therefore have to work extra hard in order to overcome the increased water resistance as you pull your hands through the water.

In my local pool, it seems many people are using them.  I hadn't thought too much about them, until my swim coach suggested today that it was time for me to start using them to develop my upper body strength yet further.  Not only that, but because you move through the water faster, it gives you a better idea of what swimming fast feels like and helps you to learn to make yourself more streamlined in the water.

I went out and bought the ones above, made by Speedo.  Although my hands are rather large, I went for the medium sized paddles.  They are slightly wider than my hand and quite a bit longer.  I probably could have even gone one size larger, but it is better to start off with a smaller size and then move to a larger size later, in order to avoid potential shoulder injuries.  I will let you know how I get on with them in due course, but my swimming in general is going fantastically at the moment.  I can now comfortably swim 2k in 45 minutes, and am covering about 11km per week total.

Bodyflying fun in Zurich

Last Saturday I found myself at Bodyflying Rümlang in Zürich along with some friends of mine.  It was a really great way to spend a couple of hours, so much so that I have booked to go again in a couple of weeks time.

For those who have never heard of bodyflying, bodyflying is a fairly new and trendy sport.  It is not only fun, but also also affords parachute jumpers extra training possibilities.

For those who like the idea of parachute jumping, but have no particular desire to jump out of a perfectly good aeroplane, bodyflying could be a great alternative.

Participants enter a vertical wind tunnel where a specially designed propellor provides the vertical lift needed to fly on the generated air stream.  If you maintain a position similar to the one I am demonstrating in the photo you can achieve stable flight, and hover on the air stream.  By moving various parts of your body you can then move backwards or forwards, up or down.

Advanced bodyflyers can even do tricks like somersaults and spins and a whole host of other artistic movements.  Saturday was the first time for everyone in our group though, so achieving stable flight was in itself challenging at times.  We had two short flights in total.  The first was led completely by the instructor, with him moving us in whichever direction he chose.  The second was designed to let us see how we coped with minimal help.

Most of us managed a few short hovers by ourselves, but the second flight was certainly more challenging than the first.  My main mistake was being too tense and looking down rather than forward.  I am hoping that with the benefit of knowing some of the things I did wrong last time, my next bodyflying session will allow me to feel much more in control of my movement in the air stream.

One thing I know for certain though is that is going to be another fun day!