Yoga has long been used as a way of promoting health. Indeed, many people in the UK regularly don their yoga clothes and head off to classes, or engage in the exercises at home. However, a new trend is beginning to surface that combines this type of physical and meditative discipline with laughter and one health body has seized on the idea to promote staff wellbeing.
According to reports in the Scotland Courier, NHS Tayside now has a certified laughter yoga leader and has been sending workers to sessions in a bid to promote team spirit and health.
The courses are provided by Joyworks, which works with people of all ages, abilities and backgrounds and describes its aim as to help people “laugh, smile, think and feel good”.
NHS Tayside staff members have been slipping into their yoga clothing and attending two-day programmes.
Joyworks director Sharon Miller remarked: “Laughter really is the best medicine. Lots of research has been done in India and America that proves that.”
She also noted that while some individuals have a cynical approach when they first don their yoga clothes and start the sessions, they are usually quickly won over.
The expert added: “People wonder why you would laugh for no reason but when you see the results, and see how quickly people bond together and how quickly people’s moods change, there is nothing more powerful than that.”
Commenting on the health authority’s decision to send employees away to session like this, Ms Miller suggested it is “lovely”, and went on on to note: “The idea is that as well as doing in-house team-building and stress-busting sessions for staff, they are going to have an after-work laughter yoga club in Perth, Dundee and Kinross where staff can go and de-stress, connect and energise.”
So, it seems as though many more workers at the organisation may be making the most of yoga clothing as the months go on.