Can you build optimism through practice? Why do banks and large corporations provide their employees with laughter classes? Can laughter be a language of peace? Can you laugh without seeing any reason to laugh around you? Can laughter make it easier to get pregnant? Read an excerpt from the book "Yoga of Laughter. The Road to Joy" by Piotr Bielski and learn about the four levels of yoga of laughter. Wformie24.pl took the patronage over the publication.

The first level of Laughter Yoga is simply energizing physical training

At this stage, after the laughter yoga class, you have a fresh mind and energy to act, you do not need a few coffees or other boosters. We focus on the physical level, endorphins and other positive hormones are released, the body gets oxygenated, you are in a good mood.

With regular practice, you will strengthen the body's immunity, ensure better blood supply to the skin, you can burn fat (up to 3 kilograms a year depending on the weight and intensity of practice with 15 minutes of practice a day). Perhaps you will come back to classes, because you will feel that thanks to such activity - new generation aerobics - you can have a lot of fun, and it is more interesting, different from what you have known so far.

The second level is social integration, fun in the group

By entering this stage, you suddenly not only notice that you are feeling better, but also start noticing the people you are laughing with. You may not know them at all outside of class, and you feel how laughter and shared experiences have created a kind of bond between you. If you already know these people because you live, work together or go to yoga together, you start to see that laughter opens up, gives a feeling of greater lightness, openness, conversations flow more freely. Or you can allow yourself to be a bit more expressive among people, being what you are deep down. You also have a growing interest in others, a willingness to spend time together, maybe even support each other. Most of the laughter yoga teachers around the world list these first two levels focusing on the social or business benefits they provide. I go one step further, consciously seeing yoga as the way to freedom.

And so we enter the third level together: the yoga of laughter becomes a path of personal development

You start to noticehow regular laughing practice changes your life. What you used to be stressed out in the past seems insignificant to you, maybe even ridiculous. Even in the face of challenges, you have more peace of mind. You no longer push past people on escalators. And when you run and need to pave the space, you experience not the stress, but the absolute joy of this rush.

You care less and less about what these other, important people, think about you, and you allow yourself to listen to yourself. You are more and more willing to listen to your intuition, your inner voice, you are more and more sure what you want to do and what not, and which way you want to go. With more love and the acceptance that comes from it, you can look at your own body and see the beauty in it. Also from the perspective of laughing love, you can hear and make your voice heard.

You broaden the field of inner freedom, allow yourself to sing, even in the shower at the beginning. Without beer mortar, you can get on the dance floor and start dancing without waiting for others to start; the body guides you by itself. In general, your whole life begins to seem like an increasingly cosmic party. And the confidence grows within you that nothing essential can miss you. You have more freedom and acceptance for life and people, you don't want to force anyone anymore. You have a more flexible mind, you avoid making definitive judgments, you can find opportunities and new possibilities in situations where others are only complaining. The changes from the third level of laughter yoga, personal development, are very beautiful, and I always enjoy the smallest stories about how the yoga of laughter has expanded the freedom of other people. But this is not the end of our ladder.

The fourth level, available to those who persevere in practice long enough and are open to it - the spiritual level

Our spirituality is very simple - we want to be able to lift our spirits to be able to better support others. We want a world in which as many people as possible can be themselves, allow their potential to develop naturally, because the growth of human consciousness should not be inhibited, just as a tree will not fulfill its potential when we cut its branches, and a bird will not float in the air when for the sake of his safety, we will cut his wings.

When you decide to seriously walk the path of unconditional joy, laughing for absolutely no reason, you become more aware that you are the Creator of your life and that everything you think, say and do has an impact on the world. You experience a lot of great coincidences and you stop believing it's pure coincidence. You begin to trust your intuition to the point where you can take it in the blink of an eyeevery decision and only sometimes you need time to justify it to people. You can feel more and more clearly the subtle space of your heart, the Source beating in you, Peace, Joy, Love. You can also come back to this space at any moment, however your mind doesn't get lost in the games of this world.

I went through all these stages one by one, which gives me a great understanding of the situations and needs of people. All stages are important and essential, and each next one grows straight from the previous one, fully preserving all previous achievements. Appreciating the social aspect of this practice ("two"), we continue to enjoy what it gives us in terms of he alth and energy ("one"), and when we open up to its developmental ("three") and spiritual ("four") dimensions. ), we can still enjoy the company of other nice, laughing with us beings ("two").

According to an expertPiotr Bielski

If someone is interested in yoga of laughter from the he alth level, I offer all my help, I help in choosing the optimal set of exercises and practices. When someone is interested in the second social level, it turns me on too, after all, it is no accident that I graduated in sociology and for many years I de alt with journalism, cultivating the admiration of people and a positive amazement with this world. People who have a developmental view of life, i.e. those who assume that we can change this and that in this life to some extent, most often by letting go, I invite you to treat the yoga of laughter as a path of self-development. People who are interested in the spiritual dimension of our practice will be very happy to support my knowledge, love and trust that comes from walking through various reefs with laughter. But I am careful about traversing the higher levels. Most people need two, or maybe the first three, and that's fine. Everything is perfectly fine.

This will be useful to you

The text is an excerpt from the book " Joga Śmiechu. The road to joy” Piotr Bielski- sociologist and pioneer of the yoga of laughter in Poland (www joginsmiechu.pl).

"My goal is that the book should be as good as a well-written autobiography, and at the same time that it should not be inferior to the guidebooks in terms of content. The book has 3 parts that fully reflect its complexity. The first part is living. the story of the yoga of laughter. In the second part you will meet the testimonies of 14 of the first 300 Laughter Yoga instructors I trained, who will talk about how they introduced the yoga of laughter in different places. The third part is essays showing several perspectives for the yoga of laughter and the know-how of joy ”- both in terms of individual learningcheerfulness and deepening of inner peace, as well as participation in global development trends in the world. Plus, a solid portion of exercise that can help you kick start your joy right now.

Piotr Bielskiis a pioneer of yoga of laughter in Poland and a co-founder of the Laughter Yoga Foundation. It aims to make the Earth the most laughing planet in space, and Poland the most laughing country in the world. That is why he has already conducted workshops in all 16 provinces of Poland and has already trained over 300 instructors of this method, as well as guests with classes in famous companies, yoga and development centers, universities, seniors' clubs, hospitals and even prisons. He has already organized 2 trips to India, the homeland of this method, where he learned it directly from its founder - Dr. Madana Kataria, receiving the title of a certified trainer of Dr. Kataria School of Laughter Yoga. A sociologist by education and a graduate of international relations, a journalist by profession, a permanent associate of "Joga Magazynu" and Polityka.pl, and the author of many texts devoted to this method, which he creatively develops.

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