Archives for March 2014

31 March, 2014 by Cris Popp

3 Ways Laughter Yoga Helps Hone Leadership Skills

Leadership requires having the ability to influence people to fulfill organizational goals. A leader should have a good grasp of what people can do and how to use those potentials to encourage productivity and growth. Having a position of power and authority makes it imperative for leaders to manage challenges and workplace stress efficiently.

Managing stress and workplace challenges require good understanding and positive reinforcement in people. Empowering people requires you to create a positive and encouraging atmosphere. Likewise, leaders should also learn how to encourage positive traits among their employees.

A leader that can maintain emotional balance, and offer empathy and compassion will support better communication and teamwork among their people.
According to research, laughter and leadership work hand in hand. Laugher can lower stress levels including pressure and anxiety. Laughter therapy helps people generate positive thoughts; maintain good disposition promoting clarity and creativity.

There are several deterrents to good leadership that laughter yoga can help address or remove:

• Stress – stress factors can prevent you from working and leading efficiently. A laughter seminar is instant stress reliever. It lowers stress hormones such as epinephrine and cortisol. It also encourages production of endorphins – known popularly as “happy hormones”.
• Removing barriers. Laughter yoga helps ease the tension between co workers. It encourages the thought of “us” instead of “I.” Laughter seminars also encourage compassion and empathy.
• Lack of self-confidence – a leader without self confidence will not be able to empower anyone. Laughing yoga exercises helps people loosen up. It allows people to take it easy on themselves and to laugh at mistakes, thereby increasing your confidence

These are just some of the ways laughter therapy can help leaders better manage their position and those around them. Making it a point to do a few laughing exercises before the day starts or as part of workplace team-building will hone your leadership skills.

Take the lead and book an in-house laughter seminar for your team: Contact us: info@laughterworks.com.au, or 0438 545 607.

24 March, 2014 by Cris Popp

4 Simple Laughs to Encourage Work Creativity

Despite the mounting deadlines, long hours and strains, your workplace property needs you to remain creative, resourceful and productive. It can be challenging to stay motivated and efficient at times. Fortunately, the simple act of laughing can reduce stress levels and even encourage creativity at work.

The good thing about doing laughing exercises or some laughter yoga before the work day starts is that it’s easy, cheap and quick. You do not need to be in a special place to laugh your way from stress to productivity. Here are a few simple tips to keep you and your team’s disposition positive, and encourage creativity and productivity.

Here are laughing exercises you can try:

1. Warm up laughter – any exercise requires warming up. Inhale for 3 seconds, hold then exhale. Repeat this twice before switching to normal exhale. Say “hahahaha” out loud until you are out of breath. Do this twice.

2. Quick laughter – say “ha” as fast as you can. Repeat a few times while leaving a second in between laughs. Finish off with a long “haaaaaa.” Close your years and open your mouth wide when doing this.

3. Happy laughter greeting – imagine how you will greet people if you are having the happiest day of your life. Greet people warmly and see how they react towards you.

4. Laughter handshake – when talking to members of your team, greet them first with a handshake. Ask them to do the same to create harmony. Creating harmony in the environment allows you to relax and explore ideas unlike any other.

There are many ways to incorporate laughter yoga in everyday work. You can also encourage your employees or teammates to enroll in laughter workshop or laughter seminar to have a good understanding on how to incorporate laughter better into your lives.

17 March, 2014 by Cris Popp

8 Laughter Exercises to Manage Work Stress with Laughter Yoga

Stress is everywhere – the hectic schedule, sheer volume of work, pressure and deadlines, takes its toll. While stress goes through cycles, it never seems to stop. Some of the symptoms of stress include:

• Heart palpitations
• High blood pressure
• Decreased immunity
• Stomach upset
• Sleep problems
• Stress headaches
• Back pain
• Chest Pain
• Heart disease
• Anxiety
• Restlessness
• Worrying
• Irritability
• Depression
• Sadness
• Anger

Some people engage in unhealthy activities like overeating or under-eating to loosen up. Fortunately, there some are simple and more harmless way to manage stress and make sure it does not affect your performance and life. Laughter yoga or, to some, laughter therapy, is a simple way to relieve anxiety and other negative emotions. As the name implies, all you need is to have a few good laughs to help you manage the pressure and improve your outlook.

8 Tips for More Laughter Laughing exercises for you to try:

• Making it a habit to laugh 5-10 minutes every morning
• Practicing smiling politely at people
• Sharing jokes with a coworker or a family member
• Looking into the lighter side of things or a situation
• Listing positive things throughout the day
• Listing things you are thankful of
• Reading something funny or watching something funny even a short clip
• Having regular laughter seminars and workshops

There are many ways to incorporate laughter yoga into your everyday life, and workplace. From laughter yoga programs, laughter workshops or simple personal practice, a laugh a day keeps the stress away.

Would like to have more laughter in your life and workplace? Get laughterworks to deliver a laughter session at your workplace or next conference or event? Contact us: info@laughterworks.com.au, or 0438 545 607

11 March, 2014 by Cris Popp

Laughter Exercises to Help Build Team Camaraderie at Work

Remember the time you were laughing with someone? How about when somebody cracked a joke and that put you in a better mood? Laughing can be one of the best and simplest ways to improve your mood and disposition. Likewise, it can be also one of the best methods to improve camaraderie in your work place – the trust and rapport between people laughing can be very productive.

Laughter exercises help remove people’s inhibitions and reservations. You can have the benefits right now by practising some laughter therapy techniques or laughing exercises. Give these a try …

Before doing the laughing exercises:

Make sure to warm up.
Do some stretching and deep breathing exercises.

Laughing exercises to try:

Greeting laughter –walk around and great each other with a good laugh
Gradient laughter –start with a smile, then proceed to a chuckle. The laughter degree should increase slowly until the whole room is laughing already. Driving laughter – this is like role playing. Actors if you are behind the wheel and laugh.
Argument laughter – great in a workplace . Fake arguments with your co-workers, however, instead of the argument escalating to yelling, laugh instead.
Mobile phone laughter – this is similar to driving laughter. Act as if you are holding a mobile phone. Walk past your colleagues who are also pretend to hold up the phone, and laugh at what your hearing.
Heart laughter – engage in a simple talk and laugh heartily.

Not game to try doing this on your own? – Call laughterworks and have a professional run your laughter workshop for you: info@laughterworks.com.au, or 0438 545 607

5 March, 2014 by Cris Popp

4 Ways to Relax With Laughter after a Hard Day’s Work

There are times you come home feeling spent following a day’s work. Most of the time, you just end up hitting the sack (that is, if you can switch off! But, that’s a subject of another post), without doing anything else. While sleeping is a great way to recharge, you can also benefit more by pairing it with stress relief methods like laughter yoga.

The essence, of laughter yoga, and the laughter sessions that we run at workplaces and conferences, is laughing for no reason – that is, just going through the motions of laughter.

Learning how to loosen up and feeling good can give your body great benefits. Laughter yoga doesn’t just relieve stress but it can improve overall bodily functions including the immune system, and even your memory and thinking. If you’ve never been to a laughter session, and don’t know how to laugh for no reason, there are many other laughing exercises you can try: Some of these include:

Sharing a joke or anecdote a co worker or teammates just before the day ends.
Telling jokes during your breaks.
Watching something funny (like a clip on YouTube) when you get home.
Subscribing to a “joke-a-day” site.

You can also sign up with fellow employees to a laughter workshop or laughter seminar. This should make it easier to practice the exercises. Being in a group of happy people is contagious – so spread the laughter.

Yours Laughingly
Kris Popp – Australia’s leading laughter leader