Lion Laughter Exercise
Having attended the monthly ‘Prozone’ meeting hosted online by Dr Madan Kataria, founder of the Laughter Yoga Movement in early June, the main topic of his message was the importance of the ‘Lion’ Laughter exercise. This exercise is a variation of the yogic exercise of the Lion (Simhasana) in that laughter is added and is one of a small number of yoga poses included as Laughter Yoga exercise.
In this exercise, the participant raise their arms level with their head and splays out the fingers of their hands. On taking a deep breath in, they open the mouth very wide and protrude the tongue as far as possible. In yoga, the participant then releases a long, loud outbreath. In Laughter Yoga the release of outbreath becomes a long, deep laugh from the diaphragm.
Not only is this exercise a lot of fun but it has many health benefits. When we are feeling stressed, we clench our teeth, we furrow our brow, there is tension in our face and neck.
Lion pose and Lion Laughter is a release of that tension, particularly through the tongue that has many muscles and sensory receptors. The Hypoglossal Nerve is activated when the tongue is fully protruded and is responsible for speech, eating and swallowing. This nerve becomes rigid when a person is stressed. Facial nerves become relaxed during Lion Laughter that results in opening the throat and relaxes the Vagus Nerve.
Another nerve in the face, the Trigeminal Nerve is the largest cranial nerve and affects facial sensation, jaw movement and mouth awareness so you can appreciate how these nerves react and respond to stress, whilst the Lion pose / laughter alleviates the tension.
There is a lot more detail and benefits to understand and hopefully this text will give you an introduction.
See the video link as I demonstrate this exercise: